Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1918-11-26

buck up against q British or a French
cruiser at any minute and most of us
thought we would stay up and get an
weIl-known locker.
About two bells the following morn
ing the Moewe's engines began to
groan and shake her up 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 he yelled g
bit he jumped up and made a 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 on 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. 1t was the
French collier st. Theodore, hove to
off the starboard side with q 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 filled
with smoke. from what or why I do
not know, but it was almost impos-
sible to breathe in it. When the
smoke cleared UP 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: "Wait 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 hound 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 began putting
down the names OF the men who were
TO go and I talked them into putting
mine down too. Then I felt about
five hundred pounds lighter.
Five O'Clock came and by that time
l had forgotten to do any worrying.
We received our usual rations and
most of us who had volunteered fig
ured that we would receive clothes
and shoes. In the morning an officer
came down below and read out the
names of those who were to go and 1
felt even lighter when he called mine.
We were each given a life belt and
mustered on deck
The sea was pretty nasty and some
Of the men had narrow escapes from
falling between the Moewe and the
lifeboats when the swells rocked us.
One man fell from the ladder ard
broke his neck on the gunwale of the
lifeboat. They took over boat after
boat to the Yarrowdale until finally
we were all there. Then they mus
tered US on deck and warned us not to
start anything, because they had a