The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1918-05-18
CLUNC FOR HOURS
TO AN. AEROPLA NE
IN The CHANNEL!
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Sinking on each. The first, the blue
barred one, flew straight off and
reached home. But the other, which
was white checked, lit on our ma
chine and would not bulge until
Moore threw our navigation clock at
him, which probably upset him so
that he failed us.
Heavy seas smashed our tail
planes, which kept settling. 1 saw that
they were pulling the machine down
by the rear, turning her over. We
tore the off-tail fabric to lessen the
impact of the waves. 1t wasn't any
use to stop. The tail fiat was smash
ed and its box filled with water. This
increased the downward leverage and
raised her perpendicularly. z
1--WE climbed up the nose and to
the top and to the under side of the
pontoons.
when crawled aft for food Moore
saw that 1 was only helping the ma
chine to capsiZe. He yelled to me
to come back and I did, just in time
to save myself from being carried
down with the tail and drowned.
From then on for nearly four days,
until picked up by a trawler, we were
continually soaked and dashed by seas
and with nothing to eat nor drink. We
had nothing to cling to and so to keep
from being washed overheard we got
upon the same pontoen and Rugged
our arms about one another's bodies
for the whole time. We suffered
| from thirst. I had a thirst for canned
peaches. Quite a drizzle came on,
wetting the pontoon. We turned on
our stomachs and Tapped up the mois-
| ture, but the paint came off with salt
| and nauseated us.
Our limbs grew numb. From
time to time the wreckage from tor
pedoed ships would pass. Once two
full biscuit tins came close enough to
swim for, but by then in our weaken
ed state we knew that we would
drown if we tried to get them.
| We did haul in a third tin and broke
it open. 1t was filed with tobacco.
! Every day we saw conveys in the
distance and vain1y waved our hand
kerchiefs. We had no signal lights
to use at night. Our watches stopped
and we lost all track of time. We
realized how easy it was for a sub
marine out there to escape being
spotted. On Sunday night we spied
a mast head light and shouted. The
ship heard and began to circle US. We
saw. her port light. She headed
straight toward US until within 100
yards Then, when the crew were Wis
ible on the deck of the vessel, she
suddenly put out her lights and turn
ed away. She thinks We are Huns,
said Moore. L hope she does said L.
Then they'll send patrol boats out to
get US. We couldn't be worse off if
we were Germans But no rescue
came.
"On MONDAY afternoon a seaplane
came from the east.It was flying only
500 feet overhead aiming down the
channel 1t seemed impossible that
she could not sight US, for the air waS
perfectly clear. But she passed
straight above without making any
signal, flew two miles beyond and
came back on her course. Her OBJ
server must be sending wireless about
u.s. I said. Yes, that is why We get
no recognition said Moore, and now
But that plane hadn't even seen us.
But that plane hadn't even seen us.
"Our spirits fell. We had been
afraid of two things-being picked up
by neutral ship and interned, or cap
tured by an enemy submarine. Now
we even hoped that the enemy-that
; anything would get us to end it all.
"a ship would have to run US down
before seeing u.s. I said.
1--WE sighted a trawler about 6 p. m
on Tuesday. She had just been chas-
ing a, submarine and so did not seem
| to take US very seriously at first. We
: waved at her for half an hour before
she changed her course. We were
both too weak to stand up and signal
We could only rise on our knees
Moore's hands were too swollen tc
hold a handkerchief, but I had kept
my gloves On and was able to do so
The trawler moved warily around us
but finally threw life preservers at the
end of line. I yelled that we were
too weak to grasp it. She finally hove
to, lowered boat and lifted US aboard
Then we collapsed"