The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1917-12-28
H0NO[ULAN. SHOT AT.
|. BY submarine
Il. N. Dow Tells IN Letter Of
Thrilling Adventure When
Diver Tried To Sink Vessel

l.
with the ruthless warfare waged
against merchant ships by their Hun
cohorts Of the Kaiser's submarinc navy
win probably feel a bit uncomfortable
when they hear that one of their for.
mer neighbors in this city, who is now
an officer sailing upon merchant steam.
crs, was shot at and shelled, and made
the object Of Hun missiles in an effort
to kill him or drown him by sinking the
vessel, the J. l.. Luckenbach.
H. NJ. Dow was this former Homo,
lulan who almost lost his life while
crossing the. Atlantic, aud the harrow
ing details are related in a1ctter, dated
December 4, just received by his old
friend, Gen. J. II. Soper
AFR. Dow g letter follows; ,.-..,st
al am once more back in good old
u. $. A. after strenuous voyage. We
ran across a submarine October 10 at
seven.fifty a. m, and they began firing
on us from the word go, and sent shell
and shrapnel at us for three hours and
forty minutes. We turned and ran
away from il as fast as possible, but
returned their fire from our fOur.inch
guns fore and aft.
"Our first shot went directly over
(ranged at 1000 yards), and judge lit
was my watch on the bridge from eight
to twelve) that it, struck the water
about 200 yards beyond. The chief
gunner, from the top of wheelhouse, Or
dered the men TO depress 400, then il
hit the water in good time, but 200
short, and that was the nearest we
could get to them, for they outranged
us and we're perfectly safe, and just
soaked us.
Send Out s. o. s. 80
"0ur stern gun went out of commits
sion after three or four shots, so we
only had the bow gun. We kept at an
angle sufficient to use the bow gun.
We Immediately sent out IS. O. S. or
some old thing for help. We we're
about $50 miles west of France (Brest).
"Their shrapnel exploded in the air
astcrn of us and only reached the after
half Of onr ship, but their shells went
over, then short, then hit. ....
"For q time they were aiming at the
bridge. One went through six feet
from me, then through the iron deck
and exploded inside, blowing out the
side above water line. Then they.
aimed at the bow gun and came awful
ly close to the gunners. One went
through the deck near the bow, port
side, and set fire in the gunners' quar-.
tiers between decks early in the fight.
We turned steam in to keep it down.
Hit Many Times
"Two shells went through the port
bow: one below water line and made a
big hole, but it only let salt water into
our fresL water tank; one went through
the engine room and burst the main
steam pipe, and then our engine was
out of, commission and we expected to
blow up, and stood by boats. Finally
we saw { smoke on the horizon, then in
short time No. 81, Nickerson, came
down like race horse, nearly thirty
miles per hour, and when within five or.
six miles sent a shot at the submarine,
which soon submerged, disguised be-
cause they could not get us in all that
time, d..
"The chaser eircled around us once
or twice, then sent their doctor and as.
sistant and quartermaster on board to
fix up our wounded, which numbered
nine persons.
"Then we fixed the engine and start.
ed with the destroyer until we joined a
big convoy, twenty four or twenty-five.
One big armed two-stacker in the mid.
die of the convoy was torpedOed at
about sunset and dropped out. A
chaser stayed with her, but she got an
other torpedo Il hear and was finally
sunk. We went to France then for coal.
"On the way to Queenstown we ran
into cre?~ overheard that had Just
been torpedoed one or two hours before.
Save One MAJ
We saved enc man, November 81, at
eleven fifty.five p. m. (my watch
Michael Walsh, from the British
steamer Ardmire. He was clinging to
a plank or some old thing and nearly
exhausted. The others were in boats,
in sight of land. The chief gunner
wanted to get out of that locality, so
we left.
"Going out, or just outside, of
Queenstown, in big convoy, we saw .
Submarine captured, He stuck his head
up just in time for a chaser TO nail him
with n shot. do not know just what
happened next and don't care much. -