The Hays free press. [volume] (Hays, Kan.) 1908-1924, 1918-06-20

as known, was lifeboat she1led, and
in all cases reported the crews were
given opportunity 10 escape or were
taken aboard the submarine, where
some of them were kept prisoner for
eight days before they were turned
adrift to be picked up by a passing
vessel
Warships on the Job.
Scores of United States warships
are ranging the waters off the North
Atlantic Coast in search of the sub
marines.
The crew of the Haskell is report
ed to have been saved but nothing is
known of the fate Of the three other
crews
The Savannah line steamship City
of Columbus is reported to have been
sunk, but no definite news of her fate
has been received.
Forty-eight survivors of vessels
sunk by the U-boats, brought to this
port by coastwise steamship, were
landed. About half of them had been
prisoners for several days aboard the
submarines.
Held Prisoners on U-Boat.
ship Winnie Connie and the schooners
Hauppaug, the Isabel B. Wiley, the
Hattie Dunn and the Edna. Twelve
more survivors OF the schooners
Hauppaug and Isabel B. Wiley, who
were making for shore in a motor
yaw1 at night, are believed to have
landed somewhere further down the
coast.
A government aviator in a hydro
airplane that alighted near Beach
Haven, n. J., reported that thirty-ffve
miles off shore he had sighted three
lifeboats filled with persons pulling
slowly toward the coast and had seen
other lifeboats floating about empty.
The Atlantic Refining Company
tanker Herbert L. Pratt was sunk four
miles off Cape Henlopen, Del. The
crew was landed at Lewes, Del.
No Transports Attacked.
1t was learned authoritativeIy that
no attacks have been made on Ameri-
can transports Off the American
Coast. All ships were held in ports
along the coast, as a precaution.
There also were uneonfirmed re-
ports of fifteen vessels had fallen
prey to the raiders, but there was no
verification. There also were con-
firmed reports Of battles between war
ships and submarines.
Fear was felt for the fate of the $50
persons aboard the Carolina, a vessel
of 5000 tons, running between Porto
Rico and an Atlantic port.
An S. o. S. call sent by the steam
ship at o'clock at night said she was
being shelled by a German submarine
and that passengers and crew had
taken to the boats. Officers of the
company assume she was sunk, but
have no definite information to that
effect. They place her position at the
time she was attacked at from 125 to
$50 miles southeast of Sandy Hook.
The navy threw a veil of war time
secrecy about the steps it was taking
to counterfeit the menace of the sea
pirates, but Secretary Daniels made
the confident announcement that
measures had been taken to meet the
danger to shipping.
While the details of naval opera
tions were withheld, it is known that
destroyers, fleets of submarine
chasers and other vessels are flash
ing their searchlights over the waters
along the coast and far out at sea
from Main to Florida
Hydroairplanes and airplanes arose
like 'flocks of huge birds from every
naval station along the Atlantic Coast
when the warning was flashed to
them and soon were scouting over the
waters where it was believed subma-
rines would be most likely to be lurk-
ing. Foreign aviators and American
students as well as the regular Ameri-
can filters, eagerly volunteered for SER
vice.
Raid Foriorn Hope.
Washing ton.--Germany at last has
brought her submarine warfare to
the shores of the United States, ap-
parently in a forlorn hope of striking
telling blows on this side OF the At
lantic, and of drawing home some of
the American naval forces from the
war zones, where the U-boat menace
is being slowly but surely strangled
to death.
In the attacks upon coasting yes
sells almost in sight of the New Jersey
shore, navy officials see a frantic ad-
mission from Berlin that the subma-
rine has failed. American armed
power is rolling overseas in ever-in-
creasing force, despite the utmost ex-
ertions of the undersea pirates off the
coasts of Europe.
Now the raiders have crossed the
seas and lurked for days near Ameri-
cas- greatest ports. They no doubt
were sent to sink transports, but here
again they have failed. Blocked off
the troop ships by convoy craft, they
have turned in fury against defense
less coasters.
In all the record of destruction they
have written, the raiding party has
struck at no vessels bound overseas
and therefore armed for fight Only
ships that could not hit back have
been attacked. The only one of half
score of vessels probably sent to
the bottom that had any real military
value in ship or cargo was an oil
tanker.