Montpelier examiner. [volume] (Montpelier, Idaho) 1895-1937, 1917-10-05
FOREST STUART WRITES OF
EXCITING TRIP 10 LONDON

From a letter written by Forest
Stuart to the New York Globe and
Advertiser we publish the following
extract describing q submarine at
tack upon the steamer on which he
made the voyage to London and the
excitement incident to an air raid
shortly after his arrival in the
worlds metropolis:
ION a Friday morning, early in
August, one OF the men saw dead
man. a life preserver strapped about
his body, floating over the waves.
Some hours later a arge amount Of
reckage-barrels, boxes, etc.-was
seen. At 10:45 o'clock of the same
morning, as / was standing with
some officers on the promenade deck,
watching land come into view away
off through the mists of the east, the
sharks" got busy; one of them, COM
ing up approximately 500 yards off
the starboard side, launched a tor
pedo at us. Several of the men who
saw it coming gave the alarm, and
there followed quite q scramble Tor
life preserVers. Though we had had
daily drills in self-preservation, and
the writer had learned to don his
cork suit in ten seconds, on this par
ticnlar occasion 1t took him some
thing like ten minutes to get togged
out"
well, the chances are many to one
that we would all be slumbering
down in Davy Jones' locker now had
II not been for the cleverness and
splendid headwork of the ship q
rev, especially the man at the helm,
who in response to the command,
Throw her hard to port coming
from the man in the crows nest, al
the proper moment, succeeded In
swinging the big boat around sue-
ficientIy to allow said torpedo to
sneed within six feet of US. lmmed-
lately this Potsdam pirate submerged
but reappeared shortly, evidently
feeling certain that we had been
struck, and intending to shell us as
we took to the life boats. A shot
from one of our guns, falling dan
gerously near, informed the monster
that he had miscalculated, and under
cover he went. We then spied q
lifeboat containing two dummies, not
far away. Instead of falling TOT
this trap, our gunners blew 1t all to
smithereens.
AT one %. m we we're sailing
along within ten miles OF the most
romantic and picturesque coast thai
ever delighted the vision OF man
All excitement had subsidized. At int
luncheon table my mess mates were
kidding" each other as to now
scared so and so looked and acted
our spirits were getting back to nor
NAL. when "Bang!" went one of the
huge foremost guns, followed by the
falling of window panes. Dropping
knives, forks, cups and spoons, my
companions-stern, dignffied men
sprang from their chairs, and headed
by the ships pleasant, boytsh' saceo
purser-and the writer, assembled the
steps leading ito the promenade deck
with rapidly executed hops leaps and
bounds We got there just in time
to see, about mile away, what look
ed like a silvery clad ghost, rise high
out of the ocean, stand upright for 9
moment, and then vanish, TO be sue
ceeded by the sudden appearance and
disappearance OF other such figures
farther and farther away. These were
caused by the shell which had arous-
ed us as it ricocheted over the water
Another Sub" had poked its peri
scope out, but upon seeing the puff
Of the aforementioned gun, had dived
under at the very spot where the first
shell struck From then on we were
threatened no more.
England is not starved out yet by
any means. In fact the food prob
lem there la not as bad as it was in
the United States last winter. con-
dition for which the British food
controller, Lord Rhondda, doubtless
deserves great credit.
"of course you have by now par
ticulars concerning the air raid on
London last night. So far I have
not learned just how much damage
was done, but evidently quite num-
Der OF bombs were dropped, judging
from reports of both kinds. Up in
my room, on the seventh floor OF
the hotels | had been reading. At
1880 D. m. turned off the light and