The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1919-02-13

Another story that was told,
which shows how bad the morale of
the German Navy had gotten, is that
one sub which all during the war had
been On strictly military duty-that
| is duty which did not involve the
sinking of merchant and passenger
steamers not to be included
in the ignominious surrender. The
officer in command is reported to
have requested the British admiral
to permit him to return to Germany
with his colors flying. To support
his request he stated that he had
fought and sunk three British cruis-
ers in a fair battle and that fire.
quently he had been in action with
British men-o'-war. The British ad-
miral granted the request; but when
the German officer returned to his
ship, his crew refused to return with
the ship to Germany, because they
would not receive the bounty, which
was paid by their government to
those who took their subs to Eng
land and turned them over to the
English! Can you imagine anything
worse than that? 1t surely was like
selling your country for a bit of
gold.
And now about the vessel on
which we took passage,
The U. S. S. Aphrodite.
The Aphrodite is a converted yacht
of about 1000 tons and is one of the
fleet of small vessels rented to the
government by wealthy Americans.
She is valued at $1,000,000 and is
rented by the estate of the late Col.
Payne to the navy for the magnifi-
cent rental Of 81 per year! She is
a palace indeed, and it is hard to
describe her. State rooms are gor-
geously fitted up, bath rooms all in
marble, real beds, wonderful tapes
tries hang in the dining salon, pia-
nos, etc., etc., without end. She Is
captained by Capt. Billiard of the
Coast Guard Service, who very cour-
teously turned\ his, cabin over to
Commander Child and myself, who
were the senior members of the COM
mission. Her executive officer and
second in command is Lieutenant
Vincent Astor, who himself has rent
ed his floating palace, the Naoma, to
the navy for dollar year.
The Trip Across the North Sea-
The first thing we learned on ar
irving on board was that there were
reported to be numerous mines float
ing in the North Sea and that the
trip across might be attended with
some danger. Sure enough when
less than two hours out from Har-
wich we passed several and stopped
enough to shoot at and sink one or
more. There were 50 many, howev-
er, that it caused such a great loss of
time, that we from then on content
ed ourselves with merely radioing
back where we had passed the mines.
The second night out we anchored
off The Hague, capital of the Neither
lands, and in the early morning had
a chance to see the picturesque viii
lagos that border on the Dutch coast.
OF course, being theoretically still in
a state of war with Germany, We
could not come closer and had we en-
tered closer in shore we should have
been liable to internment until
peace was signed,
The North Sea is, think, with the
possible single exception of the Chi
ma Sea, about the roughest body Of
water that it has ever been my mis-
fortune to traverse. It was simply
terrific and the little Aphrodite
bobbed around on it like cork. Sea
sick? I was never 80 i'll in my life;
but at least I disproved an old say
ing, which l know you have often
heard to the effect that one who is
sea sick ''at first thinks he is going
to die; and then fear that he WON'T" +"
Well, that is all bosh! And what
proved it to me was
A Mine.
At 1858 on the monring of Janu-
ary tenth, when the sea was at its
roughest and waves were continually
breaking over the ship, we struck
one of those dainty little missiles
called a mine. I was in bed, sick,
and had about decided that didn't
want any breakfast and was begin
ming to fear that 1 wouldn't die,
when I heard a scraping noise along
the keel of the ship. 1 didn't think
much about it; but a moment later
a terrific explosion threw me out Of
the bed and placed the cabin in dark
ness. 1t took only moment to saw