The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1918-08-11
By ROBERT C. SKERRETT.

i ifeboats. Scores Of them have
sustained their anxious occupants until re-
leased from their predicament by a pass
ing steamship, but probably the majority
Of these small dereiict craft are the only
visible records of lives needlessly sacrificed
by the ravaging submarine"
Thus one seafarer has pictured the mute
evidences of what the kaiser's U-boats
have done and are likely 10 continue to do
now that the Huns are waging subaqueous
warfare from side to side of the North
Atlantic.
The circumstances were bad enough
months and months back, when enemy
submarines operated only a comparatively
short distance off shore. Then the mari
ners and passengers compelled TO aban
don a torpedoed or shell wracked ship
Lad more than 4 fighting chance in their
struggle to reach a shetering haven. Not
only that, but the nesrness to land put
them frequently within the ken of patrol
ling vessels, which were only too glad TO
help. Matters grew mcasurably worse
for the people set adrift in the open ocean
when the kaiser's lurking sea wolves took
10 proving uTUn ships Of trade a hundred
or two miles out.
Situation Much More Sinister.
Now the situation is infinitely more sin
lister. U-boats are at work north and
south throughout the rolling forties."
Right out in midatlantic they are main
tanning themselves, undismayed by storms
ard angry seas, bobbing up where least
expected and dealing ruthlessly with I'M
guarded ships. Off oar own coast, when
The German submarines began their de-
struetive activities, their commanders
manifested measure of humanity, were
even almost quixotie in their considera-
tion-riewed in the light of past per-
formances. But latterly they have run true
TO earlier form, not hesitating 10 oblige
the officers and crews of attacked craft TO
take their boats far, far from land, with
the odds heavily against their reaching a
port unless picked up betlmes by some
suecoring craft CHANGING along their way.
To-day we have therefore more reason
of our people surviving if forced to take
to the open boats hundred of miles from
q eoastf What encouragement for the
rest of the summer season can be drawn
from the experiences of those who have
been forced to live for DAYS on the bosom
of the ocean In the cockleshells that are
hfeboats? 1t goes without saving that
suffering is inevitable under the most
that distress may happily be no worse
than a state of mind, and it may run all
of the gamut of torture, with lack of
food and drink to aggrayate other physl-
cal discomforts. Even so, it is surprls-
ing how these perils can be outllved.
Imagine fisherman adrift on the, Ca
ribbean for thirty days under the blister
ing sun of September, equipped at the
start with food for five days and only a
jug of water. Such was the fate of a
Spanlard blown seward IN a fat bot
toned, eighteen foot boat in 1911. The
sharks trailed him for days, but fortune
favored him, for occasionally rain fell
and thus enabled him 10 sake his thirst,
and from time TO time he caught fish
which he ate raw. Originally he had set
sail from Caracas in his ramshackle craft,
and when picked up by British tramp
steamship he was $50 miles away from his
port of departure and 100 miles west of
Martinique
Forced to Chew Their Boots.
On May 3, 1914, the freight steamship
Columbian burned at sea about $50 miles
south Of Sable Island, and four men
out of fifteen Who escaped in the vessels
third boat were picked up by The United
States Coast Guard cutter Seneca after
drifting more than 1i0 miles in the North
IL e, L, = i