Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1917-12-13
MANY FORMED DEATH
Menaced Gallant Crew
of Wrecked British u
Boat

London, Nov. so (Correspondence of
the Associated Press)--Death in va
RED forms menaced and played for
many hours with the crew of the Brit
ish submarine Eli, wrecked and final
! ~ sunk, after gallant fight for life,
off the coast of Holland, according to
the story of her commander now for
the first time told His account gives
vivid picture of an all night strug-
gle to save the submarine and her
company from the battering Of the
waves which hammered the little ves-
sci upon the shoal, of a fight with fire
in her hold. against leaks that threat
ened TO fill her with water and to
catch and secure a torpedo thrown
from it's lashings with its war-head In
place, menacing all with instant de-
struction.
Freed from the shoal only to be con-
fronted by an apparently hostile cruis-
er bent on their destruction, the SUBJ
marine commander tells how he was
driven to the desperate resource of
submerging in a waterlogged, craft
and of the suspense of the critical mo-
ments when he discovered that his YES
sci was filling at the bottom Of the
ocean and Of a fight back to the sur
face to face the guns Of the cruiser.
Writing from Dutch internment
camp. the Ellis commander. after
telling Of the stranding of the subma-
rine and the vain struggle to float her,
adds:
THE antics of the boat proved too
much for the lashings of one Of the
tnrno6naS. Ha tnu ~
the nose, with the heavy warhead in
place, commenced threshing about in
the boat. and would have done a lot
Of damage if it had not been rapidly
re-secured.
Large quantities Of water had come
down the coming tower and made an
awful mess of things. 1t got at the
electric light switchboards, fused the
police-lights, and started a fire behind
the switchboards which had to be put
out with one of the patent fire ex-
tinguishers. The resulting fumes Of
burnt rubber and fire extinguisher,
made most unpleasant combination,
with which we were bottled up for the
rest Of the night
1T was a terrible time. that period
thought that the boat could last out,
and take my hat off to the men that
made her; it was simply wonderful
the amount of hammering she took.
My inspection showed that the rudder
had gone. and the after compartment
had large direct connection with
the sea, probably through the hole
where the rudder had been. The bulk
head of this compartment had also
been strained and was leaking. Both
propeller and shafts had been slightly
bent by the humping, and both main
engines had got damp and were full
of electric leaks; six of the big main
tanks were holed, and the ship was
leaking internally in about a dozen
places.
1T looked pretty hopeless. 50
started to destroy all confidential pa
pers, charts and instructions, and most
secret things being baked in the cleo
trio oven until brittle and then pow
dered up. Then held a council OF war
upon what we should do IL we could
get afioat in the morning. l had
enough faith in the German spy sys-
TEN to expect that we had been OBJ
served as we were threshing about in
the night and could expect trouble soon
after daybreak.
when dawn came I found we were
barely so yards from shore at point
about midway along the island Of Tex
Ell, had a clear sea behind US without
shoals. and that the sea had gone
down lot. We were leaking SO bad