The Republican journal., 1918-07-04
convoy stand out with great distintness. .
l left him then and went below and

was sitting in my stateroom when tn
crash came. l think that all of you will
be interested in hearing something abou
the sensations that race up and down
mans spine when the missile of dealt
crashes into the side of his ship.
My thoughts were at least 5000 mile
away l had forgotten the ship, hat
forgotten my mission, had forgotten
everything but my homeland, that seem
cd very far and distant at that time
mad been aboard that ship for two weeks
and was heartily sick of her and want
ca TO get on shore and was relishing thu
thought that we would probably docl
some time late the next afternoon, wher
an at once into the reverie came thai
frlghtful crash. l can never forget it
IL was as though thousand tons of dy.
namite had suddenly blown up directly
under me.
Immediately following the crash thu
snip shook like frenzied thing, as though
the LIE was being shaken out of her She
feeled and tossed for moment and Their
iurched heavily over to one side, and i'm
medlately all the lights went out Now,
that is the most fearsome part of being
torpedoed, to my way of thinking, because
when the lights 60 out and you think
mat great wound has been made in the
side OF the ship, you are left in darkness
with the widest kind of an imagination
as TO what is going to occur. had a
great desire to get out on deck and get
out OF that stateroom but | thought it
would be foolish for me to 60 out into the
cold, night air and possibly into the icy
water unless had some heavier clothing
on. had Just an ordinary uniform on,
which l was compelled to wear during
my trip. So l slipped on my overcoat.
1t seemed as though l could never find
that overcoat at first, there in the dark
ness, but l finally got it and | reached
out for my life preserver.
On the way across we had been in
structed to carry our life preservers
wherever we went. We called them our
dogs, and took the ends of the string and
tied them in knot and then carried them
by the string around the deck with US.
When fellow would show up down be-
low at dinner or any place without his
dog they would probably boiler at him
where is your dog? Go and get your
dogH' and the dogless one would rush
down below and again reappear with his
life preserver, and so we carried them
constantly with u.s.
felt for my life preserver and finally
located it. OF course, the strings were
tied in nice, hard knot and there in the
darkness, with the thought that the ship
was sinking rapidly, had to unite that
knot. l thought the time never seemed
so long and yet felt it would be unwise
to 60 out on deck with my life preserver
and try to put it on there, try to unite it
on deck, because ! was afraid of the con-
fusion that would greet me when | got
out there. l finally got it and slipped it
on and then | got hold of a patented life
suit that some of my friends in New
York had joked about with me. Mr..
Martin of John H. Meyer had finally per-
suaded me to buy one of them. had
purchased this thing and / determined to
take it out on deck with me. thought
| would not try to take the time to get
into it in the dark, but | grabbed it and
started out
Now just one word here. Whenever
any of your dear boys are going across
the sea tell them if they don't take any,
thing else in their equipment to put in
flashlight. When the torpedOing hour
comes, if it does come to them, there is
nothing in the world that they will value
as highly as flashlight. l don't know
how many lives | saved that night by
Just having that flashight that could
flash over the side of the ship and direct
some poor fellow who was in the water
to the end of floating spar or to boat
that he could not see but which was
probably very near to hin.
got my coat on and got my lie pre-
server on and took this life suit in my
hand and then started for the corridor.
want to tell you it took more nerve for
me to open the door than anything l ever
did in my life. My state room was right
opposite flight of stairs and the instant
that the torpedo crashed into our side
heard a great rush of feet that came down
from the smoking rooms and the rooms
above, down that stairway. 1t was as
though great herd of cattle were tear
ing down that stairway at break-neck
speed and then came that confused muir
muir of excited voices, trying to talk all
at once, and the sounds that came into
my state room left me to think that the
entire ship had gone crazy. | never heard
such sound. 1t was.a sound to freeze
your blood, fairly. Well, said to myself
that those boys had lost their heads l
hated to step out there in the corridor
because expected to see men pushing
each other, showing, tearing at each
others threats in an endeavor to seek
some advantage over the other.
want to say to you that did those
lads of ours great injustice in my
thoughts that night l had forgotten that
they were American boys, because the
corridor that was about to step into was
occupied entirely with young American
officers. When l stepped out into the
corr dor, instead of the scene that had
expected, one of disorder, saw crowd
of well ordered, well behaved Americans,
behaving in way that l can never for
get tApplause.) The cooler heads had
already taken possession of the situation
and Immediately heard cries of some-
thing like this: "Keep cool, boys"
Keep your heads" Don't crowd. :"
I'VE will get out all right if we take
time. She is sinking but slowly" And
things of that nature, and here and there
the little fitful flash of light carried by
some fellow.
CONTINUED
DON'T VISIT THE FARMER.