The Bridgeport evening farmer. [volume] (Bridgeport, Conn.) 1866-1917, 1917-10-08

blow up and sink in few minutes.
It appears that after the submarine
had left us struggling in the water, it
had crept round to the Belgian Prince
in the early hours of the morning, or
it may have been shortly before mid
night. Anyhow, the crew Of the sub
marine, seeing her still afioat, boarded
her and looted her, and on their leav-
ing probably placed an internal ma
chine. which was the cause of the
explosion which I witnessed.
Rescued Seaman Who Witnessed the
Looting OF the Ship.
A most remarkable incident con-
nected with the 1ooting Of the vessel
is the fact that, when the Germans re-
turned to the ship, one Of our men,
A. b. Siliski, who is a native of Odes-
sa, and not the second engineer as
stated elsewhere, was on board He
had reached the vessel before the
Germans looted her, and watched
them carrying out their diabolical
schemes from his hiding-place. ON
| their nearing his place of conceal ment
he s1eaped into the sea, and gripping
hold of some wreckage remained afloat
until rescued.
i
the time. and had no knowledge at all
Of Siliski being alive.
| I was wel1-nigh driven to despair by
this last bit of il1-1uck. My arms and
legs were now ,well-nigh useless. i
was dead beat. Nevertheless I kept
my head, and clenching my teeth, /
kept swimming about, hoping to find
something to get hold of.
After swimming about for another
| two hours, I saw the welcome sight
of smoke upon the horizon. This
gave me all my strength and made
for. the direction of the smoke: Soon
a black speck appeared in sight, but
I was a long way off hailing distance
I still kept on swimming, and at last
| got within hailing distance, but being
SO weak, my voice failed to carry.
] knew that the vessel in the dis.
lance was my only hope, but I could
not make her hear.
4 My lips were cracked, my tongue
was sticking to the roof of my mouth
my throat was as parched and as DRY
as finder.
sThe Day of Reckoning VIII Come
4 However. felt that I must d,
something to make my voice reacl
\
mouthfuls of salt water, which al
most drove me mad. To my joy tn,
moisture for the next few minute
gave me power to shout, and I yelle,
for all was worth. The, men OF
board heard me. and eventually sight
ed me. They threw a raft overheard
but thought 1t was only a. short dis
lance away 1t took me fully an hou
before I managed to scramble on il
But the men on board the vessel
which turned out to be government
boat, soon had me on board The
gave me everything to. bring m
!. round, but 1t took them quite an hou
to bring me to myself as it were.
was put to bed between hot blankets
and hot water bottles were placed a
. my feet; in fact, they bestowed ever
: kindness upon me.
In consequence Of finding me, tn
: rescue ship steamed round for cor
siderable distance and succeeded i
/, | picking up Siliski and the second cool
: On board this vessel was another ere,
= whose ship had also been sent to tn
: bottom, presumably by the same sui
= marine which accounted for the Be
a gian Prince.
Altogether, was in the water frol
s:45 p. m. until seven o'clock the ne,
:. morning. There were times when
almost despaired of my life, and L,
afraid if the rescue vessel had MISE
!. me I should never have lived to tie
: this tale of how 40 men were murde
q ling, however, will come.
4