The Daily Missoulian. [volume] (Missoula, Mont.) 1904-1961, 1917-12-23
Thrills!
New York Boy Writes His
Mother of'U4Boat Attack

John Temple Herne. only son OF the
late James a. Herne. the actor. who
was among the first to enlist in the
naval reserve and who Is serving on
a United States coust patrol boat in
the war zone. has written the follow
ing letter to his mother in New York:
'Nov. -, 1917.
MY Beloved Mother:
More excitement The subs are
thicker than ever. Last night we
were taking out large convoy in
company with a number Of other
patrol boats. both French and British.
1t was dead calm night. though |
pitch black, and we were leading the |
convoy. nearly abreast Of a good
sized freighter which was little |
astern Of us and 200 or 800 yards dis
distant.
About I o'clock | went up on deck |
to smoke and get breath of fresh |
air ! was talking to the bow watch |
when | heard something between a |
whistle. a moan and shrek. sort Of |
When uzz. Though | had never heard |
!anything like ii before, l instinctively |
knew it was a torpedo coming and I
turned toward the stern, fully ex-
pecting to see the boat go up and |
subconsciously braced myself for the
Jar. Then there was Il flash. a deep |
explosion like thunder, and a column |
Of water shot Il hundred feet in the
air.
Though | knew that the ship
alongside us had been struck, those
below decks thought VIC had been
hit astcrn and came tumblnS on
deck. In so seconds every man
was at his battle station and | was
peering into the inky blackness.
by this time the frciShtcr had
gone down and we were right in the
midst of the wreckagc. The night
air was filled with cries for help and
groans. One poor fellow not n hun
dred feet away gave an asonized
groan and called in the most piteous
| way that he was dying. | guess he
went down, for We heard no more from
| him.
we cruised around for half an hour
and finally picked up seaman who
was hanging ON to a gun platform. We
hoisted out the dinghy and were just
about to get under way again when
we heard Il low whistle. We hailed
| but got no answer until after about five
minutes. This time it was quite dis
tinct. 1t sounded like some one whis-
| Ting q tune. For moment we were
all utterly mystitied Then we caught
what he was whistling: -. - =
-. then pause before he continued:
:. - -- The first is Morse Code
for help and the second S o s
I'VE called again. telling him we were
| Americans and asking if he was in a
boat and how many there were. He
}called back in the most matter of fact
tone with strong Cockney accent
No, sir. | am alone on the wreck
lof the wireless house. l am quite all
right, sir bit cold only. l thought
you might be the bloody sub
We brought him aboard, and he
was really the calmest, most clear
lwitted man who had just been snatched
from death that | have ever seen. He
was sitting in the forecastle reading
when his ship was hit. He said the
ship just crumpled like a house of
cards. He was stunned by the ex-
plosion, but reached the deck just as
the ship dove under.
He was sucked down about 80 feet
amid all sort of wreckage and OIL He
finally came to the surface and, seeing
the radio house floating nearby,
climbed on top of it. He had grabbed
piece of rope and stuffed it in his
pocket so that when he became weak
he could lash himself fast At first he
saw no boat near him, and when we
doomed up we We're so low in the water
he took us for the sub and kept quiet.
Then he thought he would take a
chance and whistle. as he did not wish
to waste his strength calling. If it
had been sub, he would have slipped
back into the water again, the Ger
mans sometimes come up to shoot the
survivors, particularly if they are Brit
ish.
The two men we picked up are all
who were saved out of "A crew of 2S,
In our official report it WAS stated tina t
The torpedo passed so feet astern of us
and believe me, that's as close as !
ever want to get to one
we came back into port this morr
ing without losing any more ships,
though just before dark last night a
sub was sighted five miles ahead OF
us and directly on our course
We just received a wireless that five
I-boats We're sunk yesterday and last
night This is marvellous when you
consider that there are not more than
" OF them which operate at one time
along this coast and including the
channel and the North Sea. Devotedly,
JACK"