The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1915-11-12

RflllnR, Anna Hartig, Esther wagner,
Alma Koine. Paula Bruss, and Anna
Harris.
From Fridays Daily
The following is another story re-
lated in The Chicago Evening Ex-
aminer by J. ]. Curran. a Chicago
business man relative to the sea
tragedy in which German sailors were
slain by English marines:
The. morning mists lifted and the
sun sparkled back from the undulat-
ing swell OF the ocean. II seemed To
me as was making a little journey
from Chicago across the Muskegon.
The uneasy fear of the night be-
fore still chung about the boat like the
dregs of a weird nightmare. Early in
the day the Nicosian continued to roll
along at about six knots an hour.
Then her speed was increased almost
to her capacity of thirteen knots an
hour. Little by little we cheered up
and by noon the high sun found us
I'm pretty good spirits.
We did not know that on the same
day In that same zone the Arabic. the
Baron Erskine and two English
merchantmen had been sunk.
| Dr. William Banks, an American.
chief veterinarian; Fred l.. Fisher,
his assistant, and myself were sitting
in DR.. Banks cabin playing cards
Most of the American boys, the mule
teers. were below with their animals
We were interrupted when the first
mate came rushing along the deck.
He was terribly excited.
Get up on deck" he gasped. I'VE
have sighted submarine,"
We left that card game In hurry
We went at once to the boxes where
the -preservers were kept under
guard. We hastily tied the life-b belts
| on and went to the boat deck. The
men were running up and down the
decks. The English crew was as per-
turbed as its first mate. The. Ameri-
cans on deck seemed calm enough.
Captain Manning. In command of
the ship. left the bridge and came
running aft to the wireless station
His face was white.
For Gods sake. s. o. s." he
shouted. IS. o. SIS. q. SIS. %.
SIS o. ST."
He kept repeating the code for dis
tress. but in his excitement. he forgot
10 give the operator the latitude and
longitude. +
incidentally. he forgot to give the
warning blasts on the siren. as he had
told the crew he would when we
started.
Then he staggered back toward the
bridge. On the way he ran intos DR.
Banks.
"My God, what shall do?" he
walled. 81 don't know what to do
This Is horrible,"
stop the ship. man." said DR.
Banks. That's the best way. There's
no chance OF the Nicosian running
away from the submarine We can
make only thirteen knots an hour.
remember"
Captain Manning went back To the
bridge and stopped the ship.
Thus an American veterinarian
took command of British ship in
time of stress.
The submarine was about two mics
of the port bow. All hands could see
her. She looked like a small raft.
bcbbing about i'm the swell. There was
4 projection in the center. This was
the coming tower. Actually she was
about 800 feet long. She was painted
battle gray.
We could see the foam cast up by
her bows and could barely distinguish
figures on her deck. The Nicosian
was swinging around. The German
captain saw this. no doubt As the
stern swung toward him he must have
observed the dummy gun that the
ships carpenter had built on the boat
deck.
He must have thought the swinging
was a ruse. Immediately he began
zig tagging" and came half a mile
closer
Then she fired a shot high over the
Nicosian. At once everybody 'on the
ship threw himself fat For some
reason or other I remained standing.
As ] remarked before. all the way
through didn't seem to sense the
danger we were in. I saw the shot
strike far to the other side OF our
ship.
Then the submarine ran up a flag
signal. II meant:
Abandon ship!"
Capt. Manning Immediately replied.
The muleteers took charge of the
boats. About this time the submarine.
by way OF good measure. fired another
shot. II carried away the wireless
structure.
At once there was scramble at
Number boat. stnrboard aft. The
men rushed to the other boats.
A second officer named Williamson
pulled out his revolver and leveled u
nj the men rs two Of them climbed
into the boat In his charge.
Back to your boat" he yelled. mi
kill the FIRST man who takes another
step forward"
was standing nearby. | saw his
gun was not loaded.
Aren't you afraid that win go OF
and hurt somebody said. He put
It back In his pocket The men went
hack to their boat.
Suddenly Eddie Clarke, one of the
American boys. called to Captain
Manning.
There's another ship on the hori-
zoh!"