The evening leader., 1918-10-29
Destroyers Appear as Shell Falls
but Ten Feet Off
Stern.
HAS HUGE CARGO OF DEATH
freishter Develops Engine Trouble
and Falls Behind convoy-sub-
marine 6obs Up and BEGINS
Hurting Shells.
BY FRAZIER HUNT
I'm the Chicago Tribune.) J

AL Aineficdn naval Base in France
"A lad from the q. S. s. DESTROYER
o52 had just finished narrating how
close they had come to getting a suh.
marine on the last trip when thew had
brought in big convoy of troopers.
Some boat she is," he remarked
offhand. "We did seven Thousand
Knots last month and in three sub
nights. Say, what was those FUNNY
steel drums you had piled on the deck
OF your old cargo ship when you come
in yesterday?"
A lad from the Atlantic freight ferry
boat turned to the destroyer COB.
Those steel drums you asked about
didn't have nothing at all in them ex-
cept about million gallons of the
most dangerous poison gas ever made.
Can you imagine what would happen
IL torpedo or even shell had hit
one of those tanks?"
This ship, which we shall call the
Torrance, left New York as part of a
convoy Of 15 stores ships.
Cargo Of Death.
On this trip it was carrying several
thousand steel drums of poison gas
that the army needed badly. 1t was
q dangerous cargo. Any explosion on
board would tear open these drums of
concentrated gas and in ten seconds
choke the crew to death. The only
hope would be to use respirators, so
hundred gas masks were borrowed
from the army and the executive Off
Ger of the ship called all hands for in
structions three times day.
The first ten days of the trip were
uneventful. Then the Terrance's en-
gines began acting badly. 1t could not
make the required ten knots and slow
ly it fell behind. There were not suffi-
cient conveying destroyers to have one
remain behind, so all that stood be-
tween the Terrance's drums of death
and German submarine was the fore
and aft guns.
2 Finally, at six o'clock one evening,
the gas mask drill just had ended
when the lookout in the crows nest
shouted down that submarine was
coming to the surface on the port side,
some 5000 yards astern. And here was
the Torrance with crippled engines
hobbling along six or seven knots an
hour, with the convoy 20 miles ahead.
"Open fire with the stern gun. Call
general quarters. Send S. 0. S. to the
convoy. Send word to the chief en-
gineer," were four orders the skipper
on the bridge gave first.
Through his binoculars he could see
the submarine coming to the surface.
Even now the Terrance's stern gun
was peppering away shots, but falling
short of the mark by 1,500 yards.
In half a minute more the subma-
rine's coming tower opened and men
crawled out and uncovered the subma-
rine's two guns. In another minute the
first shell came whining toward the
Torrance. 1t. too, fell away short.
Call for Help.
In the radio room the operator was
pounding out the call for help, and
now came the answer that the destroy
ers were coming to aid. Down below
the whole engine force was working
madly. Suddenly miracle happened
and the starboard engines began sup
plying power to the propeller. From
a bare seven knots the ship jumped
to ten-then eleven, twelve.
Meantime on the bridge the officers
with gas masks strapped at alert po-
sition were getting the thrill of their
whole life as the old boat picked up
speed. Sub shells now were falling
within 300 yards Of the ship.
With the Terrance's new speed the
sub gained slowly. but the skipper
and officers knew its guns would out
range their own and soon find a mark.
1t was a great race with life or death
for the goal.
Then from the edge of the world
came the smoke of destroyers shoot
ing ahead like flaming arrows. Thirty
knots and more they were making. In
another minute they could trace their
outline. But the sub was nearing, too.
One shell broke less than thirty yards
away.
Seconds seemed like hours, but each
brought the rescuing destrOyers near
or. They were heading straight for
the sub, and no sub cares for that.
There was one more shot. then the
gunners ran to the coming tower and
climbed inside Two minutes later
she submerged. Their last shot hit
within ten feet Of the Terrance's stern.
isA8
CHAsES KAISER IN SLEEP