The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1918-06-14
Survivors osof Torpedoed
Transport Reach U. S.
Il With Thrilling Stories
NORTHUMBERLAND
TOtPROVE EXPLOIT
Wanted to Get. the Captain of Ship
Z But Failed to Find Him When .
Search of the Rats Was Made-Res
cued by Destroyer.


NEW YORK, June 1.-THE New
York World obtained from one of the
survivors of the troop transport Presi-
dent Lincoln on its arrival at an Ameri-
can port, the first detailed account of
the torpedoing of the vessel, 500 miles
west of Ireland, when homeward bound
on the morning of May 81 In narrative
form it follows:
We had just finished breakfast
when the alarm sounded. There was
scramble for the deck, but before
any one had reached the stairs the first
torpedo had struck the vessel well for
ward. Almost instantly, it seemed, two
more torpedoes crashed into the Lin
coin, one, forward and the other
well aft. Exactly Is minutes later the
President Lincoln had disappeared I'M
der the water.
During the Is minutes that elapsed
before she sank the lifeboats and RATS
| had been launched without. the slight
est confusion. Every man but five,
who had been working in forward
compartment, including the boiler tend
ers and stokers, had got off. The %
| men lost-there wasn't woman on
board, foftunately---must have been
dragged down in the swirl of water that
| accompanied the Lincoln Is final dive.
| No one sighted the submarine I'M
til after the ship sank. The men at the
guns stuck until the water was awash
| their deck and kept their guns popping
| away in the direction from which the
! torpedoes came. But though only about
| half mile away when she disgorged
the torpedoes, the submarine couldn t be
| located
She appeared soon ,enongh-within
less than half an hour after we had
taken to the boats. She cireled about
the lifeboats and RATS several times
| then drew near
| Her commander, who spoke Eng
lish, asked for, the Lincoln s. Command
l'er.aas He-sreeeived no. response. Then
he asked for the lieutenant commander
with the same result. Finally boat
containing several enlisted men was
told to heave to- One of the Lincoln 5
sailors was lofted aboard the U-boat
taken below, and after. having been
treated to a eupso steaming coffee and
n nip of brandy, was questioned at
some length. But they didn t get much
out of him. He was returned to one of
the boats.
/ .'iAgain the U-boat i commander
searched for tho Commander or Lieu.
tenant Commander of the President
Lincoln. Failing to locate them, for
most of the officers were without their
caps or TUNES, the Z boat captain an
nonnced he wanted an officer but that
1 he would have to be either a Lieutenant
or of higher rank. Finally he selected
Lieut.. lsaaes and made him a prisoner
In the meantime members of the
I boat crew, armed with cameras. were
Swapping pictures of the survivors in
the lifeboats and on the RATS. These
pictures and Lieut.. Isaacs, l presume
We're the evidence to be taken back to
Germany of their having torpedoed the
Lincoln. Isaaes is probably a prison
er in Germany by this time
''We were in the lifeboats about
eleven hours. AS the Lincoln was sink.
ing we wirelessed for help. but no one
knew If our distress cali had been
picked up. But it had. The United
States destroyers reached us at abon,
Ii o o'clock that evening, took us aboard
and we were subsequently landed at a
French port.
On the deck of the Lincoln were
three empty collins. When she sank
these fioated on the waters surface
| An officer, nearly exhausted, saved him
self from drowning by riding on one
of these until one of the boats reached
him. Practically none of the officers o,
crew saved any personal belongings
One negro cabin boy, fearful of being
taken prisoner by the Germans commit