Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-03-18
|Ij.BOAT SMASHED
I BY CITY SKIPPER
Flag Flies. From Home of
Carl Eckman, Tanker's
Captain
ms FRIEND CELEBRATES

.s,set II was displayed In celebration Of
~ victory Of the Paulsboro. an Ameri-
IN tanker. over a giant German sub
s,sy,ue. of the new type, on the Irish
coast.
,.sult for the reason that Carl Eckman.
eyst off,cer Of the American craft is a
iise-Ions chum and when in port makes
his home with Taylor. -
rckman has been daring seaman
.-,nce boyhood. Taylor said. and was
,.r,bit,ous to fight one of the Kaisers
srnurder craft" before rounding out his
sare.r. Taylor ran to Eckman's room.
tcct the rag from the wall and put 1t
s.ut a soon as he heard the news.
rhe fight between the tanker, which
vss owned by the Vacuum Oil Company.
ana the U-boat was to finish and lasted
forty-fve minutes.
X Eckman told the story Of the battle
when the Paulsboro nosed into an At
lantic port with scars of the conflict.
when but a comparatively short time
ant from the American port the second
submarine was sighted and shots ex-
chAnred, but neither the tanker nor the
roe suffered any injury. This episode
came as an anticlimax to the real fun
of the trip. according to the sailors
vefsion.
After several days of heavy weather
the tanker sighted the monster sub
marine, described as being fully 800
feet long. on March /. She was run
ming on the surface and quickly brought
her three six-inch guns to bear. Each
man of the crew was very positive re-
harding the number of guns and GER
tain that they outranged those of the
tanker. At first solid shots were used
and they pumped into the sea on both
sides of the tanker, Then the com
mander of the subsea pirate shifted to
shrapnel and tried to KIN the gun crews
of the Paulsboro. One was wounded by
fragment during the engagement,
which lasted about forty-five minutes.
Describes Encounter
Eckman described the battle as fol-
lows:
The submarine was apparently of the
new design we have heard about She
was easily 800 feet long and her wire
less masts were about $50 feet apart.
She had three guns. each of sx-inch
ealiber, and 1 should Judge she was of
1000 tons. I am told these new sub
marines have cruising range Of three
months.
1T was $3.50 D. M on the afternoon
we're 245 miles west of Queenstown and
had left our convoy when suddenly what
looked like buoy was sighted far to
our port. Then the first shot came
quickly followed by another that fell
much closer.
THE captain turned and started away,
our gunners rushing to their positions to
REINFORCE those already standing by
our guns The submarine was beyond
our range, as we discovered by our first
shot
Shells Begin to whiz
"Then the shells began TO whz TO
right and left and over us, but our zig
zagging prevented the Germans from
making a hit. They resorted then to
shrapnel. which, as every one knows. is
timed to explode when close to the tar
get
= "a few shots by the German showed
them how to time their shrapnel shells
and fragments were soon showered over
the deck 1t was evident the Germans
were trying to put our gunners out of
commission and wreck the bridge. They
did not succeed, though. We of the
crew took off our hats to the 1aval gun
crew. for those boys stuck to their job
like heroes, never seeming to notice the
danger.
I'VE were responding all the time to
the shelling, but our shots continued to
fall short. To some of us 1t was becom-
Ing disheartening to see that we were
unable to reach the submarine. which
was coming to within 1000 yards of u.s.
Our ideas were not shared by the naval
gun crew. They remained cool and kept
on with their work just as II every shot
made hit.
Finally 1 noticed we were dropping
our shells close to the submarine and
that the battle vas not one-sided. The
. gunners noticed this, too, and increased
the speed with which they fired their
2rlhes. Twenty shots in quick succession
we're sent by the guns mounted on the
deck Of the Paulsboro.
fia ut was impossible for us to make
cut any figures on the deck of the sub
marine and we don't know what hap
{, pened aboard when the Germans saw
I'VE got their range. We do know,
z though, she suddenly ceased firing. Then
',ppe shot struck her amidship. She
went down.
I'VE watched long time. but she
"a not reappear and we could not
make out her periscope. OF course,
/ we hurried away. for we did not want
her to sneak up and launch a torpedo
t<s' <s'iAbout 10 p. IN. we ran past q squad
~
fAfnest belief We saw flashes from
$hfee different directions. each close
~ the water. and these we figured
vere signals from the Germans. one
= apother. No one on board the Pauls-
4oro could make them out"
The man who was hurt was 8. w.
4astibo, a Mexican. He was struck
Py piece OF flying shrapnei which
ained down on the deck of the ship
&urlng the battle.
III In the crew OF the Paulsboro was
resident Of New York city. William
Lynch. of 2s5 West 147th street He
. 20 told the story OF the attack and
9so the details of another attack on
4 shruary rs, the day before the British
2ospital ship, Glenart Castle, was tor
aoed In the Bristol Channel, as he
SLEEVES. by the same submarine that
Rtacked the Paulsboro.