The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1918-04-06
TORPEDOED ONCE,
WRECKED TWICE
B. 7. Gle Writes Very Interesting Ae-
count of His Experience with Ger
man Submarine-His Vessel
Sank with 2l Men.

| Inv VI a. ibiHlNi
boy while shipping aboard the $. ). Al.
cedo is graphically told in letter which
u. H. Gile writes from France. The let
ter, mailed late in February, has been
received by the young mans grandmoth.
or, Mrs. Helen NJ. Batchelder of Liberty
; street, and will be read with interest by
the sailors friends in this part OF Wash.
ington county. His story runs as fol-
lows;
On the evening of Nov. 4, 1917, we and
three other yachts left the French coast
for the sea The time, | believe, was
4 o'clock and the late afternoon was a
fine one. We fell into line and were
still there when | came up from the
watch below at s o'clock. Being some
what tired | decided to take a bath and
turn in for good nights rest The
might was very dark and little could be
seen. At times the moon ventured from
behind cloud and one could make out
the black hulks of the other ships. The
sea was calm and | had no trouble in
keeping my feet and was soon in my
bunk. Whether ] snored or not | cannot
say, but, anyway, | sure slept sound
once | "hit the hay" 1t did not seem
that | had slept very long before / was
awakened by the shipmate that slept
over me, and / heard the general alarm
( going Booo- Booo Booo-ooo Bang! One
! foot was out of the bunk, but at the ex.
! poson | was thrown out and my head
struck an iron stanchion which rendered
me almost unconscious for the fraction
| of a moment. When / came 10 my
senses | was lying on the deck, and the
water was sloshing over my body. Of
! course ! did not lose any time getting to
my feet and swinging myself to the deck |
above through the hatch. We were sink |
ing fast and had bad list to port" l
noticed that the forward mast had been |
blown off and decided that by diving 1
overheard and swimming aft | would |
find it and it would at least hold me up
and many more. So | dove over and |
swan aft and in the course of 10 or II |
strokes was sitting astride of it. And in
this position | watched the men leaving
her as she gave one final scream from
her siren as of a dying animal, and went
under. That may be an old expression,
but it is the way it seemed TO me as |
sat half in the water and half out.
Having on nothing but my undershirt
cursed myself for being young fool for
not having put on clean suit of dunge
YES to sleep in
The morning air was very chilly and
As ! was getting numb again dove into
the water and swan toward boat that
was floating alongside Of a raft upon I
which were three comrades, and one was
in the dory bailing it ont. | climbed in
over the stern sheets and started to bail
with hat that one of the men on the
raft had. Someone came swimming
and one OF US hollered and ,
asked who il was. Kaiser Bill" was
the calm reply Let me say here that all
the men were themselves throughout the
trouble and no one was heard to whimp l
er G
We were soon in the dory and ready /
to pull the oars when who should pop {
into sight but the submarine Come /
alongsidei" came the command. OF t
course we had no choice and did as re- \
quested, or commanded. b
"Vott shipd!" lie
"Alcedo," n
'Vott cargo {
None Running light for New York =
How many guns: p
Two" HI
"Vott tonnage4"
Nineteen hundred a
How many men In
"One hundred and twenty. eight" G,
The sub then started off and We asked a
he commander tho way to land. He G;
aii 90 east BY south. aud then said, no,
20 due east it will be nearer; so we N
tarted to row at about $50 and were o.
,icked up mile off the coast by a cr
french fishing smack, and there were in
wo dory loads, numbering 30 in ALL A Il
yhaleboat and two dories had pulled in
oward the northeast and were picked fc
Ip by French destroyer. We were di
by the French people and civ
n cloth hes and food and beds for the fl
light of the 5th. ii
The Alcedo was a yacht owned by ii
lrexel of Philadelphia She was torpe IS
oed on the morning of the 5th of No
ember at l:51 and sank in four min
ties. She carried crew of S5. Twenty
len and ono officer were lost, total of a.
| men. We were picked up at 1880 on a.
be afternoon of the 5th. after about II
ours of steady rowing We were about
D miles off the coast. of
After rest of about 80 days without IN
ny money for personal comforts we 10
ere sent to other ships, and mine was "a
nc i'll fated Guineyere. which foundered ~
n the rocks on Jan. -. | then went to IN
le L. S. S Douglas and on the first trip is
ut we hit the rocks, but slipped off in Il
lfety in the morning, for the third ii,
me, | think. We had cat ou board ON
lc Guinevere. that had jumped over se
oard frop another ship Just before she Ia,
i the rocks and went down, and she IN
mped overheard the day We hit the in
,cks So when the Douglas hit the rc,
'cks, the captain said TO me. Between of
III and that cat, YOU will sink the whole am
,etl' There are good grounds between
G and the eat To warrant superstition of
the part of the superstltious ones. Mo
Please excuse poor writing, as by the J.
ldress You will see that | am in the ,ol
,spital. but nothing serious. Must close ieI
W. as am very tired. b. J. Iile' gai
| has
MEADOW BROOK GOLFERS. 81