Belding banner. (Belding, Mich.) 1889-1918, 1918-03-20
CAPTAIN A. JONES'
EXPERIENCE ON
TUSCAN|A TOLD
NEPHEW OF 2. w. GOODING AND
II. J. LEONARD ON BOARD.
TRANSPORT; LIVED HERE


TRANSFORM; LIVED HERE
Captain Allen A. Jones, nephew Of
Mr.. and Mrs. III. j. Leonard and Mr..
and Mrs. y. w. Gooding of this city,
wrote an unusually interesting letter
to his parents recently telling of his
experience on board the Tuscania
when she was torpedoed near the
Irish coast a short time ago. Mr..
Jones is captain of the a company
of Ohio Engineers. He formerly
worked here for his uncle, H. J. Leon
ard, In the latter's store, and is we'll
known by Belding people. His par
ents and son visited here at Christ
mas time. The family and also Mr..
Jones parents live in Toledo. The
letter the captain wrote is addressed
to his parents.
His IS picture of striking tor
pedo, of thousand men drawn up at
attention on the slanting decks, of
smashed machinery, of disabled dy-
namos, of confusion and of serenity,
OF excitement and placidity, of brok-
en- boats and tangled tackle, of British
destroyers bristling about in a search
of the Hun.
1t is tale of men torn by the ex-
plosion, of sliding down ropes and
jumping into the sea that was in a
turmoil of roughness.
AS to Jones, former city engineer,
In command of 20 men, he saw to
their safety first. In command of a
lifeboat, it could not be launched on
account OF broken tackle. He didn't
think the boat was going down very
fast. So he went to another station
and helped awhile.
Then he went to his stateroom.
There he got fashlight But over
$500 worth of his things went by the
beard. And finally, Jones, the en-
gineer, climbed down couple of lad
ders and then jumped to the deck of a
British destroyer that just nosed up.
Captain Jones' letter says in part:
Since the news of the torpedoing
of the Tuscania has been published in
all the American papers we have been
told the censor will allow our letters,
telling of our part in the affair, to go
through.
Il suppose you want to know Just
what happened to me. Well, we had
boat drill every day when, at given
signal, everybody went to the boat
he was assigned to.
."Of course we carried our life belts
teer officers travelling without troops.
so | had only about 20 men to look
after in getting away into boats. Cur
place was on Deck A, or promenade,
or next to the top boat deck, and we
were to get away in the second boat
down at our station.
Il was on Deck G when the torpedo
hit us and happened to be counting
my money at the time. There was
considerable of a bump and the lights
went out and the ship Immediately
took heavy list to starboard-the
side was on
"Shoving my money IN my pocket,
l fumbled around and found my over
coat and life belt and beat it. When
got to my station | found my men
standing at attention, waiting for me
to tell them what to do. They had a
lot of trouble on the deck above get
ting the first boat away.
"The tackle broke and dropped the
boat end foremost in the water and
spilled some. fellows out. The sea
was pretty rough and we had lot of
trouble-but the boat finally got away,
with more water than men in it.
The tackle being gone, our boat
could not be handled, of course, so
there was nothing to do but help get
some of the other boats away and get
some life belts overheard.
81 sent part of my detail to help at
the station astern Of ours and left the
rest in charge of the sergeant while I
took a look around. The ship didn't
seem to be going down very fast, so I
made hasty trip to my stateroom
and got hold of my electric fashlight,
the muffler you knitted for me and
my wool helmet.
Things were thrown around good
deal by the explosion so / did not get
my papers and lots of other things I
could think of. When / got back on
deck / found good deal of confusion
in some places, but everything serene
in others.
"On the whole the men took it very
calmly. l got a bunch of men and
tried to throw our boat overheard
bodily, but it could not be budged. So
we took the oars out of her and gath
cred up the stray life preservers and
pieces of lumber in our neighborhood
and waited.
Further down the deck men were
going overheard in boats and with
out; some were drowned and some
were crushed. Some of the boats
smashed, so felt that we were better
OH ana SUCK 10 tne boat as long as
possible.
Besides we had no boats up our
way and the boats that did get away
were overcrowded. / should have
said that the auxiliary light plant on
the boat deck had started in the
meantime, so we had plenty Of light.
"The ship was sending up rockets
all the time, so the scene was quite
spectacular. Presently we heard an
other dull boom and soon a big grey
shadow drifted out of the night and
we saw that it was one of the British
destroyers that had been escorting us.
"She had been searching around
trying to get the Hun U-boat and the
Hun easily got at her with second
torpedo that missed her stern by
about six feet.
"The boom we heard was the depth
bomb which she dropped on the Hun.
While she lay alongside of us the men
started sliding down life lines onto