Audubon County journal. (Exira, Iowa) 1884-1993, 1918-04-18


The lookouts were ordered to report every
thing they saw. Not bit Of driftwood or a
patch of floating seaweed was to be missed AL
most every minute a call came down from the
tops to the fore aft gun control.
All at once down the speaking tube to the
forward fire control came an excited voice:
"Fore top. fore top, fore top"
"Aye, aye fore top"
steamer at 1876 degrees; range, 1000 yards"
"Aye, aye, fore top
There was steamer, and she was coming
down fast. smoke boiling out Of her single STACK.
her bow driving white bursts Of foam along aneau
Of her. The cruiser charged toward her me
gun crews on the Ramapo were fighting to pr1ng
their pieces to bear.
"Its German raider" the whisper ran about
the ship.
'.She hove to only few hundred yards
away" relates member of the crew. "All OF our
guns were on her. You could see their gray muz-
zles rise and dip as the ship rolled and the gun
pointers held them true on their mark All at
once realized loved those guns and the men who
were handling them. 1t funny I'd never
thought Of them at all before Now they seemed
There sudden gasp of relief all over the
ship. The tramp had broken out the British flag
On her bridge someone was senaphoring fran
tically. The Ramapo picked up the hysteri-
cal message.
Submarine encountered hour direct east
Believe 1t is pursuing. Advise caution"
Then the smoke came bursting from her fun
mel again and she went laundering on her way over
the sea- like frightened duck.
"Then all at once whisper ran through the ship.
It was repeated as those on the walls Of Luck
now must have told Of the advancing British col
umn. The destroyers were coming. Somewhere
out of that gray, cruel the American war boats
were sweeping down on the convoy. Our destroy
ers, men, they coming to see their breth-
rem safe through the zone.
II shall never forget the way they came. 1t was
a gray afternoon, when the maintop reported the
flicker of a blinker signaling far out over the
waves. We didn't see them when they came They
seemed to materialze suddenly out Of nothing.
"All at once, we saw the first one. She was only
few hundred yards off our bows, and we had to
watch her closely to see her at all. That sounds
foolish; but it is literal fact. She was camou-
faged-streaked and dotted and splashed In q
dozen colors, and she melted away into the back
ground Of the sea as though she weren't made Of
steel, but of mist
"Then we realized that they were all around
us. Eight of them. All dappled and harleQuin7
patterned all practically invisible at half mile.
Their flagship hung for moment on a wave,
then there was squirt of white at her stern and
she came flying down us. There was no foam
by the bow. There was no smoke from the short,
rakish tunnels, only the culver Of heat from her
OIL fires. She slipped through the water like a
fish, and she passed us, slim, high bred, with
her razor bow and her lean curving TANKS, driv-
ing through the water like an express train with
no visible effort and smoothly as canoe, she
broke out the American flag on her stern. We
broke out ours, and that our greeting-that
and the yells Of the soldiers who were acting like
madmen. AS she flashed by we caught glimpse
Of her guns, all cleared for action and the depth
bombs ready at her stern. One of her men, his
feet braced to her roll looked up at us, grinned
and then yawned. We knew that was only show
ing off. He couldn't shame the troops by be-
ing blase. They acted like bunch Of kids"
The worst Of the war zone was ahead Of them,
but they didn't worry any longer. They knew the
destroyers were on the watch They ranged here
and there. They shot away for mile or so and
came back to swim circles about them. They
were all new boats-the best ever built. The
British will tell you so, too. They are modelling
their new boats on ours.
The submarine couldn't trouble the transports
men now. If one started to worry, all he had
to do to look over the side, and the picture OF
the destroyers running the hills Of the sea like
hounds, was full comfort to him.
A few days later the Ramapo and her consorts
were shepherded by the destroyers into the har
Dor of "a Port In France"
1.-THE troops stood at the rail and cheered and
laughed and shouted, but we didn't. We were toe
tired, just plain worn out. Anyone who has beer
on a transports crew knows all there is to know
about the agony Of anticipation. We just sal
and looked at the green hills and the green roofs
and the green waters Of the bay, and present.!
those who weren't on watch went to their bunk!
and had good sleep.
"They had brought their men across safe, which
has come to he n h0hit of the TRANSPORT service
Somehow, was glad that they put me on trans
port instead Of dreadnaught. 1t seems Al
though we were doing more to help win the war
somehow, even If no one ever hears about us"