The Carlisle independent., 1918-11-14
ss ISIS rss m o. e oe 4pbe4 ssy.

own hands, and We got the rest of the sane or nearly sane men together and tried to get up scheme for doing il. was strong for the plan and so | were several others, but the Limey of fcers who were with us advised against it. They said the Germans were taking us to a neutral country, where we would be interned, which was just what the Germans had told us, but what few of us believed.
 Then some others said that if we started anything the Germans would : fire the time bombs. We replied that ! at least the Germans would go west I with us, but they could not see that there was any glory in that. For my self, l thought the Germans would not fire the bombs until the last minute, and that we would have a chance at ! the boats before they got all of us i anyway. There were only thirteen ! German sailors on board, besides their commander. This last Hun was named Badewitz.
 So the pacifsts ruled, because we could not do anything unless we were aH together, and there was no mutiny. Taey said we were hotheads, the rest of US, but l still think we could have made dash for it and overpowered our sentries, and either gone over the side with the lifeboats, or taken over the whole ship. It would have been better for us if we had tried, and if the paeifists had known what was coming to us they would have fired 7 the time bombs themselves rather than % on into that future. How ever, that is split milk
 Ne were not allowed to open. the portholes while We were in the bunk CTS under penalty of death, and there | tn the dark, in that stinking air, it is ! ne wonder many of us went crazy l Among us was q fellow named Bar- rington, about SIX feet tall and weigh
 ing 250 pounds. He seemed to be all
 right mentally. but some of us thought afterwards he was crazy. | Anyway, l do not blame him for what he did. Harrington rushed up the tiddley and opened the door. There was German sentry there, and Har rtagton made swing at him and then grabbed his bayonet The sentry yelled and some others came down from the bridge and shot Harrington through the hand. After they had beaten Harrington pretty badly, the bull Of the bunch, Badewitz himself, came over and hammered Harrington all around the deck. Then they put room.
 The next day we were sitting in the fiddley getting warm when the door opened and there was Badewitz. He yelled "Herausi" and began firing at us with revolver, so we beat it back onto the coal. Pretty soon the door opened again. But it was only Ger man sentry. He threw down note. It was written in English and read, Pick out eight men for cooks" So we picked out eight men from the va rlous vessels and they went on deck and rlgged up galley aft.
 But we did not receive any knives,
 
 meal we got was nothing but macaro- nj, piled up on pieces of cardboard boxes. Then we appointed four men to serve the macaroni, and they got four pieces of wood, the cleanest we could find, which was not very clean at that, and they dug around in the macaroni and divided it up and put 1t In our hands. We had to eat it after that from our grimy fingers. Those who were helped first had to go farthest back on the coal to eat 1t, and those who were helped last got less, because the dividers got more careful toward the end and gave smaller portions.
 But we did not get macaroni very long. A cook from the Voltaire was cleaning copper dixie that the mac aroni had been cooked in, and he was holding it over the side when the ves- sci rolled heavily, and dropped the dixie into the briny. A sentry who saw him drop it forced him up to BadewitZ, who began mauling him be- fore the sentry even had told his story. After while BadewitZ quit pounding the cook, and listened to the sentry. Then Badewitz said the cook had put note In the dixie before he l dropped 1t, so they beat him up again and put him in irons. After that they sent the rest of the cooks back, and would not let them on deck again. They had plenty of canned goods and meat aboard, but they would not give us any.
 Five of the men were buried at sea that day. More men were going mad every minute, and it was terrible | place; pitch dark, grimy, loose coal underfoot, eoal-dusty air to breathe, body-filth everywhere. Some of the crazy men howled like dogs. But we were not as much afraid of these as we were of the others who kept still, but slipped around in the dark with ---=~<-