Iron County record. [volume] (Cedar City, Utah) 1893-1982, 1918-08-09

"Un Homme a la Merl"
garbies believed. This chap was the
real original Baron Munchausen when
II came to EARNING. and for n while he
had me going too. He would whisper
some startling tale to us and make us
promise not to tell, as he had picked
1t fromesome other ships message, and
the Old Man would spread-eagle him
If he found It out. They probably
would have logged him, at that, II they
had known he was filling us full of
wind the way he did.
He told me one time that Henry
Ford had invented something or other
for locating subs miles away, and also
another device that would draw the
sub right up to 1t and swallow 1t
whole. He had lot OF other yarns
that l cannot remember. but l did not
believe him because l saw he was
picking out certain men to tell certain
yarns to-that is, spinning them where
they would be more sure of being be-
lieved and not just spinning them any
where.
So l got pretty tired of this stuff
after while and when we put out
from Brest on the fourth voyage l
got this fellow on deck in rough
weather and began talking to him
about the chap who had gone over
board the time before and had been
cut up by the propeller. i pretended
that, of course. he knew all about it
that the Old Man had had this garby
pushed overheard because he was too
free with his mouth. But this did not
seem TO do any good, so had to think
up another way.
When we were out two days / got
hold of our prize liar again. i figured
that he would be superstitious and
was right. / said that of course he
knew that a ship could not draw near
Cape Helles and get away again un-
less at least one man was lost, or that,
If II did get away, there would be
many casualties aboard. i said ii had
always been that way and claimed
that the Old Man had pushed this
garby overheard because someone had
to go. / said on our other trips no
one had been sacrificed and that was
the reason we had suffered so much,
and that the Old Man had been called
down by the French minister of the
navy. l told him the Old Man would
he could best spare.
That was all / had to tell him. Ell
Their he thought the Old Man knew of
his EARNING or else he did not think
himself of much account, for he dis
appeared that very watch and we did
not see him again until we were on
the homeward voyage and steward
happened to dig into provision hold
There was our lying friend. with a
life belt on, another under his head
and the blight of u rope around his
waist, fast asleep. Why he had the
rope l do not know, but he was scared
to death and thought we were going
to chuck him overheard at once.
think he must have told the officers
everything, because / noticed them
looking pretty hard at me--or ut least
l thought / did; maybe 1t was my
conscience, If / may brag about hav-
ing one-and | thought one of the lieu
tenants was just about TO grin at me
several times, But we never heard any
more about 1t, or any more yarns from
our wireless friend.
The fourth voyage was pretty rough.
too. The old girl would stick her
nose into the seas aud many times
! thought she would forget TO come out.
We had II LOT of Sald piled up against
| the WhoclhouSe and after we dived
| pretty deep one time and bucked out
! S'pNly there WAS moi grain of sand
| lct' II looked Ike the sea was just
| l'n- us, for We were almost into
a. nt,r, and here II had just taken
cuc sea- aboard to clean up the sand
we carried aih the way from BrcSt.
curing the whole voyage you could
at get near the galley, which was
vnure our wireless friend hung out
3u"u he could. The pans and dlXies
."r.sing on the wall stood straight
uH when the ship pitched, and several
lolyy ones came down on cooks
seed while he was sitting under them
lu'ng heavy sea. That made him
-lpcrStitious TOO, ana he disappeared
and was not found for TWO days, But
| he wars landSman ana not used TO
heavy weather.
When we got 10 the Gallipoll PENN
sUla the NTH time our battle fleet
AMI transports lay or the straits. We
could not reach the little harbor on
the Turkish coast but the whole fleet
felt happy and fairly confident of vic
tory. We lay off Cape Helles, and IL
was there we received the news that
there were submarines lying around
| Gibraltar. Then they were reported
OH Malta. We got the new. from Brit