The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1920-01-04


one after another. into the sunshine
like ants crawling out OF their hole
As each sailor reached the deck he
Strengthened up. lsfted his arms and
ishouted:
4 kameFadi Kameradl Kameradi"
In all four officers and thirty-five
men went through this ceremony. Were
they really surrendering themselves
and their boat, or did these gymnastic
j German craftiness? The American
ships ceased firing; the Tanning gin
gerly approached the submarine. while
ttle Nicholson stood by, all its 4-inch
guns trained upon the German boat.
and the machine guns pointed at the
iIxamerading Germans, ready to shoot
, them into ribbons at the first sign
sthat the surrender was not a genuine
one.
The U-Rcat ScuttIed
/ While these preliminaries We're TAX
ing place, a couple of German sailors
disappeared into the interior of. the
submarine, stayed there a moment or
I two and then returned to the deck.
They had apparently performed duty
that was characteristicAlly Conan: for
a few minutes after they appeared
again the U-5S began to settle in the
water, and soon afterward sank These
men, obeying orders. had opened the
cocks and scuttledsthe ship-this after
the officers had surrendered her. AS
the submarine disappeared, the men
and officers dove and started swim
ming toward the Tanning; four of
them became entangled in the radio
antennae and were dragged under the
waves; however, in a few minutes
these men succeeded in discriminating
themselves and joined the swimmers.
As the thirty nine men neared the
Tanning it was evident that most of
them were almost exhausted. The sail
ors from the Tanning threw over lines:
some still had the strength to climb
up these TO the deck, while to others it
was necessary to throw other lines
which they could adjust under their
arms. These latter, limp and wet fig
ures, the American sailors pulled up.
much as the fisherman pulls up the
inert body of a monster fish. And
now an incident took place which re-
veals that the American navy has
rather different ideals of humanity
from the Germans, One of the sail
ors was so exhausted that he could not
adjust the life lines around his should
ers; he was very apparently drown
ing. Like a flash Elxer Harwell, chief
pharmacist mate, and Francis G. Con-
ner, coxswain. jumped overheard,
swan. to this fIoundering German and
adjusted the line around him as solicit
I teusly as though he had been a ship
mate. The poor wretch-his name was
Franz Glinder-was pulled aboard. but
he was so far gone that all attempts
to resuscitate him failed: and he died
on the deck of the Tanning.
j Kapitan Amberger, wet and drip
ping. Immediately walked up to Lieut..
I A &c. n e7.,v. 81
the Tanning. clicked his heels to
gether, saluted in the most ceremoni-
Gus German fashion, and surrendered
himself, his officers and his crew. He
/ also gave his parole for his men. The
officers were put in separate state
rooms under guard and each of the |
crew was placed under protection of
a well-arned American jacl1ie-who. 1t
may be assumed, immensely enjoyed
this new duty. All the survivors"
were dressed in dry, warm clothes, and
good food and drink was given them. /,
They were even supplied with cigar /,
cites and something which they val
ued more than all the deiicacies in the /
wor1d-soap for a washing, the first |
soap which they had had in months, |
for this was an article which was more
scarce in Germany than even copper or
rubber. Our physicians gave the men
first aid, and others attended to all
their minor wants. Evidently the fact
that they had been captured did not |
greatly depress their spirits, for after
eating and drinking to their hearts /
content. the assembled Germans burst
into song.
| But what was the explanation of
this strange proceeding? The German
officers, at first rather stiff and sui I
len, ultimately unbent enough to tell
their story. Their submarine had been
hanging off the entrance to Queens |
town for nearly two days, waiting for
this particular convoy to emerge. The |
officers admitted that they were get
ting ready to torpedo the Welchman, |
when the discovery that the Tanning
was only a short distance away COM
PEELED sudden change in their plans.
Few lash cans dropped in the course |
of the war reached their objective with !,
the unerring accuracy of the one which
now came from this American destroy
er. 1t dii not crush the submarine,
but the concussion wrecked the mo-
tors, making it impossible for It to
navigate jammed it's diving rudders, /
making the boat uncomfortable under
the water, and broke the oil leads,
practically shutting off the supply of
this fndispens fuel. Indeed. it
xVo1,ld be impossible to conceive of a |
s,1bn1arine in a more helpless and I'M
manageable state The officers had the
ontion Of two alternatives; to sink un-
iii the pressure of the water crushed
the boat, like so much paper, or to
blow the ballast tanks. rise to the sur
| face and surrender. Even while the
commander was mentally debating this
problem, the submarine was rapidly
descending to the bottom; when 1t
reached a depth of two hundred feet,
which was about all that it could