The Greeneville daily sun. (Greeneville, Tenn.) 1918-1920, 1918-09-03
HOW THE "sAN DIEGO" SANK.

received copy of the Escondido,
Cal, Daily Advocate containing a
letter from an Escondidi boy who was
aboard the warship San Diego when
it was disabled near New York har-
Dor recently and sunk. The letter
tells the story Of the sinking Of the
ship in so bright a manner that It
must interest the readers of The
Sun as well as those who know the
Escondido boy who wrote it. 1t is
therefore, reproduced below9
Dear Dad: I'll try to answer some
of your questions.
We had just come out Of drydock
at Portsmouth, N. H., and were head
ing for New York to pick up CON
voy. We were steaming about fifteen
knots. | was up on the forecastle
scrubbing a searchlight cover. The
torpedo struck in the port engine
room. ] thought that they had fred
number four six-inch at something
at first.
Submarine defense" was given at
once (six short blasts on the siren1
| got back on the quarterback Just
IN time to see one of the prettiest
hits ! have ever seen. No. 1 Six let
drive an auto submarine shell, and
believe me, it made the fragments fly.
The newspapers use as an argument
for mine theory that the rescuing
Golfers were not attacked. If thew
could have seen that hit they would
have known why. The guns contin-
ued firing at every suspicious object
until the starboard guns pointed in
the air and the port guns were sub
merged. The torpedo couldn't have
been placed more neatly. 1t broke
the main steam line from fire rooms
and so paralyzed the engine rooms
and the dynamo rooms. The radio
motor generators are right above the
engine room and they were wrecked,
making the radio outnt useless. There
wasn't any power at the cranes be-
cause there wasn't any steam to turn
over the dynamos, so some of the
boats could be hoisted out. Four
small boats foated off when the ship
capsized, but four 14-men boats will
hardly carry 1900 men. When it
was seen we were sure to sink, "aban-
don ship" was given. Six of our gang
had small raft, which we threw
over the stern and then swan for it.
1t would just keep our heads up. We
put our elbows on it, the rest of us
dangling in the water. There wasn't
any confusion or excitement at all.
The eight lost were killed outright.
There wasn't a single man drowned.
The bunch were like kids at picnic.
You probably have read that the ship
sank as the crew sang "The Star
Spangled Banner" No such luck for
the San Diego. She went down to the
tune of "Hail, hail, the gangs all
here"
As the ships colors went under the
captain raised the flag in the small
boat and you ought to have heard
the guys cheer.
1t took twenty-one minutes for the
ship to sink, and about three to aban-
don ship. Not man left his station
without orders.
There was one guy splashing
around in the water, and one of these
regular water dogs comes swimming
along with nice easy strokes. "Hey,"
he says, cant you swim?" mop
"Well, it's d. good time to
learn" Then there was one fellow
had mattress upon a mess table and
was floating around, sound asleep.
One guy was trying to hold onto a
gasoline drum and the bugler comes
floating past. "Bugler," he says,
Sound retreat. I've got enough for
today"
| was about four hours in the wa
ter. | was picked up by the freighter
"Bassum." We sure were a pretty
looking bunch. We were in any,
thing, from a smile to an old lousy
pair of "rungarees" (overalls). /
lost my hat when / jumped in the
water because they were too heavy.
One guy put his shoes gently on top
of the water. 'Pll just put these
here out of the way till / get back"
he says. Il guess nobody'll bother
'em."
The Red Cross was right on the
JOB with blankets and caps and slip
pers and pajamas and comfort kits