The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1918-08-09

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The lookouts were ordered to report everys
thing they saw. Not bit of driftwood or
patch of floating seaweed to be missed. AL
most every minute call came down from the
tops to the fore or aft gun control.
All at once down the speaking tube to the
forward fire control came an excited voice:
"Fore top, fore top, fore top"
AYE, aye fore top
Steamer at 1856 degrees; range, 1000 yards"
"Aye, aye, fore top
There was steamer, and she was coming
down fast smoke boiling out of her single stack,
her bow driving white bursts of foam along aneau
of her. The cruiser charged toward her. Inc
gun crews on the Ramapo were fighting TO Drlhs
their pieces to bear.
~ "Its German raider" the whisper ran ABOUT
the ship.
"She hove to only few hundred yards
away relates member of the crew. All OF our
guns were on her. You could see their gray muz-
zles rise and dip the ship rolled and the gun
pointers held them true ON their mark All at
once realized loved those guns and the men VINO
were handling Them It funny I'd never
thought of them at all before Now they seemed
to be the biggest thing in the world to me-
There was sudden gasp of relief all over the
ship. The tramp had broken out the British nag.
On her bridge someone was semaphorlng Tran
tically The Ramapo men picked up the hysteri-
cal message.
Submarine encountered one hour direct east.
Believe it is pursuing. Advise caution
Then the smoke came bursting from her fun
mel again and she went laundering on her way over
the sea, like a frightened duck.
Then all at once whisper ran through the ship.
1t was repeated those on the walls OF Luck
now must have told of the advancing British col
umn The destroyers were coming. Somewhere
out of that gray, cruel the American war boats
Nuor mo 6oyyn ont he
ers, our men, they4were coming to see their breth-
rem safe through the war zone.
81 shall never forget the way they came. 1t was
a gray afternoon, when the maintop reported the
flicker of a blinker signaling far out over the
waves. We didn't see them when they came. They
seemed to materialize suddenly out of nothing.
"All at once we saw the first She was only
few hundred yards off our bows and we had to
watch her closely to see her at all. That sounds
foolish; but it is literal fact. She was camou-
daged-streaked and dotted and splashed in
dozen colors, and she melted away into the back
ground of the sea as though she weren't made of
steel, but of mist
sThen we realized that they were all around
u.s. Eight of them. All dappled and harlequin
patterned all practically invisible at half mile.
"Their flagship hung for moment on a wave,
then there was a squirt of white at her stern and
she came flying down us. There was no foam
by the bow. There was smoke from the short,
oil fires. She slipped through the water like a
fish, and as she passed us, slim, high bred, with
= her razor bow and her lean curvng TANKS. driv-
ing through the water like express train, with
no visible effort and as smoothly as a canoe, she
broke out the American flag on her stern. We
broke out ours and that was our greeting-that
and the yells of the soldiers who acting like
1nadnen AS she flashed by we caught glimpse
of her guns, all cleared for action and the depth
bombs ready at her stern. One of her men, his
feet braced to her roll, looked up at u.s. grinned
and then yawned We knew that only show
ing off. He couldn't shame the troops by be-
ing blase. They acted like bunch of kids"
The worst of the war zone was ahead of Them
but they didn't worry any longer. They knew the
destroyers were on the watch. They ranged here
and there. They shot away for mile or so and
came back to swim circles about them. They
were all new boatsNthe best ever built. The
British will tell you So too They are modelling
their new boats on ours.
The submarine couldn't trouble the transports
+. men now If one started to worry, all he had
to do was to look over the side, and the picture of
the destroyers running the hills of the sea like
hounds, was full comfort to him.,
few days later the Ramapo and her consorts
were shepherded by the destroyers into the har-
Dor of "A Port in France"
"The troops stood at the rail and cheered and
laughed and shouted, butswe didn't We were too
tired, just plain worn out. Anyone who has been
on transports crew knows all There is to know
about, the agony of anticipation. We just sat
and looked at the green hills and the green roofs
and the green waters of the bay and presently
those who weren't on watch went to their hunks
and had good sleep. / ~
.They had brought their men across safe, which
has come to be habit of the transport service.
Somehow, was glad that they put me on a trans
port, instead of dreadnaught 1t seems as
though we were doing to help win the war,
somehow, even if no one ever hears about u.s."