The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1918-09-10
MIAMI BOY HAS A
THRILLING EXPERIENCE
WHEN HIS VESSEL WAS
ToRPEDoED NEAR FRANCE

Miami, Sept. 9-To escape from a
vessel torpedoed by a German sub
marine;
To be adrift in an open boat for
five days, during stormy weather;
and
To be without food, except hard
tack, during that time, and without
water the last day or two, is the new
er-to-be-forgotten experience of Ralph
Miller, former Miami boy, who is
now in this city on furlough.
Mr.. Miller was a sailor on board a
merchant boat, the ''Westover," which
carried the bravest crew, according to
Vice-Admiral Sims, that ever sailed
the Bay of Biscay" The "Westover'
was torpedoed over 400 miles from
the coast Of France, about Z O'Clock
on the morning of July II.
In answer to the question, "How
does 1t feel to be in boat when 1t Is
topedoed?" Mr.. Miller said that the
shock stunned them for moment,
that the whole ship was shaken and
then burst into flames, since the tor
peodo hit the oil tanks. "Then the
signal was given for each man to set
about the work that was detailed to
him in case of an accident Of this
Sort Mr.. Miller explained. Because
| knew something about machinery
| knowledge gained while was work
ing with the Southern Utilities Co.
here, it was up to me to keep up an
an electric current so that We could
send out an S. o. S. call and keep a
light in the engine room, so that the
engineer could stop the boat. | was
the last enlisted man out of the engine
room.
torpedo striking the magazine, where
the powder was kept. The whole
stern was torn from the boat. A big
gun was thrown high into the air and
it turned somersaults before it hit the
water. A monstrous wave broke over
our life boat lin which we had crowd
ed about 81 mem, and while some Of
the fellows were trying to bail the
water out of the boat, and all OF us
were trying to boss the job, the
Weston or went down. We rowed
hard then, in order to get away be-
: fore the wreckage came up. The cap
tain and some of the officers stepped
off the boat as it went irto the water
. and swan to life boats. Eleven
men were lost.
about that time the German sub
s marine arrived on the scene to see
what mischief It had accomplished
The commander turned big gun OF
us.
4 "'This ISIS var-how you like it?'
: the Huns jeered at US.
Germans Got All Kinds Of Replies
And then they went about amoni
!: the life boats to question us concern
v ing the boat-what 1t was-what
. carried, etc, and | assure you the!
= got varied collection of misinfor
Il nation. Our replies were so varied
/ and so delightfully."- original that the!
|, soon gave up their attempts to &c
% information from us and wished Vi
s good luck and departed
"Then we divided our men event.
rs among the five life boats, and KEEP
ID together until night, when we wer
:, separated in the storm. The mex
three days and nights were stormy
R and we suffered from exposure an
also from thirst, since most OF ou
2 supply of drinking water had beel
2 spilled and we soon ran out. Tn
2 fourth night we followed up "a re-
q light, and found it was part OF GU
2 own crew. The fifth day we cam
q close to French fish boat, wher
: they treated us Hospitality, becaus
% we were Americans"
| Mr.. Miller and the rest of the part
! remained in France until transpoi
came to bring them home, and o
September II they will meet to star
on another trip.