The daily Gate City and constitution-Democrat. (Keokuk, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1918-08-06

snootlng at gnlls or at empty bottles.
by this time the vessel evidently
mad reached the extreme outward
point or her voyage, and on her return
Trip tnree Norwegian ships were stop-
pea Tor fresh food. Just after this
there was more excitement due to the
discovery that British submarine
was IN our vicinity. The crew could
near her, and they seemed in great
rear lest she should attack. Again we
remained submerged until night.
The submarine was equipped With
powerful wireless apparatus, and
every day. about p. m. remained on
che surface in wireless communication
with the base. One of the officers kept
record of these messages. One
night the news arrived of the Ameri-
can declaration Of war. 1t was eagerly
discussed by the crew, some of whom
expressed the hope that they would be
allowed to go on submarine service
In the Gulf of Mexico in order TO es-
cape the severity of the North sea-
Eventually the submarine arrived
at Heligoland and was taken ashore
and handed over to military guard.
My only food was crust of bread. a
soup. After remaining there a day
and half I was taken to Wilhelms.
haven where again there seemed to
be shortage of food, and afterwards
to Brandenburg, a workingmen's camp
in which I remained until October 8
1t was at this camp that I got the
news OF the murder Of prisoners who
We're forced to remain in hut which
ftyo -
Brandenburg l was put in a large hut
quite alone.
My first night was terrible exper-
fence. 1t was bitterly cold, and had
no covering. / was over run by rats,
SO that I had to give up any thoughts
of rest and tramp the floor until day
light. That morning / was given two
dirty army blankets and an old mat
trfess stuffed with paper and card
board, on which to sleep. Here I came
in contact with 300 victims of the
Moewe, and subsequently was trans
ferred to special part of the camp
set apart for captains of the mercan-
tire marine, OF whom there were about
forty. The food was of the coarsest
possible character. From Branden-
burg went to Hclzminden, an officers
camp for all British. where the food
was much better, but, We were obliged
to pay considerable sums towards our
maintenance.
while on our way to Holzmind en-
one of the party produced a tin OF
butter which we shared with the Ger
man officer IN charge. The tin had
been emptied and was about to be
thrown out Of the window when the
officer begged for it and carefully
scraped the whole tin for any remain
ing butter Later 1 was transferred
to Strohen where instead of current
coin of the realm they issued stamps
as camp money. From Strohen l went
to Heidelberg, and whils there at
Christmas time We saw the attacks
by our aviators on Mannheim. Three
German aviators who took part in re-
polling the attack were killed while
trying to alight.
was transferred to Switzerland
and eventually ives released and en-
abled to reach England, June 10.
"At Brandenburg we were made to
suffer various indignities, and were
made to harness ourselves to carts
which we had to draw through the
streets to the station or postoffice, to
fetch our parcels and any commodi-
ties to camp. It was at this camp also
that | saw 800 Russian soldiers work
ing in the last stages of consumption.
The poor fellows could not get enough
to eat and they would eagerly scrape
discarded tins in the hope OF finding
particles of food. I have even seen
German soldiers do the same thing.
We ware glad to search the cinder
paths in the hope of finding coke or
coal with which to cook our food"