Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1918-04-03
A TUSCANIA SURVIVOR
Neal Harrington Writes Hur-
lev Friends of Submarine
Disaster.
Somewhere in England
March 4, 1918.

March 4, 1918.
Dear Martini
With the advent of the March
winds which have been blowing
pretty steadily for the past few lays,
we have little more leisure time to
spend as we are in the barracks
more. due to cold and dampness
which these winds seem to bring.
At present dozen or more of us are
gathered around a comfortable fire
in one of the huts kept by the Church
of England We just returned from
trip to look over light British fly
ing machine which was forced to land
in nearby field this morning. They
are quite numerous around here.
No doubt you have heard all about
the sinking of the Tuscania by this
time and it is a decided plea sure for
me to write that al! three of US from
Iron County went through the affair
safely and without a scratch. 1t does
not allow that we did not have our
fnll share that happened. We were
all assigned to the same boat in case
of emergency and on the way over we
certainly had enough boat drills but
on no occasion was life-boat actually
lowered into the water. The boat
deck was about so feet or SO above
the water and there were four Of us
to get into the first boat, it was then
to be lowered to the next deck where
20 were to be taken on and then low
cred into the water and the balance
of a complement of 20 were to come
down over the life lines.
After the explosion, and we all felt
that it was fatal stroke, we made
our way to our respective stations as
best we could only to find that the boat
on the left of us had been thrown
over the winch that was to lower ours.
However we jumped into our own as
per instructions and cut the lashings
and then swung out from the ship
which had listed heavily to starboard
and the lowering began but it was
only on one side, the right The
fellows on the left were having trouble
to get at the ropes which were under
the damaged boat mentioned above.
Evenson from Mercer and Peterson
Epson were in the up end of the boat
and and few others were in the
the lower end. When the lower end
reached the deck below the fellows
there all sta1ted to Jump for the boat
and as that was going on the ropes
on the other end began to slip thru
the blocks, the fellows there lost con-
troll of them and instead of the boat
being lowered in horizontal manner
it was let down vertical and we were
all thrown into the sea. Well. | man.
aged to get a hold of one of the
life lines along with member of the
ships crew and we were pulled thru
the water for the big boat hadn't
stopped as yet. One moment we were
high in the air, the next plunged into
the next wave. We went that way
for about so feet or so and then as
luck would have it, a collapsible life
boat slid off the boat deck and landed
just few feet in front of us with q
smash and Immediately submerged
However the air chambers kept it afo;
and the next instant as we were swung
above it why the two of US let 90 and
dropped down into the collapsible and
at once we knew it would float ia
good shape even though it was full Of
water. We cut loose the oars, pulled
in as many fellows as we could, yelled
and cursed and walked around and
finally found ourselves about 100
feet from the ship. A search of the
boat located Is human beings, an old
tin pail and a sauce pan, lantern, a
cask of water and few other things,
and we Immediately organized row.
ing and bailing detail and started in.
At first the water came in our ends in
considerable quantities, but we gained
on it and by the time VIC were picked
we did not have over eight inches of
water in the boat, Evenson and
Petersen by remarkable luck were in
the same boat, as was our bugler,
three of the ships crew two boys) "a
few others of our company and some
others.
We sang and almost froze for
about four hours before we sighted
the trawler which landed us. 1t was
over 40 miles away from the scene
when it received the S. o. S. of the
Tuscania and it certainly came along
at lucky hour for us. We were be-
coming worn out especially the fell
lows who were inadequately clothed !;
of course everyone jumped when the
boat was hit. Two of the fellows in
our boat were in the hospital in the
bed at the time and one of them did
not even have his shoes or socks on As