Ashland tidings. [volume] (Ashland, Or.) 1876-1919, 1917-07-09
Frost. 0 I. DESCRIBES D s c! | B! Z
:.U:BOATsH HORRORS
Calls Submarine Warfare as
PraCticed Deliberate Murder.
SURVIVORS LEFT TO DROWN


Minutes-Not Germans Fault, HI
Says, That Every Missile Does MOI
Cause q Lusitania Massacre-Firs
Torpedoes While Submerged.
With the approval of the government
Wesley Frost, former United States
consul at Queenstown, who saw much
of the horrors Of ruthless submarine
warfare, gave an interview about U
boats. Mr. Frost is in Washington
resting after the nervous strain due
to his work abroad.
"The submarine war grows more bar.
barOus every day." Mr.. Frost said. st
has now reached the plane of dellb-
crate murder for every ship sunk and
will so continue to the end. 1t Is not
the fault Of the Germans that every
torpedo does not produce a Lusitania
massacre.
"Now that the submarines have been
driven to attack ships submerged,
using the torpedo almost exclusively,
the murder roll is bound to grow.
Most ships when struck by torpedo
60 down in two or three minutes,
which gives no opportunities Of escape
to those below decks.
Ships Sink Quickly.
Recent sinkings which came under
my observation since the beginning Of
the ruthless warfare show this conclu-
sively. A freighter loaded with iron
ore and conveyed by a destroyer went
down in two minutes. Eighteen Of her
crew Of twenty-six were drowned. An
other sank In two minutes after being
struck. She was hit in daylight, but
the submarine was not seen. Twenty
eight of her crew Of thirty-two perish
ed. The Abosso sank in three minutes,
and thirty women and children died.
"Sinkings of this sort from now on
will be the rule, not the exception.
"The submarines are now so fearful
of exposing themselves to the deck
guns Of slowly sinking ships that they
seldom come up to question the escap-
ing crews Of passenger ships. Out Of
six passenger ship sinkings investigat-
ed by me this happened in only one
case-that of the Laconia, which was
sunk near midnight.
"The warning given before merchant
men were armed was only to save the
expensive torpedoes = worth $1,000
apiece-of which a submarine can car
ry only few. When the ship gave
signs Of surrender the firing generally
stopped, and a boarding party from the
submarine destroyed her with bombs.
Crews Left to Starve.
"The crews of destroyed ships were
left to die from starvation or drown
ing. Their sufferings were terrible.
Many of them were never picked up.
The men probably went mad and leap
ed into the sea. In the case Of the
Cairnhill, British freighter with
crew of sixteen men, five of whom
were Americans, the Germans delib-
erately gutted the lifeboat, took the
provisions which the men had placed
in the boat and threw them into the
sea, emptied the water keg of fresh
water and, to make their job complete,
filed 1t with salt water The boats
sails were taken off, and that was
practically the only hope of getting to
land If the wind were favorable. She
was attacked $50 miles out at sea-"
That, these men were saved was al,
most Il miracle. Mr., Frost thus de-
scribed another case:
"The' American schooner Woodward
Abrahms was attacked 400 miles off
shore. Captain Van Namme and the
crew of eight were put in lifeboat
while the Germans set the lumber Ia
den schooner aflre with incendiary
bombs. The American sailors drifted
about the Atlantic for two days and
two nights, when they were picked up
by another lumber schooner, the Nor
wegian Anna Maria. She was torpe-
doed 200 miles off shore, and the men
again took to the lifeboats. The crew
Of the Anna Maria were never seen
again After another twenty-four hours
adrift Captain Van Namme and the
Americans were picked up. Their luck
held and they lived. The Norwegians
died"
Mr.. Frost said some Of the subma-
rine commanders delighted, accounts Of
survivors proved, in making their work
fiendish.