Missouri Valley times. [volume] (Missouri Valley, Iowa) 1874-1931, 1917-09-06


mine. don't know how 1t is to get
shot, but when that thing blew up
right alongside of us it felt to me as
though it was my own body exploding.
1t seemed like Il sudden and terrific
pressure from the inside of me that
was going to burst me like toy bal
loon.
I'VE finally got back to the tender
under our own power. We had to
shore up the bows little but we
managed to make it. Mines do freak
ish things, and Cont believe there is
a man living who can give any logical
reason why we weren't blown into
atoms"
plain luck, guess observed Hor-
ton placidly. Its funny that mine
powerful enough to sink an ocean liner
Or battleship will sometimes explode
and fail to destroy a motor launch or
u submarine that is almost alongside
it. A lot of people think submarines
are very easily put out of business
We Sea Slugs know it's different, espe
cially the U boats. saw one of our
own down at Gallipoi which had hit a
mine and came in with her bow patch
ed up under her own power, just as
you did in your chaser.
Sixteen Dead In Launch.
II never had the bad luck to bump
mine myself. but i've had my share
of being shot up. / had one end of a
cable in a mine sweeping stunt ut the
Daldanelles one night when the Turk
ish batteries got the range. The fire
they poured into us is almost unbe-
lievable. don't see how a stick lived
through it. We We're practically under
water all the time, the shells We're fall
ing so close and spraying us SO stead
lily.
EVERY once in awhile one came on
board, but they were not exploding
right-that is, not right from the Turk
ish point of view. We We're perfectly
satisfied to have them fail to go off.
"The other chap, though, the fellow
who had the far end of my cable, was
getting it pretty badly. He was in
terrible shape, and after particularly
vicious burst of fire his engines stop
ped and he began to drift. ran over
to him. We couldn't sweep with only
one end Of the cable in motion.
"Of the eighteen men in the other
NJ. t. found two alive. They weren't
conscious, but they We're still alive.
The sixteen others We're dead. We
TO- %vry0 oI nd Ia on1
got back to the base That night was
hell"
1 have quoted the stories told me by
these two men as nearly in their words
as l can remember them to show a
phase Of the submarine chasers' work
which is seldom thought of. AS Hor-
ton said, most people think the M. LIS
do nothing but cruise around in COM
parative safety looking for submarines.
This is only one of their duties.
Most of the Sea Slugs have been
taught to operate machine guns, and as
a result they were frequently used for
landing parties at Gallipoli, running in
under the Turkish guns and trying to
hang on, by their finger nails almost,
to the cliffs. Some of the Sea Slugs
were on shore for long time and
served in the trenches. One of them
told me bad feature Of the fighting
there was trying to keep clean. There
wasn't water enough to drink, to say
nothing about washing, and the only
way they could clean their shirts was
to lay them on the ant hills. Even at
that If they left them there too long
the shirts themselves would disappear
Another job the M. LIS had down
there was boarding all the fishing
smacks and other apparently noncom
Blatant vessels and searching them for
ammunition and mines. | talked to
one man named D., brother of the
officer 1 told about in my first article
who rammed one of his own subma.
rines, mistaking her for German
who had fight with two Turk aero
planes while he was visiting number
of such vessels.