The daily progressive-miner., 1915-10-16
CAPTAINS STORY OF GOING
 DOWN WITH THE ARABIC
(By Capt. Finch Current Opinion )


 The Arabic went down in less time than any craft that has been torpedoed since the war began
 Reports have varied from ele- ven to fifteen minutes, but the truth is that the ship disappeared in just six minutes after she was $ truck. sMa@
 "Of course, the fact that we lost only thirty-nine out of the four hun dred and twenty-nine on board was due largely to the preparations we had made aainst just what hap pened. s:IW
 But, in my opinion, had simil- arly favorable conditions surround ed the torpedonig of one of the big the loss of life would have much greater, for thesimple reason that the great distance from the boat deck to the water makes successful launching of heavy boats filled to capacity almost impossible.
 "Ever since the war began, on every voyage in and out of Liver pool I have practiced the same caution as soon as we entered what we supposed is the danger zone. As a matter of fact, I, for one, do not dare to try to put limit on this danger zone. It would not surprise me in the least to hear of ships being sunk a hundred miles or more to the west of the spot where they caught us.
 "In fact we were beginning ts believe that we had passed the ex- treme limit of the submarine zone a full half hour before we sighted the Dunsley.
 Probably no ship has been better prepared to meet or avoid a sub marine since the war began. In our engine room, where, instead of the usual three shifts, we were working only two through the danger zone, the stokers and oilers re-doubled their exertions after l had telephoned warning.
 "In the stern there were two lookouts, in the crows nest two, and in the bow two, besides three of us on the bridge. Every one of us was scanning every inch of sea within reach of our glasses, but there was never sign of sub marine. How that German man aged to spot us without showing her periscope amazes me, but she did it, too, when within less than 300 feet from us.
 was looking at the very spot where he must have been laying under the surface, for I saw the greenish white wake of the torpedo instantly it shot out it's tube.
 '1 yelled to the man at the wheel to port the helm in a forlorn hope the old Arabic might answer quickly enough to dodge, but it was abss- lutely impossible. The torpedo was coming fifty miles an hour and had only 300 feet to travel.
 'In the few second that elapsed a great many things happened. AL most all the passengers were on deck--another stroke of luck--look- ing at the Dunsley. Almost all of them saw the torpedo and their shouts told the operator in the Mar conf house what had happened.
 "The operator actually got off two s. o. S. messages in that one second. When the torpedo hit us a glaneing blow, about ninety feet from the stern, directly under the Marconi house, the operator was hurled ou of his seat and his ins- trument was smashed.
 "From the bridge I watched each boat fill up, in the meantime shouting to the engine-room to go full speed astern. The third engineer who took the orders responded without a quiver in his voice. Not one man left his post, and mind you,they all knew what, sticking at their posts meant, for when the torpedo hit us the poor old Arabic staggered like drunken