Evening star., 1920-01-04

the assembled Germans burst into
song.
But what was the explanation Of
this strange proceeding? The Ger
man officers, at first rather stiff and
sullen. ultimately unbent enough to
tell their story. Their submarine had
been hanging off the entrance to
Queenstown for nearly two days,
waiting for this particular convoy to
emerge. The officers admitted that
they We're getting ready to torpedo
the "eIshman, when the discovery
that the flaming was only a short
distance away compelled sudden
change in their plans. Few "ash
cans dropped in the course of the
war reached their objective with the
: unerring. accuracy Of the one which
new came from this American de-
.sfroyer. tIfsdif not crush the subma-
i e frine but thenconcussion wrecked the
motors, making it impossible for it to
navigate, jammed its diving rudders.
making the boat uncomfortable under
the water. and broke the oil leads.
Practically shutting off the supply of
this indispensable fuel. Indeed IT
would be impossible to conceive of a
submarine in more helpless and un.
manageable state
Inc otncers had the option of two
alternatives; to sink until the pres-
sure OF the water crushed the boat
IKE so much paper, or to blow the
Daiiast tanks rise to the surface and
surrender. Even while the COM
mander was mentally debating this
problem, the submarine was RAPIDLY
descending to the bottom; when it
reached depth of 200 feet, which
was about all that it could stand. the
commander decided to take his
chances with the Americans. Rising
TO the top involved great dangers:
but the guns Of the destroyers seemed
less formida BILE to these cOrnered Ger
mans than the certainty of the hor-
rible death that awaited them under
the waves.
Admiral Rayly came to meet the Fam
ming as she sailed into Queenstown with
her unexpected cargo He went OH
board the destroyer to congra tulate per-
sonaly the officers and men upon their
achievement. He published to the as
sembled company cablegram just re-
ceived from the admiralty in London.
Express to commanding officers and
men OF the United States ship, Fa ming
their lordshps' high appreciation. OF
their successful action against enemy
submarine,
81 added a teleyrap of my own, enaiyryrs
up with the words. which seemed to
amuse the officers and men, Go out
and do it again"
For this action the commanding officer
OF the Tanning, Lieutenant Com
mander Carpenter, was recommended
by the admiralty for the d. S. O.,
which was subsequently conferred
upon him by the king at Buckingham
Palace.
Only one duty remained; {t,> COM
manding officer read the burial servics
over the body of Franz Climber, the Ger
man sailor who had been drowned in
ms attempt to swim to the Tanning.
The flaming then steamed out to sea
with the body and buried it with all the
honors of war. A letter subsequently
written by kaptan Amberger to a
friend in Germany summed up his opin-
ion to the situation in these words:
The Americans were much nicer and
more oblsing than expected"
SO FAR as conveying merchant ships
was concerned Queenstown was the
largest American base; by the time the
movement of troops laid heavy burdens
on the American destroyers Brest be-
came a headquarters almost equally inn
portant Brest would have been a bet
ter base from a strategic standpoint, but
we were prevented from using it be-
cause that city lacked repair facilities,
docks. and particularly fuel storage
equipment, AS rapidly as possible fuel
storage tanks were brought from tho
United states, and we remeded the re-
pair situation by sending repair ships
The Queenstown destroyers which
brought in our. troops to the French
coast had to stand ven TO tire4i sot,th-. 3 3
ward and westward and, after; safely
escorting their vessels to French port,-,
they were obliged to return to Qneens-
town. As soou as Brest could he used
as base, this Ieiurn leg to Queenstowp
was saN ID.
In July 1917. the British gov ern-