Evening star., 1915-11-11

-.nce of enemy submarines. took all
,possible precautions. At exactiy 1
o'clock Monday afternoon we sighted
an enemy submarine at great ois
tance. She came to the surface and
made full speeI in our direction. nrlns
as she did SO shot which went Wlos
across our bow. we TOOK this W po :"
warning to halt.
panic aboard. not onfT among the wom-
en- and children. but among the men
as we'll Women SCI canned ana cniI-
dren clung desperately to their moth-
ers Meanwhile the, submarine con-
tinued to shell us. gaining rapidly.
The fifth shot carried away the cnart
house.
Passengers in a Panic.
The engines then were stopped and
the Ancona came slowly to stand
still. The submarine. whi CHI we could
now see plainly was an Austrian, came
alongside We heard the commander
talking to our captain: In a somewhat
curt manner we were told the Austrian
had given US a few minutes to abandon
the ship. Meanwhile the submarine
withdrew a little distance
I'VE turned TO the boats. which be-
gan to be lowered without loss OF
time, but the passengers were IN a
pandemonium. Men, women and chli-
dren seemed to lose their heads com
to accelerate our departure. continued
to fire around the vessel. There was
a rush for the first boats lowered ana
in the confusion these were oVerturne1
before they were free from Ihe aasies' @
the occupants falling into the water.
Many were drowned before our eyes
.The shrieks of women, children and
struggling men rent the air. Dut II
seemed no help could be given Every
one was trying to act for himself. The
heart -rending screams were punctuated
with shot after shot delivered almost
mechanically from the deck OF the SUB
marine adding to the panic aboaru.
Had it not been for these shots 1t might
have been possible to restore a SEM
blance of order.
Terrorized the Passengers.
80 The conduct of the submarine was
tncomprehensible. Not one shot was
directed at the ship, but they were
fired all around the vessel as if to ere
ate as much terror as possible
About eight boats got away clear.
some with a fair complement aboard:
Others half empty. All drifted from
each other.
zone of the survivors. in describing
his experience, said: :,
"'The boat in which I found myself
contained thirty members of the crew
and three passengers. an Italian woman
and her child, besides myself am
certain fully half those aboard per-
ished Some time after we entered the
.iifeboat we heard four explosions, in
dieating the end of the Ancona. We
remained in the boat all night ana were
picked up in the morning by British
steamer, which brought US to Malta.
"Ancona Tried to Escape"
The Giornale D'Italia. at Rome. prints
a dispatch from Tunis giving dramatic.
though brief. account of the attack.
"a submarine approached the Ancona
toward noon," says this account. and
as soon as the steamer saw 1t an at
tempt was made to escape at full
speed. The Ancona was overtaken and
stopped. Then the submarine hred on
the Ancona, sinking her amid the des-
perate cries of the passengers.
The HfeboatS were next attacked,
the submarine likewise firing on them
were killed: their bodies are at BIZ
Zerta.
THE submarine then disappeared i'm
mediately, proceeding probably in the
direction of the Aegean sea.
Before sinking. the Ancona was able
to send out a wireless call for help. |
This was heard by the station at BIZ |
zerta Aid was sent promptly. and |
thus $50 passengers and ten sailors |
Ferryville Tin the environs of BiZerta), !
where they were attended by physi- |
clans and the consul. |
Among the survivors are a number |
of wounded emigrants. nearly all We |
netians and ten Greeks. A number |
of the survivors seem to have lost |
their reason as the result of their ter