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

H Is School Street,
Mr.. Thomas Bowman, chief en-
gineer on the Inflated Belgian Prince,
who resides at wellington Quay, tells
In this articles story of one of the
worst crimes ever known in the an
nails of submarine warfare.
Having spent nearly II hours in the
water before he was picked up, Mr..
Bowman suffered intense agony. The
Intention of the Huns was that none
should survive to ten the tale of their
cruel crime, but Mr.. Bowman, after
fearful suffering, was one Of the three
survivors Of the ordeal.
@Written by Thomas Bowman, Chief
of the Belgian Prince.>
The Belgian Prince left an English
port with crew of 43 men on board.
All went well until we were about
200 miles from land, then the vessel
met her doom.
I was standing on the after deck at
about eight O'Clock, when suddenly
\saw the wake of a torpedo coming
towards the ship, and five seconds
later the torpedo struck the vessel.
At that moment I was struck by a
piece of a broken spar, and thrown
heavily on deck. Another fragment
Of debris then struck me in the back.
On the torpedo hitting the Belgian
Prince she Immediately listed very
heavily, and it afterwards transpired
that the torpedo had completely
wrecked the dynamo engine.
We were in hopeless plight, and
orders were given to take to the boats.
This we did quite calmly. whilst the
submarine commenced Smelling the
wireless, which to me was sure sign
that they did not want to give us any
chance of communicating with any
other boat. Little did we think that
the Germans were making complete
preparations to destroy everything on
board, and every life, so as to hide
the fnhuman crime they were about to
commit.
Having destroyed the wireless ap-
paratus, the submarine came towards
us, and ordered us to come alongside
We were forced to submit, and on
getting alongside the U-boat the order
was given by the brutal crew, who
could only speak broken English. that
we were to take off our 1ifebelts and
throw them on the deck of the sub
marine.
80 70 vDey lug o ,,ell,. an.
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me excep.lon OF elsnt- now aivinee
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Was s<AAen uoWh iii'o ene interior
On the Deck OF q Submerging Sub
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they apparently knew that British
ers had lived through most terrible O.
deals, even If only helped by a pies
of wood, and so they made up the
. minds to take US far away from tt
Belgian Prince, to a place where, thel
was no such thing as piece Of tin
Der to hang on to.
AS soon as they had finished the
work of destruction they jumpt
1 aboard the submarine, closed tt
matches, and left us on deck.
Ill The U-boat then went ahead, b
81 after taking us about two miles
heard a rush Of water. The subnaril
was submergfng.
/ shouted out, Look out, she's sim
ing!', But before the majority of o.
men could realize what was happenil
the submarine dived out of sight, al