Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1918-09-06
u. S. S. TOOTsY GETS HER
FIRST GERMAN SUBMARINE
Clair Price Tells Story Of Expert
ences OF Converted Yacht
With Convoy.
DROPPED MANY DEPTH BOMBS
Captain Later Learned That U-Boat
Had Put Into Spanish Port in
Badly Damaged Condition-Beats
Duck Shooting Any Day.
ny CLAIR PRICE.

WITH THE UNITED STATES NAVY,
AT a MEDITERRANEAN BASE, Sep
TENDER 5.-The U. S. 8 Tootsy Is a
converted yacnt of T95 tons, aa you
may see by looking her 9R IN the , 1si1
but loaded down with all her war CAD
gets. she reaches lightweight OF some
40 tons: as you may learn ny as uhi
the battle fleet stays up creek drill
ing. as tho little fellows love to say
little fellows OF the danger zone es-
corta are getting the fun out OF the
war.
She has n captain and five officers
in her wardroom tshe is too small TO
carry her own paymaSter). and all OIL
them. except her chief, are rich. Her
captain two-and -a-half striper out
Of Annapolis, is the son OF an Iowa
banker: her executive onicer Ii Bal
timore mill-owncr; her navigator owns
railroad in Colorado mat 10 thir'y
any other railroad; one OF her watch
officers owns half the Borden Mills In
FAN River. and her doctor married q
mii!ionaircs daughter at the Univer-
SHY OF Pennsylvania. AS Tor the chiei.
nc has railroadeu in California, black
birded in Madasascar. prospeGted IN
out OF Malta and pokcd hand into
the Boxer fuss in Peking in 1900. And
ne has come out OF II with nothins
knowledge of the hows, the why's ana
the whereforea
For a bos'n she has a stxty-year- old
youugster who was seaman On deck
when Winslow WAS an ensign he
sta rted on the old Constellation OK any
body remembers the old American
frigate Constellation nowadaysl. and he
abandoned a photographers business
in New York to como back TO the navy
last year, although his i've boys an
stampeded TO get into the army. Her
tosn's mate is a newspaper artist. to
whom the New York World stills mails
weekly check. Her chief woman was
mil. her cook owns resort hotel up
the Hudson: her second-class quarter
master was a diamond cutter. who is
new ships barber; her machinist s
mate. nrst class. was Yale graduate:
her signalInan was Bieeker street
a Methodist preacher: Her deck crowd
had come to sea with the hrm convic.
ton that yard was place TO feed
chickens and chop wood. and heT navi-
any sailor work. But after a few
months at the base here they were all
rine That they were willing to build
one. II necessary, and tow 1t out ana
capture 1t.
NOTHING HAPPENED UNTIL
HER LAST CONVOY TRIP
She has been here for six months.
and nothing happened until her last
convoy trip. Four weeks ago she left
the base with convoy for certain
franc Is worth II cents and a hotel
room costs lire. She came pack two
weeks ago with the story Of her first
submarine. And did she come through
the breakwater with the buGler play
ing Here Comes Tootsy" on her
bridge?
She had had some preliminary furry
with her outbound convoy. She went
TO general quarters at 10 a. NJ, two
days out. for floating bedstead. She
found herself in the midst OF acres Of
hips furniture. broken booms and even
torn letters out of sailors lockers. For
an hour periscopes raced past her like
telegraph poles past an all-Puilman
train. Finally she picked up feather,
let drive with both forward guns at
1000 yards and lifted a lifeboat out
If the water with an old shoe and
a nickel ring in II. And to wind up.
French dirigible hove into sight and
irooped a bomb on whale.
Whoops, says her wardroom when
.hey tell about II.
After that. she led the life which a