The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-09-01
ALMOST MET FATE
OF CAPTAIN FRYATT
Skipper Blaikie Of the Column
bia Rammed Submarine
Which Sank Caledonia.
PRISONER FOR 8 YEARS
Stewards, Comrades in Battle
and Hospital, Meet Again
on Vessel.


piled between New York and Glasgow
prior to the war. arrived yesterday with
203 military and sos civilian saloon pas
sengers. She brought also 400 in the
second cabin. The other Anchor Line
steamships all were lost during the war
Capt James Blaikie. present commander
of the Columbia, spent nearly three years
in German prison camps and narrowly
escaped the fate OF Capt Fryatt for
having rammed the submarine which
sank his ship in the Mediterranean.
Capt. Blails{e was In command of the
Caledonia, another Anchor liner. and
had landed 1900 troops at Salonica,
when he was attacked by a submarine
100 miles east of Malta, on December
4, 1916.
II hhd two ways to co." he said yes
terday in telling the story; either to
run the submarine down or to turn and
run for safety. To run meant turning
the Caledonia broadside to the sub
marine and getting torpedo. SO Il de-
cided to run the U-boat down.
THE German captain maneuvred to
get chance to put a torpedo into us,
and 1 tried to keep the ship bow on to
the submarine and avoid a torpedo until
we could run over him. He took a
chance. came up, and fired a torpedo.
That skipper had the luck of Monaghan
hoopah. and although the torpedo did not
strike until it had SKINNED past half
the length of the Caledonia. 1t finally
went Off. They are not supposed to ex-
plode unless they are fireA at an angle
of less than twenty-five degrees. The
only reason, besides Chinaman's luck,
| that the thing did go off was that 1t
had been fired at such short range that
1t had not attained full speed and was
still twisting slightly before settling
down on its course.
But Up He Came Again.
Before the German could submerge
or dodge we ran over him, smashing his
periscope fiat on the deck and bending
the bow OF the submarine around to
one side. Down the sub went, and by
all the rules 1t ought to have stayed
down. but his Mongolian luck was still
with that skipper. He finally came up
and was picked out of the lifeboat and
made a prisoner. The German COM
mander told me he had been submerged
/ for fifty-four minutes before he could
rise and he thought he was done for.
| His compressed air and electric pumps
both failed him and he reached the sur
! face by means of his hand pumps. Just
| as he reached the surface the remaining
compressed air escaped and IL that had
happened nVe SECONDS sooner ne WOulu
have been sunk for keeps.
HE made for Cattaro. keeping on the
, surface all the time. as the submarine
leaked badly. and 1t took two and a half
days to reach the port. There i was
held IN n depot ship for five days. at
first in solitary confinement, and then
| was confined successfully at Cattaro.
at Mainz, at Frieburg and at Swidnitz,
/ in Silesia. The last camp in which I
I H. n. 49, a
worst For the most part man could
tolerate the others, though the Germans
never failed to inflict petty punishments
at every opportunity and half starved
us most of the time. But last Christmas
Day at home with my three girls and
two boys almost paid UP for 1t all and
I'm feeling all right now"
Banker Long in Captivity.
| Among the Canadian officers on board
was Capt. Louis Wells of the Bank OF
| Commerce, Regina, who went over In
1915 with the Fourth Canadian Mounted
Rifles. In June, 1916, he was wounded
and captured when the Germans wiped
out the troops he was with by means OF
an intense artillery fire and taken to
Frieburg. where he met Capt Blake
who arrived six months later. Capt
Wells was transferred later to Calstaul
and when he went aboard the Columbia
at Glasgow he saw the Anchor Line
skipper again for the first time since
they parted in the German prison camp
Among the first cabin stewards were
Sergeant Robert Rankin and Private
Lashlan McDougal, formerly of the
Seaforth Highlanders, who were pal.
when they served as stewards on thu
Columbia before the war. They re-
manned with the ship three months after
49,
cruiser and then enlisted in the hope Of
seeing more action. and fought side b,
side until April 9, 1917, at Vimy Ridge
where McDougal was struck by an eN
plosive bullet Rankin picked up hi,
comrade and carried him 500 yards t
a dressing station and then helped hin
to a field hospital. For this act Of gal
lantry he was awarded the Military
Medal.
Wounded a Second Time.
Ra ,l:In was gassed September 20 o.
'hat year and fin lily rve,tled TO Cam
berwcI Hospital in London. where h,
found McDougal again. patty r.
c1vec'd from his wound and acting NJ
an orderly. McDouGal obtained permits
sion to look after RanGin ana the ATTIC
recovered and went back to the front
while McDougal was discharged from
the army. Meanwhile Rankin had heel
wounded a second time and passed from
one hospital 20 another for year befor,
he too was DISCHARGED. Three week
ago the two men met again at til,
lAnchor Line Office in Glasgow, wher
they had gone each with the flea o
rejoining his old ship.
steerage passenger Mrs. Mar,
Campbell of Greenock. Scotland, jumoe,
overheard when the Columbia was tn,
days out and was lost. She had beer
acting strangely and is believed TO hav
been mentally deranGed. Mrs. Campbell
was on her way TO meet her husband
an engineer officer of the Naval Re
serve serving on board one of tn,
, United Fruit liners. and was accom-
panied by her three sons, Donald. /
years old: John. IL. and James. s
Friends looked after the boys and SAT
they would see that they reached thef
father. who had given them his address
as 96 Grace street, Jersey City. TIL
two younger boys were not told of thei
mothers death. being content with tn
explanation that she had been taken Il
and was in the ships hospital
ITALY TO SEND TRADE
MISSION TO THE u. S
Ck..J., LD:U D.. MI. II