Trench and camp. [volume] (Augusta, Ga.) 1917-1919, 1918-06-05

Public Information in London:
Ensign Il. A. Stone, United States Ma
val Reserve Force, given up for drowned
in the English Channel last month. has
arrived in London after five weeks in hos
pital With companion, he chung for 80
hours, from Saturday morning until Tues
day night, without food or drink, to the
under side of a seaplane pontoon
Ensign Stones Narrative.
II left our station in a British seaplane
as pilot" said Stone, with Sublieut. Eric
Moore, Of the Royal Naval Air Service as
observer at a: m. Our duty was to
convoy patrol. When two hours out, hav-
ing met our ship coming from the west
ward, we thought we sighted periscope
ahead and turned off in pursuit We lost
our course. Our engine dropped dead,
and at 1880 o'clock forced US to land on
the surface in rough sea.
sWe had no kite or radio aero to call
for assistance, so we released our two
carrier pigeons. We tied a message with
our position and the word sinking on
each The first the blue barred one.
flew straight off and reached home. But
the other which was white-cheched, lit
ON our machine and would not bulge UNI
til Moore threw our navigation clock at
him, which probably upset him so that
he failed u.s.
Heavy Sea smashes Taliplanes.
Heavy seas smashed our tailplanes,
which kept settling. | saw that they were
turning her over. We tore the tail fabric
to lessen the impact of the waves 1t
wasn't any use to stop. The tail fiat was
smashed and its box filled with water.
This increased the downward leverage
and rose her perpendicuary in air. At
2:30 p. IN. we capsi2ed. climbing up the
nose and over the top to the under side
of the pontoons.
"Our emergency ration had been in the
Observers seat at the back; but we had
been so busy trying to repair the motor
we didn't remember, this until toe late.
''When / crawled aft for food. Moore
saw that l was only helping the ma
chine to capsize. He yelled to me to
come back, and I did just in time to save
myself from being carried down with the
tail and drowned.
Chung to Each other.
From noy on for nearly four days, I'M
I'll picked up by trawler, we We're con-
tinually soaked and dashed by seas and
with nothing to eat or drink We had
nothing to cling to. and so to keep from
being washed overheard we got upon the
same pontoon and Rugged our arms about
one another's bodies for the whole time
We suffered from thirst | had cray
ing for canned peaches Twice drizzle
came on wetting the pontoon. We turned
on our stomachs and Tapped up the mois-
turf but the paint came off with salt and
nauseated us.
Our limbs grew numb. From time to
time the wreckage from torpedoed ships
would pass. Once two full biscuit tins
came close enough 10 SWIM Tor, but by
then in our weakened state we knew that
we would drown if we tried to get them.
We did haul in third tin and broke 1t
open. 1t was filled with tobacco.
Saw Conveys In the Distance.
Every day we saw conveys in the dis
lance, and yainly waived our handter
chiefs We had no signal lights to use at
night. Our watches stopped and we lost
all track of time. We realyized how easy
it was for a submarine out there to es-
cape being spotted on Sunday night we
spied masthead light and shouted The
ship heard and began to circle us. We
saw her port light. She showed red. She
headed straight toward us until within 100
yards. Then, when the crew were visible
put out her lights and turned away. She
thinks we are Huns. said Moore II hope
she does said I. Then they'll send pa
troll boats out to get u.s. We couldn't be
worse off If we were Germans
but no rescue came.
Seapiane Falls to Sight Them
con Monday afternoon seaplane APP
peared from the east. 1t was flying only
500 feet overhead. aiming down the chan
nell 1t seemed impossible that she
couldn't sight us, for the air was perfect
" clear But she passed straight above
without making any signal few two
miles beyond and came back on her
course. Her observer must be sending
wireless about us, l said. Yes, that is
and now she's decided to go back and re-
port But that plane hadn't even seen
us.
''Our spirits fell We had been afraid
of two things: being picked up by neu-
trail ships and informed. or captured by an
enemy submarine: Now we evenhoped
that the enemv-that anything would get
us to end it all
g "A ship would have to run us down
before seeing us, l said
Rescued by TraWler.
1--WE sighted a trawler about p. m. on
Tuesday She had lust been chasing a
submarine. and so did not seem to take us
very seriously at first We waved at her
for half an hour before she changed her
course. We ere both too weak to stand
up and signal. We could only rise on our
knees. Moore's hands We're too swollen
to hold a handkerchief, but I had kent
my gloves on and was able to do so. The
trqwler moved warily around u.s. but fin
ally threw life preservers at the end of
line. l yelled that we were to weak to
grasp 1t. She finally hove to, lowered a
boat and lifted us aboard
''Then we collapsed,
81 remember asking for drink and
getting water. She skipper would let us
take only sips, but he left bottle along
side me and drank it, He gave us his