Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1918-12-27

tea. After this festival we began
roaming up and down the deck again,
because 1t was the only way to keep
warm. I guess we looked like some
Of the advertisements in magazines,
where they show a whole family sit
ting around Christmas tree in their
underwear and telling each other that
Whosis Unions-the Roomy Kind
were just what they wanted from
| Sanity. Only we did not have any
Christmas tree to sit around. We must
have looked funny. though, and would
have had a good laugh If I had not
been SO cold.
! We could not go to sleep because
the decks were wet, nor could we sit
down with any comfort for the same
reason. Besides, we thought we might
buck up against British or a French
cruiser at any minute and most Of us
| thought we would stay up and get an
eye full before we started for Davy's
well-known locker.
About two bells the following morn
ing the Moewe's engines began to
groan and shake her up a bit and we
could hear the blades jump out of the
water every once in a while and tear
away. She went ahead in this way for
some time and we were hoping she
was trying to get away from cruiser
and some Of us were pulling for the
cruiser to win and others hoping the
Moewe would get her heels clear and
keep us from getting ours.
The Huns were running up and down
the deck yelling like wild men and
one of our men began to yell too. He
was delirious and after ne yelled a
bit he jumped up and made pass at
the sentry, who shot at him but
missed. The shot missed me too. but
not very much. Then they dragged
the delirious man up GIN deck and Lord
knows what they did with him, because
we never saw him again. But we did
not hear. any sound that they might
have made in shooting him.
Then the Huns began Smelling and
they kept it up for some time.
Then they ordered us up on deck
to see the ship they had been firing at
and when we came up the companion
way they were just bringing the other
ships skipper aboard. It was the
French collier st. Theodore, hove to
off the starboard side with prize
crew from the Moewe aboard and wig
wagging to the raider.
Then the Huns began shouting and
they rousted us below deck again. The
place where we had been was filed
with smoke, from what or why / do
not know, but it was almost impos-
sible to breathe in it. When the
smoke cleared up a bit the Marathon
started again, for we were still in our
underwear only. One of the boys had
asked Fritz for clothing and Fritz said
the English had tough enough skins
and they did not need clothing. Then
he said: swat until you see what our
German winters are like"
/ The following morning the engines
began to tear away again and the
guns started firing After a while the
firing stopped and the engines too, and
after an hour they had the old man
Of the Yarrowdale aboard. She was a
British ship chartered by the French
and bound for Brest and Liverpool
with very valuable cargo aboard
airplanes, ammunition. food and auto
mobiles.
! When they rousted us on deck again
the ST. Theodore was Still In sight, but
she had the Yarrowdale for company.
Both were trailing behind us and keep
ing pretty close on. While we were
on deck we saw the German sailors at
work on the main deck making about
ten RATS and when they began to place
| tins of bareback on the RATS, tin to
each, we imagined they were going to
heave us over the side and let us go
on the RATS. But instead they began
telling us we would land in the States
and then they rousted us between
decks again.
We had only been there short time
when some of the German officers came
down and asked If any of the men
would volunteer to go firing on the
Yarrowdale and we almost mobbed
them to take us. They hogan putting