New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-08-30
OSCAR, A. B., LOST
BIGHLM CHANCE
U-Boat Skipper Staged
Sinking of Freighter at
Wrong Time and Place.

eyes, sir. Just so sure as you sat on
that there hatch cover. make enough
money to get away from the sea and
start moving pictures if il happened
near shore and the Dutchman let me
know he's going TO do it."
This was the conclusion and the
omnipresent regret Of an able seaman
on the Norwegian bark Glance. which
came in yesterday from Alborg, DEN
mark, having served as a grandstand
for the most spectacular torpedoing
stunt the German undersea raiders
have yet undertaken.
The show occurred on July 30. in
broad daylight and a calm sea, off the
Shetland Islands, when one Of the L.
boats sent the Norwegian freighter
Trondhiemsfjord to the bottom Of the
Atlantic with a useful and costly cargo.
The Glance had been thirty days in
getting here after the submarine per-
mitted her TO proceed. The torpedoing
was a matter of history to Captain
Birkeland, the master. and all Of mis-
crew, except the single able seaman
with an eye 70 the show business. His
name is Oscar.
IL was on the morning Of July 30
when the Glance fetched up some forty
miles west of ST. Msgnus Bay, on the
Shetland Islands, and observed two
steamships hove TO tandem-wise.
Oscar Was Suspicious.
az was sure those two fellas didn't
stop for nothing" explained Oscar.
Just while we was thinking abou,
what had happened we saw a submarine
come around the forward vessel. She
was up about as high in the water as
she could get l says to the mate,
There is going to be fireworks, and
the mate ne say to me, 1 think so, and
maybe we be skyrockets, too
I'VE were about quarter of mile
TO the southwest of the first ship. She
was the Norwegian freighter Trondh-
jemsfjord, bound from New York for
Bergen with big cargo. The subma-
rine had some signals going for her,
and she answered. We kept going
and then we read the signals, which
said, All hands out in the lifeboats.'
We lay off the freighter's port quar-
ter, and we could not see the crew get
away. They all left--there were
forty-three of them-in the starboard
boats and pulled about a half mile
away from the ship. Then that Ger
man submarine come along TO the
south and she get sbeam the Trondh-
jemsfjord and dead ahead Of US. say,
our bark could hold about 500 people,
and at s. a head | could clean up
enough for the moving picture bust
ness, Ell?
well, that sbmarine, by gosh, he
lose no time getting ready. He fired
the torpedo straight for midships OF
the freghter. There wasn't any
sound, but the torpedo made white
streak through the water going about
eighteen knots. 1t hit on the port
quarter and made a noise like a cam
non close up to you. Clouds Of smoke
went up in the air, and when il cleared
away the vessel was dropping aft. She
swsyed from port TO starboard and IN
about ten minutes her bow went up and
she went under stern first"
The Skipper Cussed.
Oscar said only a small bit of wreck
age marked the place wheer the vessel
disappeared. The other vessel got a
signal from the submarine and steamed
on to the westward. Then the subma-
rine took the Trondhj emfjord's life
boats in tow. Presently a signal or
dered the Glance to stand by.
when we got that signal" said