The Alaska daily empire., 1914-11-05
A JUNEAU MAN SEES WAR
  Gertrude Mellette.

ltf Gertrude Mnllette.
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 From Juneau to GoHenborg Swed- en aud back again, even at time when there were no warning nations to be considered would be 9 Journey full Of interest but when the trlp is taken by lodging through the ofu' l clal ranks ot several countries which ] today make up the personnel Of the war in Europe t is irought with rath- CT more than usual Interest
 Among the passengers arriving on the last trip from the South of the Jefferson was Mir. Carl Felstrom, l chier eIectrician<at the Perseverance, nine. Mir. Felstrom left Juneau in 1 July, bound for his home in Gotten borg, Sweden, and was booked with some forty.lve hundred others, to sail on the Hamburg-American liner Vat erland. When he reached New York be received word that the Vaterland lhad cancelled her sailing on account of the war, which had Just been de- clared. The great majority of her 1 passenger list was composed of would be American tourists and after more or less arguing and discussing, the majority of them decided that they would stay home. Some six hundred. however were of more determined mind and were transferred to the White Star liner Oceanic.
 The Oceanic carried, beside her pas sengers, a very important cargo con sistlng of s15.OOO,OOO, and, shortly af- ter leaving New York Harbor the yes- sel met with the German cruiser Dres- den, which immediately gave chase. Speaking of the Journey from New York to Southampton Mir. Felstrom says
 'In order to take the sinews of war to Britain and France the Oceanic's captain was compelled to run his ship during the hours Of darkness in mid- Atlantic without any lights. On Wed. nesday morning the ships Marconi bulletin told of Britain's ultimatum to Germany; and a little later the news spread through the ship that war had been declared. There was no demon stration, no cheering, no mafiicking. The attitude Of the British toward the Germans and Austrians, who number. ed about thirty-four, was admirable
 "The first insight We got into what war really meant was on Wednesday night, when, to our astonishment, the upper decks were all canvassed in, port.hcles shuttered, and decklights ex- tInguished. We all began to think
 "The day before we sailed the Lusi- tannia had brought in a report that the German cruiser Dresden from Ve- ra Cruz was lying outside New York, about fifteen miles distant, and al- though Capt. Smith never gave the slightest lntimatlon to his passengers that he was running away from Ger man mEn-of-war. there is no doubt tiat thc Ocennic was pursued In mid Atlantic by a German war craft.
 'There was a certain amount of humor in tho situation, and the ship was divided into two camps. The Germans wanted the ship to be cap tured, while the French and British aboard were praying that the engin- eers would get every extra ounce of steam out of the boilers. And so the oceanic ran away to the tune of something like twenty-one knots m hour. Thus we raced for over two days and nights. We were all thirs- | ting for news. but the captain, evi- dently to spare the feelings of his pas ! sengers, exercised a strict censorship over the Marconi news dispatches
 "On Thursday after lunch all of us got a very special and distinctive thrill. We saw smoke on the hori- zon. and powerful glasses showed us war craft. Were they German or British? We could not tell. The Ger mans gathered together, and had about made up their minds that they were the ships they hoped to see. Then we waited anxiously watching the signal lines of our own ship. Af- ter ten minutes of doubt, up the line went string of flags futtering greet ings to the warships that had now come nearer. The signals were quick ly answered by one Of the cruisers, which we saw was flying the lag of Q British rear,admiral. They gave us instructions as to our course, and passed on along the trade route of the Atlantic.
 Round by the Fastnets we went as the afternoon wore on and abopt four o'clock were forced to anchor some 50 miles from Southampton. where we waited until morning for a pilot, for no ship was permitted to move un- piloted on account of the fact that the whole channel had been mined. All the time there were destroyers and torpedo boats, cleared for action. rushing by us like amphibous ani- mals. sometimes apparently above, and sometimes apparently below the wa ter.
 When I finally reached southamp- ton found that my troubles had only