Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1914-11-18
LINER SAVED CREW
Of DREADNAUGHT
Correspondent Tells How Auda-
Ci0uS Went Down.
WAS PROBABLY TORPED0ED
Witness to Sinking Of British Warship
Says Vessel Had Hole in Stern
and Later Her Magazine
Exploded.

Service correspondent on board the
Olympic gives details of the disaster
to the British super-dreadnought Au-
dacious:
Tuesday morning soon after break
fast IS we were off the coast of Ire
land but not in sight of it, we saw four
or five miles away a British dread
naught, a cruiser and a torpedo boat.
We made toward it and found H. M. S.
Audacious nying signals to us to stand
by-that she was sinking.
Waves were breaking over her
after decks. In the rough sea she
seemed to be going down by the stern
with heavy list to port, as if she had
been torpedoed on the port side.
Wave OVerturns Boat.
after every heavy sea water broke
over her side-a miniature waterfall.
The whole crew of $50 men were on
deck, all standing as erect as nine
pins, those at the stern with waves
breaking over their feet.
Cali our boats were lowered and
manned and sent off to take the crew
from the Audacious.
'tIhe battleship launched one of
her own boats full of men, but a huge
wave dashed it against her side, cap
sizing the boat. All the men were
picked up in no time by small boats
from the cruiser and the destroyers.
Meanwhile the Audacious was making
effort to get a heavy cable to the
Olympic
cat last the heavy cable was made
fast, but moment after the Olympic
started the heavy sea made it impos-
sible to regulate the strain on the
cable With the 45,000-ton ship on one
end trying to pull a 3O,000-ton battle
ship at the other, the cable broke IN
der the strain.
"The whole afternoon was spent in
trying. We had found the sinking
battleship just after breakfast and it
was now getting dark. More than
three-quarters of the crew of the Au-
dacious had in the meantime been
taken off to the cruiser and a gun
boat, which was also lowering near.
about two hundred men remained
upon the Audacious- on deck wait
ing calmly with little knot of officers
under the signal flag futtering from
her only mast, and the great battle
ship seemingly getting lower and low
er in the water, while everybody was
waiting helplessly.
"This was the sight until the last
vestige of light was gone. Perfect
discipline seemed to prevail on all the
ships. There was no confusion-not
shout or a sound came to us from the
sinking dreadnaught. Experts told us
the battleship's magazine might ex-
plode at any minute, but there was no
excitement
after dark the rest of the crew
we're taken off the Audacious and put
aboard the cruisers and destroyers to
await morning and a salvage crew
summoned from Liverpool by wireless.
We all wondered if the stricken bat
tleship would survive the night.
Magazine ExpIodes on Warship.
"The Olympic got under way and
was going at less than half speed
when the greatest noise I ever heard
in my life made us all nearly jump
out of our skins.
GA huge red semi-circle of lurid
light at least 1000 feet in diameter
famed from the skies astern of us and
in about thirty seconds all was black
again. The Olympic crept slowly on
without stopping.
ct seemed obvious to every one on
board that the magazine of the splen-
did Audacious, one of the greatest
battleships in His Majestys navy, had
blown up and S12,5OO,OO0 had gone to
the bottom. But 1 do not believe a
single life was lost. The officers of
the Olympic were stricken dumb on
the subject of the Audacious
"Soon after daylight a London e
Northwestern tug came out to take the
seamen off the OLYMPIC. They damned
her deck, and as the tug moved off
the men gave round after round of
such cheers as have never heard, to
the Olympic, who had rescued them.
"The disaster is attributed to a
mine; at least that was the word
given the Olympic when she was sum-
moned to the dreadnaught's help, but
the underground gossip attributes the
feat to submarine.
Last night destroyer was sent
out from Tough Swilly to bring in a
fishing boat, which was flying the
British flag, but acting suspiciously.
Five Germans were found on board of
her-and nothing else.
whether she had been laying
mines or not I do not know. 1t may
be difficult to prove. But should not
like to be one of the five Germans
with the state of feeling that prevails