The circle banner. [volume] (Circle, Mont.) 1914-1939, 1918-10-25
with oelng a quar.ermaster I could

But they drilled me up onto thu
bridge and told me to take the wheel
What their idea was / do not know
Possibly they wanted noncombatan
at the wheel in case they were over
hauled by a neutral vessel. We were
going full speed at the time, but as
soon as took the wheel she cut down
to half speed, and stayed that way for
half an hour. Then up to full speed
again.
Pretty soon there was q tramp
steamer on the starboard bow, and al
most before / saw it, there were two
more sentries on, each side of me,
prodding me with their revolvers and
warning me to keep on the course.
| They had civilian clothes on.
Then we went through the Skager
Rack and Cattegat, which are narrow
| strips of water leading to the Baltic,
and we were only mile from shore
with vessels all about us. 1t would
| have been an easy thing for me to
| signal what our ship was and who
were aboard, but they had six sentries
| on my neck all the time to keep me
| from it. 1 never wanted to do any
| thing worse in my life than jump
| overheard or signal. But / would
| have been shot down before l had
more than started to do either, SO
just stayed with the wheel.
We were nearing one of the Dan
ish islands in the Baltic when we
sighted q tug. She began to smoke
up and blow her siren. The sailors got
very excited and ran around in crazy
style, and Badewitz began shouting
more orders than they could get away
with. The sentries left me and ran
with the rest of the Fritzies to the
boat deck and started to lower one of
the lifeboats. But Badewitz was right
on their heels and kicked the whole
bunch around in great shape, roaring
like a bull all the time.
left the wheel and ran to the end
of the bridge, to jump overheard. But
the minute / let go of the wheel the
vessel fell off of the course, and they
noticed it, and Badewitz sent five of
them up on the bridge and three
others to the side with their revolvers
to shoot me if l should reach the wa
ter. I think if I had had any rope to
lash the wheel with l could have got
away and they would not have known
it.
When the five sailors reached the
bridge one of them jumped for the
cord and gave our siren five long
blasts in answer to the tug. The tug
was about to launch a torpedo, and
men was looking from the fiddley, and
he saw the Huns making for the life
boats, so he got two or three others
and they all yelled together, Don't
let them get awayw thinking that
they would get the boat over and
leave the ship, and trying to yell loud
enough for the tug to hear them.
Badewitz took this man and two or
three others, whether they were the
ones who yelled or not, and beat them
up and put them in irons. 1 thought
there was going to be a mutiny
aboard, but it did not come off, and
l am not sure what the Huns were so
excited about.
The other four sailors who came up
on the bridge did not touch me, but |
Just kept me covered with their re- |
volvers. That was the way with them |
they would not touch us unless |
Badewitz was there or they had bayo-
nets. The old bull himself came up
on the bridge after he had beaten up
|
bit and kicked me down from the
bridge and slammed me into the coal |
bunkers. 1 felt pretty sore, as you
can imagine, and disappointed and
pretty low generally.
After a while we heard the anchor
chains rafting through on their way
to get wet, and we pulled up. Then
every German ship in the Baltic came
up to look us over, l guess. They
opened up the hatch covers, and the
Hun garbies and gold-stripes came
aboard and looked down at us, and |
spit all they could on us, and called
us all the different kinds of swine in
They had them lined up
and filing past the hatchways-all of
them giving us lHe OuCe over III turn.
Maybe they sold tickets for this show
it would be like the Huns.
At first we were milling around try
ng to get out from under the hatch
openings and the shower of spit, but
some Limey officer sang out, "Brit-
shers all Don't give wayr' and we
stood still and let them spit their
Tanned German lungs out before we
would move for them, and some Cor
lishmen began singing their song
lbout Trelawney. So we made out
hat we did not know such a thing as
German ever lived.
We got better acquainted with Ger
nan splitting later on, and believe me,
hey are great little spitters, not much
IN distance or accuracy, but quick In
Lction and well supplied with ammu-
lition. Splitting on prisoners is the
avorite indoor and outdoor sport for
Germans, men and women alike.
When the show was over, they
ousted us up on deck and put us to I
york throwing the salt pork and can .
led goods into two German mine-lay- !
RS. While we were at it, Danish ,