El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1918-09-14

A y American Base Port, Sept IA
! n Tales Of the sea abound here; a
new sea, darker. more mysterious.
more dangerous than IN the days OF
the first explorers who fearfully put
forth in their frail barks to dare IN
known terrors. Nineteen such tales
out OF 20 cannot be told; but here
are two good ones. upon which the
/ seal OF Official approval has been
I placed
one IS the story OF the surrender
I Of German submarine 10 an Ameri-
can destroyer. told in full and ac-
curate detail from the stories Of the
American seamen concerned: the
/ other. a weird tale OF hide and seek
| with a convoy, with German sub
marine and a dash of the Far East
thrown in, a story that sounds like
fiction, but isn't.
The first narrative IS that OF
our capture Of U-bOat- After
depth charges had been dropped.
instead OF oil and WreckaEe com
ing to the surface. the enemy's
coming tower appeared The
sub had been injured, forcing her
TO breach.
First a metallic speck. painted light
gray, picked the water. It appeared
a quarter mile nearer the merchant
man than the point where the peri
scope had vanished. and il vas NOV
ing toward her faster than before.
But this was not the periscope As
the thing emerged. Il grew into the
narrow oval Of the coming tower it.
self
Whole Monster Appears.
The periscope had been housed. Ra-
do wires met at an angle over the
stumpy sheathing tubes. They seemed
TO haul toward the surface the whole.
long monster First the bow and its
net cutter, with teeth like a field
harvester; then the gun. a metal life
buoy. the well-deck-all as blank and
dumb as the destroyer's crew.
Suddenly the round ton OF the
coming tower lifted like the
cover OF n ground spiders hole.
man climbed out. cIutchinE IN
steHdily. More men crowded af-
ter him. Some wore tight Jerseys.
Others leathern leEEings like our
western "chaps;" n few had on
their flat hats with the crossed
ribbons waving behind.
They gathered aft. and all but one
kept carefully clear Of the guns. This
man started detiantly forward to the
bow p FOUNDER. A sharp command
recalled hlm-the first sound to be
uttered The rest had a hangdog.
yielding air. not the challenging
bearing OF fighters. They were go
ing TO surrender.
Captain YeIIS Surrender.
This was clear before the last man
appeared He wore an officers cap
and yellow coat-the captain. He
raised an arm horizontally and
barlled out an order. All hands
went up. His exact words could
not be heard-''Kameradi perhaps. or
'Schwein t"-because our men sud-
denly yelled and yelled so IN triumph
The subs bow was now settling
Her speed relaxed. Her stern raised,
and one saw the mouths Of two tor
pedo tubes and some twisted false
work on her port side. The first
depth mine had wrecked her diving
planes and burnt out the motors. She
had blown all tanks to reach the sur
face. but once more was sinking.
Boat Is Slowly Sinking.
Slowly she steadied on an even
keel The men began TO shout and
stagEer along the deck. The wash
sprayed up and swirled along its en-
bossed steel All the time the wary.
relentless destroyers circled her. with
guns trained on their quarry. The
yellow man climbed back into the
coming tower. followed by two 9TH
ers- One wondered If he were going
to open the sea cocks. But no mat
ter. The u was sinking anyway.
GO alongside" signaled the flag
boat Take prisoners" The de-
stroyer eased her starboard side to