The New York herald., 1922-08-06
"In the Midst of Life"

IN knc Ntfosk OF Lftc-
Although we had been stabbed To
death by an unseen enemy. yet we
had at all times prepared for this
and were always ready to battle with
the enemy under these circum-
stances. hoping that good fortune
might give US a chance for striking
an effective blow in return. even
though the odds were all against us.
The captain of the Warrington.
Lieutenant Commander George w.
Kenyon. L. S. N. then asked. How
many boats have you?' To my great
Joy I replied, "AH of them"
In speaking Of this afterward Ken
yon said that he had dreaded TO ask
this question. IS he feared that the
boats and RATS would be widely sepa-
rated and adrift on the ocean. making
ID difficult. il rot impossible. to find
all of them. Such would have been
the case had we not provided against
this by lashing the RATS together in
groups. and even then these groups
would have been widely scattered
hut for the hard work and deter
mination OF the men. under the en-
i couragement OF the officers. who la
bored hard at the oars all that day.
pulling the boats which were heavily
loaded with men. a great many OF
whom were weakened BY seasickness.
But these men stuck 10 the job and
/ shall never forget their loyalty and
willingness under these trying cir
eumstances.
The Warrington reported that the
destroyer Smith was also coming 10
our rescue ard she arrived about an
hour afrerward under the command
OF Lieutenant Commander ]. H
Klein. L. :. y
The transfer from the boats and
RATS to the destroyers was promptly
accomplished. the darkness causing
some difficulty. but this also served
as a protection against another al
tack from the submarine had he been
waiting for this purpose.
We had about four hundred and
fifty men on the Warrington and two
hundred and nifty on the smith. The
Warrington was quite crowded but
the hot food and cordial welcome we
found on those ships almost caused
US to forget our troubles. / particu-
larly remember two soldiers who
were totally paralyzed and who had
been tenderly cared for by our hos
pi al corpsmen. They were placed
i'm the officers beds and il was a
pleasure to see their smiles Of cheer
fulness and relief after the dangers
they had passed through.
A muster showed that We had lost
three officers and twentythree men.
Two OF the officers. Lieutenant Com
mander Whiteside (M c.. and Sc
nior doctor. and Lieutenant-C Com
mander Mowat (P c.. the senior
paymaster. were last seen on the af-
ter deck OF the ship and for some un-
explained reason failed TO escape
from the ship The other officer. En-
sign Johnson (P. c.. the junior pay
master. was on a raft near the ship
with another man but the raft was
drawn under the water when the
ship sank and although the man es-
capped Ensign Johnson lost his life
He had joined the ship just before
we sailed from New York on our last
trip and | learned afterward that hs
had made efforts to be assigned tC
sea duty on ship going through tho
war zone.
Seven of the men were at work In
the forward compartment just above
the place OF the explosion of the two
torpedoes and they were either killed
by the explosion or Immediately
drowned by the inrushing water. The
other men were on RATS in the vicin.
ity - the h0le made ~ The third