The Chickasha daily express. (Chickasha, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1899-current, 1919-01-18

| WHeH lne GeTlldH navy qult NOiu'
sneaked in between two lines of the
Grand fleet at Firth of Forth on No
vember q and surrendered, winding
up the greatest spectacle of the
kind in history, o. Vaughn, Phi. MI
U. S. n, son of Mr.. and Mrs. J.
G. Vaughn, 627 Dakota avenue, of
this city, was aboard the U. S. S.
Florida getting his eyes full
He is here now on a short fur
Tough and will return to his ship
soon. He enlisted just before the
declaration Of war by America and
has seen service with the Atlantic
fleet in foreign waters through the
entire scrap.
ut was a sight that you simply
can't describe" he said in speak
ing of the surrender. "The North
sea is usually rough but that morn
ing must have been made for such a
spectacle. There was not cloud
in the sky and the sea was smooth.
We got under way about 3 o'clock
on the morning of November Il and
sailed out to meet the Germans.
The American ships formed the
third squadron in the line. In our
squadron were the New York, the
Texas, Wyoming, the Arkansas and
the Florida.
We sailed out about 6S miles and
sighted the Hun fleet at OLA. Three
dirigibles had sailed over the Ger
man squadron for observation pur-
poses. Our commanders were in
constant touch with the airships by
wireless. The purpose of this was
to learn whether the Germans fig
chance and they knew it. In our
lirigibles had reported that the Ger
mans were manning and training
their guns-well, they wouldn't have
lasted Is minutes. They didn't have
chance and they knew it. $n our
fleet every gun station was manned.
We were not permitted to load, but
we had our ammunition up and
could have been firing in less than
half minute.
"The two lines of the grand fleet
sailed out far apart, but as we met
The Germans both lines swung in
and came alongside the Huns. We
were perhaps a mile and a quarter
from the line of German ships as we
steamed back to port. There were
all kinds of dirigibles and seaplanes |
flying overhead all the way in. We !
landed back in port at Hal Ad |
miral Beatty seemed to think that |
The Germans would fight, so he or
dered all stations manned. When it |
was seen that the Germans were not |
going to fight, we were allowed to
leave our stations, and you talk |
about cheering! Every tar on the |
job cut loose with his leather lungs |
and to this was added the cheering
from the thousands as we came into
port.
about two hours after we made |
port, some of us went over to the |
German ship Derfflinger to have a
look. We saw a detected bunch of
sailors. They hated to surrender, but
believe me they would have hated it |
a whole lot more if they mad to
fight. They impressed me as being |
ashamed of surrendering, but glad |
that it was all over The old Derf |
Finger was in a dilapidated state. |
She looked like she had not been |
painted for a couple of years, and |
she appeared to me to have been |
stripped of every available part.
believe they used everything they
could off these battle cruisers to /
make submarines.
Before the armistice was signed
we were kept mighty busy convoy
ing shipping. One morning, off the |
coast of Norway we had released a
convey and were looking at the
coast through glasses. The first /
thing l knew, we were right in a
nest of submarines. One of them cut /
loose a couple of torpedoes at the |
Florida. The only thing that saved !