The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-05-05

covers OH. IAen JOln them together until you have. say, a dozen in line. Smear the interior with grease as thick as possible. Cover the walls with gages, pumps. little wheels and fill the centre spaces with machin- cry. In any odd corners place a few hunks.
 Then crawl in, eat in one of the little compartments, and sleep in another and all the while have some one violently rock the joined boxes.
 If you do this you will have a fair idea of the life led by the American crews which recently brought to America for the benefit of the Vict- ory Liberty Loan Campaign five ex- German submarines, during the days of their passage across the ocean.
 One of them will be exhibited in Bridgeport on May 10.
 Tine lives of the officers and men aboard the vessels of the regular navy are so many days spent in par adise compared with the days of the crews aboard the five ex-Hun pir- ates. The men of the regular navy can have baths whenever they want them. Aboard the submarine there is no such thing as a bath, Huns not usually caring much for bathing, as is the custom among savage tribes.
 So when the U 148 and the U SS got to Sandy Hook the other day ahead of the U c 97 and the U 117 officers made haste to land and go to Fort Hancock where with one ac- cord they demanded the bathtubs of the forts garrison.
 And I can tell you that that bath was the best of my life,'' said Lieut. enant-Commander Edward O'Keefe of U 14S in describing the voyage.
 The U Boats numbered five when they set out with the submarine tender Bushnell from Harwich, Eng land, the U Ill being the fifth. Each had a crew of approximately 27 men and three officers, all Lieutenant Commanders.
 The largest of the U Boats is the 117. She is 215 feet long with a beam of 22 feet and draws twelve feet and eight inches. She has a deep interest for America, as she is believed to be the U Boat which made a raid off the American coast, attacking with true Hun chivalry barge with woman and children aboard off the New England coast. She is & combined mine layer and cruiser having apparatus for laying mines and for dischargtng torpe- does.
 The others are 19O feet long with a beam of IS feet 10 inches and draw II feet and 4 inches of water when they are navigating on the surface.
 The little fleet was manned for the trip across by men detailed from other ships and not of necessity familiar with submarines. Hence 1t was decided to make the voyage on T., -P11 Snf mt fiNTn U Boats and the submarine tender Bushnell from Harwich, England, on April 8. They kept together and reached the Azores on April 10. They remained together until within three days of New York when the U c 97 cracked a piston and had no power as only one engine was run ming. The sea was high and rough but the U c 97 signalled to the Bushnell that she would make re- pairs. She. did so and no sooner were they completed and the boat able to proceed under her own pow CT than a storm developed. The crews had to fight the seas night and day and it took the most careful navigation and handling of the boats to carry them through. Their low lying decks were constantly un- der water and only the coming tow CT high above the decks was dry. There were only two days of the latter part of the voyage that the crews could be on deck.
 The U III and the U 117 reach ed port ahead of the others, having been separated during the storm. The U 14S and S8 followed, lying at Sandy Hook while the U 97 with the Bushnell passed into the port of 
 their way to the Brooklyn Navy Yard. The Ill left for New Eng land ahead of the arrival Of the others and so four U boats were there together when the U SS and 14S reached the Navy Yard.
 In England, at the present time is the U 140 which has been assign ed to the United States. She has no engines aboard and will not come to this country for some time. The other five were sent here at the re- quest of Secretary Glass for the pur- pose of the Victory Loan Campaign. They will, however, be exhibited in American ports long after the Vict- ory Loan Campaign closes.
 New York will be especially in terested in the U 14S as she is to be exhibited on this part of the sea board and along the Hudson river. The U SS goes to the Gulf of Mexi- co. up the Mississippi and finally to the Pacific Coast for exhibition pur- poses while the U 117 will visit southern ports. stopping at Philadel- phia on the way. The U c 97 will appear on the Great Lakes and visit all of the principal ports, spending considerable time in Chicago.
 Reporters who visited the former Hun pirates at the Brooklyn Navy Yard the other day did not envy the crews their voyage. There Is a typ ical submarine smell. It is a, mingl- ing of odors. Entrance to the craft is through matches of iron which are securely fastened in place when the boat submerges. So the smell is retained. It is made up of oil smells, the smells from the batteries the machinery, the electrical appar- atus, and the food which the crew get in a more or less canned shape. Practically the only cooking aboard a submarine is the heating of coffee. The typical submarine smell is hot hn 1a1I