Connecticut western news., 1918-09-05
Albert NDepeMx

alive.
A chap aboard one Of the trawlers
said shell went through the wheel
house between the quartermaster and
himself and all the @. M. said was
'Gaw blimey, that tickled."
But I Know their shooting was
very bad" said the other chap to me
"Tffose Turks must have thought the
flue was behind them
Coming back from the Dardanei1es
q gold stripe sent for me and asked
me whether I thought there were
other ex-navy gunners In the States
that. would serve with the French
I told them the country was full OF
good gunners and he wanted me to
write to all knew and get them to
come over. He did not mean by this
and neither do I, that there were not
good gunners In the French navy, be-
cause there were-lots Of them. But
you can never have too many handy
boys with the guns and he was very
anxious for me to get all could.
had no way Of reaching the ex-garbies
n
opportunity to recruit by mail.
While we were in Brest I got per
mission to go aboard a submarine
and petty officer showed me around.
This was the first time I was in the
interior Of sub and I told the officer
that would like to take spin in the
tub myself. He introduced me to the
commander, but the petty officer said
he did not think they would let me
stay aboard. showed the COM
mander my passport and talked to
him for a while, and he said he
would take me on their practice
cruise two days later If the Old Man
gave me written permission.
So hot-footed it back to the Cas-
sard and while did not promise that
would get any American gunners for
him in exchange for the written per-
mission, he was free to think that f.
he wanted to. It seems as though he
did take 1t that way, for he gave me
a note to the sub commander and sent
him another note by messenger. !
wanted Murray to go too, but the Old
Man said one was enough.
&c. two days later, went aboard
In the morning and had breakfast
with the sub crew and a good break
fast it was, too. After breakfast they
took stations and the commander went
up on the structure amidships, which
was just under the coming tower, and
I squatted down on the deck beneath
the structure.
Then the gas engines started up
and made an awful racket and shook
the old tub from stem to stern.
could tell that we had cut loose from
the dock and were moving. After a
while they shut off the gas engines
and started the motors and we began
to submerge. When we were all the
way under I looked through the peri
scope and saw a Dutch merchantmen.
We stayed under about half an hour
and then came back to the surface.
One Of the garbies was telling me
later on that this same sub had gone
out Of control a few weeks before
and kept diving and diving until she
struck bottom. I do not know how
many fathoms down it was, but it was
farther than any commander would
take a sub If he could help It This
garby said they could hear the plates
cracking and it was a wonder that
they did not crumple up from the
pressure, but she weathered It, pres
sure button and all, and in a quarter
Of an hour was on the surface. While
on the surface they sighted smoke,
submerged again, and soon, over the
horizon came eight battleships, es-
corted by Zepps and destroyers.
They tested their tubes before they
got IN range. Finally they let go. The
first shot missed, but after that they
got into it good and the garby said all
you could hear was the knocking of
the detonated guncotton.
About five minutes later they sight
ed five destroyers, two on each bow,
and one dead ahead. The sub steered
in at right angle zigzags and the de-
stroyers stayed with their convoy. The
sub launched two torpedoes at less
than a mile before diving, to get away
from the destroyers and the garby
said at least one of them was hit.
These ships must have been some
of the lucky ones that came down
from the North sea. The garby said
he thought they were OFF the Dutch
coast at the time, but he was not
sure.
But this cruise that was on was
only a practice cruise and we did not
meet with any excitement in the short
time that we were out.