New Britain herald., 1919-01-04
OLYMPIC VETERAN
DODGER Of U-BOATS
White Star Liner Has Had Thrill
Ling Experiences in War

London. Dee. ) CORRESPONDENCE Of
the Associated Press. )--Dodgiag Ger
man submarines IN ne Mediterranean
trying to save sinking Warships in the
north Atlantic, q I'd lighting off vicious
U-boat attacks While carrying Amer
lean troops are some of the achieve
ments credited to the White Star
liner Olympic during her adventurous
career OF the wartime. These were
only Incidents Of her experience. be-
cause. Oh account Of her great pas
Senger capacity, she was steadily and
faithfully keeping to the task Of
transporting men and material for the
armies in Europe. First it was Chi
nese coolies for road building, then
farmer boys from Canada to replace
the losses Of Vimy Ridge. AID finally
many thousands of Americans TO face
the German OH the western battle
'front.'.
Her work during, The C-a}lip poll
| campaign" writes a. member of the
crew to the Daily News. when she
carried about 5000 troops-at that
time the greatest number ever carried
by any ship--tollowilg upon her gal
liant attempt off the north OF Ireland
to tow the water logged dreadnoughv
Audacious, was sufficient to pat her in
the first rank Of Transports but her
subsequent work in bringing Cana
dian troops and Chinese labor hattaI-
ions, and then her wonderful career
since Christmas, 1917, when she ar
rived il New York for her first load
Of American troops must put her in
class by herself as trooper"
She has carried we'll over 100000
people while on war service.
1T would not ne correct 10 say that
through without y scratch. but her
scars are marks u honor. She bent
and fractured some Of her plates
when. in the darkness early one
morning she 'strafed' one Of Gel-
manN's finest C-boats.
The Olympic had most of her ad-
ventures while she was carrying A M
erican troops. During March. April
and May. 1918. the German subma-
rine commanders made at least seven
daring attacks on her. Not once did
the enemy have time to launch a to-
pedo. for il every case he was greet
ed by q 6-inch shell or one Of the
destrOEers was ON his track With her
depth charges. Perhaps some vf
Germany's missing submarines are
now lying below the track c.f the
Olympic.
which the olympic had took place in
the dark less of early morning of May,
1918, near the entrance to the Ems
fish channel. It was just about
O'Clock when the lookout man picked
out OF the almost total darkness the
outline of q lurking su bmari1e which
was lying on the surface Immediate
ly after his warning shout one of oU
forward guns blazed out. and the
ship. with her helm hard over spun
around like a great racing yacht and
crashed into the enemy.
THE blow was, of course. not
clean one, or there would have been
few survivors from the submarine.
Judging from the damage on thD
bows of the ship when dry locked Il
few days later the blow cut off ,..o
end of the submarine. The rest drift
ed past the stern Of the Olympic. ana
one Of the gun crews or Tire poop
planted q 6-inch shell sQuare1y INTO
it. One of the destrOyers in the ea~
cOrt dropped behind, and by the light
of star shells picked up 81 SurViN-
OTIS, three Of whom died on the WY
to port. The total crew Of the sub
marine was over 60"