Jackson County journal. (Sylva, N.C.) 19??-19??, 1919-01-10
with oeing a quanermastes could


bridge and told me to take the wheel. L
What their idea was l do not know. f
Possibly they wanted noncombatant /
at the wheel in case they were over '
hauled by a neutral vessel. We were
going full speed at the time, but as S
soon as / took the wheel she cut down
to half speed, and stayed that way for '
half an hour. Then up to full speed :
again.
Pretty soon there was tramp
steamer on the starboard bow, and al
most before saw it, there were two
more SentrieS On each side of me,
prodding me with their revolvers and
warning me to keep on the course.
They had civilian clothes on.
Then we went through the Skager
Rack and Cattegat, which are narrow
strips of water leading to the Baltic,
and we were only a mile from shore
with vessels all about us. It would
have been an easy thing for me to
| signal what our ship was and who
were aboard, but they had six sentries
on my neck all the time to keep me
from it. / never wanted to do any
thing worse in my life than jump |
overheard or signal. But I would |
have been shot down before 1 had
more than started to do either, so l
just stayed with the wheel
We were nearing one of the Dan
ish islands in the Baltic when we
sighted tug. She began to smoke
up and blow her siren. The sailors got
very excited and ran around in crazy
style, and Badewitz began shouting
more orders than they could get away
with. The sentries left me and ran
with the rest of the Fritzies to the
boat deck and started to lower one Of
; the lifeboats. But Badewitz was right
on their heels and kicked the whole
bunch around in great shape, roaring
like a bull all the time.
I left the wheel and ran to the end
: Of the bridge, to jump overheard. But
: the minute l let go of the wheel the
: vessel fell off of the course, and they
: noticed it, and Badewi$z sent five of
: them up on the bridge and three
: others to the side with their revolvers
: to shoot me if | should reach the wa
: ter. l think if l had had any rope to
: lash the wheel with l could have got
: away and they would not have known
it.
, When the five sailors reached the
= bridge one of them jumped for the
! cord and gave our siren five long
;, blasts in answer to the tug. The tug
= was about to launch a torpedo, ant
we whistled just in time. One Of oul
men was looking from the fiddley, an(
he saw the Huns making for the life
boats, SO he got two or three Others
9 and they all yelled together, Don
y let them get away" thinking tina
=. they would get the boat over ant
=, ~ leave the ship, and trying to yell 1ou'
~ enough for the tug to hear them
= Badewitz took this man and two o
y. three others, whether they were tn
20 OAes who yelled or not, and beat then
:, :, up and put them in irons. I though
:. there was going to be mutin
~ aboard, but it did not come off, an
90 am not sure what the Huns were S
- excited about.
The other four sailors who came u
~, on the bridge did not touch me, bU
- just kept me covered with their RI
=. volvers. That was the way with the1
~ they would not touch us unles
10 Badewitz was there or they had bay'
~ nets. The old bull himself came u
oh on the bridge after he had beaten u
~ a few men, threw me around quite
bit and kicked me down from til
~, bridge and slammed me into the co;
"a bunkers. l felt pretty sore, as yo
no can imagine, and disappointed ar
nd pretty low generally.
Of After while we heard the ancht
nd chains rafting through on their ws
If to get wet, and we pulled up. The
Md every German ship in the Baltic can
orc up to look us over, I guess. TIL,
md opened up the hatch covers, and Il
60 Hun garbies and gold-stripes can
arv aboard and looked down at us, al
spit all they could on US, and call
ro+ us all the different kinds of swine
bot creation. They had them lined
,od and filing past the Interchangeable
them giving us the once over in tul
Maybe they sold tickets for this she
81 it would be like the Huns.
81 At first we We're milling around tt
Fl ing to get out from under the hat
openings and the shower of spit, b
some Limey officer sang out, OBJ
ishers all Don't give way' and
4 stood still and let them spit tn
hH damned German lungs out before
ILIIA would move for them, and some c.
IHAi nishmen began singing their so
NI0l about Trelawney. So we made {
llTl that we did not know such a thing
YUM a German ever lived.
sAS| We got better acquainted with G
y( man splitting later on, and believe I
IN they are great little spitters, not mt
M on distance or accuracy, but quick
I'm action and we'll supplied with ann
s6 milton. Splitting on prisoners is
mi | favOrite indoor and outdoor snort