The Mellette County pioneer. [volume] (Wood, Mellette County, S.D.) 19??-1971, 1919-03-14
Awarded the Distinguished Serv-
ice Medal by President
Wilson.
SAVES 600 YANk SOLDIERS
Goes to Assistance Of Transport
Otranto When She Was Sunk in
Collision OFF Irish Coast With
American Troops on
Board.
BY G. w. BARRETT.
Editor Birmingham Age Herald.

3tk
If ever a man were entitled to the
distinguished service medal, 1t was
that young British lieutenant, Fran
els w. Craven Of the destroyer Noun
Sey.
A dispatch from London announced
that President Wilson had awarded
him this medal and that Maj. Gen. Bid
die, commander of the American
forces in the United Kingdom, had
presented it TO him.
The medal was awarded, in the
words of the London cable, "to Lieut..
Francis w. Craven, who commanded
the British destroyer Mounsey, which
saved 600 American soldiers from the
British transport OtrantO, when she
was sunk in Il collision off the Irish
coast on Oct. 6, 1913, with the loss
of 357 American soldiers"
Though the British government con-
ferred no honor upon Lieut.. Craven for
his work, because it was not an act
Of valor in war combat, no man in any
navy ever showed more courage nor
demonstrated more perfect seaman
ship than did Lieut.. Craven on this
occasion.
The full story is worth telling, now
that the censorship Is off and no FUR
Their obligation rests upon the news
paper man who was i'm the ofling, so
to speak, when this horror Of the sea
occurred.
Flagship Of Convoy.
The Otranto, which went down, vas
the flagship Of ii convoy of fourteen
troop laden, influenza infected ships
which sailed from New York on Sept.
20 last. She was a Br,tish-Australian
liner, with something like Il thousand
American soldier boys aboard. On her
plague infected refrigerator freighter
with limited and dirty passenger ac-
commodatiOns, eighteen hundred sol
der boys, the writer and about fifty
other passengers were crowded to-
gether like cattle.
We were accompanied from New
York by a battleship, a cruiser and a
destroyer. The route was to be around
the north of Ireland and down the
Irish channel TO Liverpool. All sorts
of hard luck hit the convoy and par
ticularly the OtrantO. She first ran
into a fishing fleet and cut down two
boats, but saved the crews. In doing
so she fell behind, but caught up
when we ran into a fearful storm and
| continued battling against it for sew
eral days.
Scattered In Storm.
Before reaching British waters
north of Ireland, the American naval
vessels turned back or were scattered
I'm the storm. Our old ship was strug-
| Cling and our captain was begging in
wireless messages to Capt. Davidson
of the OtrantO for more sea room.
He feared going on the rocky shores
of North Ireland. Capt. Davidson
made no answer to repeated calls.
Then our wireless went down, our
boats were crushed, the smoking room
doors and ports We're smashed in, the
goI!cys, dining saloon and many state
rooms were flooded. Only cold foods
were o%btainable. To make matters
worse, 400 soldier boys were down
with pneumonia. They were dying
like cattle in the public rooms and
on mattresses strewn about wherever
there was enclosed room. Medicines
were exhausted, and dead and dying
were all about.
In the meantime every ship put
about to save it's own, heading into
the storm. The Otranto and other
| ships not needing eur captains warn
ings were almost upon The rocks of
Ireland. A veritable hurricane was
blowing. Waves broke entirely Owe
the ships.
The Otranto, in trying to get out Of
its predicament, turned across the