White Bluffs spokesman. [volume] (White Bluffs, Wash.) 1907-1938, 1929-08-09

81 - III **4*1***4F
COUNT LUCKNERE
: THE SEA DEVIL.
5 By LOWELL THOMAS /

BY LOWELL THOMAS


near II that we could hear the clat.
tering and squawking of the thou
sands of sea gulls that swarmed
around the Ice mountain. In the wild,
heaving sea, the berg rolled like some
mammoth ship. There were cracking
sounds as the heaving ice strained and
split. Once. under the stress Of the
movement, one whole vast corner
broke Off with tremendous rending
and tearing. The block. as big as
skyscraper, crashed into the sea-, and
before 1t could start off on cruise
Of its own dashed 1t into the berg
with a noise like thunder, and this
continued time and again as the par
ent berg drove it's husky offspring be-
fore 1t.
Suddenly, there came an ominous
scraping sound. The Seeadler quiv-
cred, and our blood fairly froze. We
had grazed submerged snout of ice.
In such sea, there would have been
no chance to launch lifeboats. AL
Though we had not STAYED in our hull,
nevertheless, the ship had sprung
leak. No matter who was captain.
Everybody to the pumps. took my
place with the sailors in the hold, and
we all fought to keep the water in
check. The brush with the ice was
a warning. We veered a bit more to
the north, and with pumps working
madly, passed the berg. The wind
wrenched us, the waves struck us
hard, but we kept on, beating our way
to the Pacific and pumping.
Cruiser ahoyl' ,,,sstslsslg
saw through the storm twenty.
three-thousand ton auxiliary cruiser. !
believe 1t was the Otranto, convert
ed passenger liner, fast and well
armed, capable of blowing us out of
the water before our little gun could
throw shell halfway to her.
lizard aport," shouted.
The ship shook as the helm was
forced over, and the wind nearly
turned us bottom side up. Storm or
no storm, we were all dead men II
that cruiser ever caught us.
"Set all Sails"
We must risk It and run with all
our canvas before the hurricane, and
perhaps, somehow, we knew not how,
In the shelter of the storm, we might
be lucky enough to evade the cruiser.
Only men who have been to sea In
windjammers can imagine what 1t is
to set sail In hurricane. The can
vas whipped as though devil had
taken hold of it. The masts bent un.
der the force Of the wind as 1t blast
ed against the sails. The ship and its
rigging creaked and groaned as though
crying out against the sudden strain
So, with the combined force of the
gale and our one-thousand-horse pow.
er motor, we scudled Southwark. Sud.
denly, flooding rain broke over us, a
providential squall II there ever was
one. II was like gift of heaven. II
blotted us out from the cruiser.
SIT is the hand of God" shouted.
Our hour hasn't struck yet"
Under cover of the squaIl, we go,
away from there as fast as, we could
go, and after few hours we felt Ger.
tain we had given our pursuer the
slip In reality, we had not been pur-
sued at all The cruiser hadn't even
seen u.s. and our lookout had been
sharper than hers. We learned this
from later reports. The ironical thing
now would have been for US to have
impaled the See;der on an iceberg
in that mad sprint southwark. But
luck with us again. The storm blew
itself out.
STILL we were not out OF the danger
zone. Days went by before we were
safely out of that bOisterous region
and spreading our wings ON the broad
expnnse of the Pacific. Cruisers were
still watching for us. and we had to
keep constant lookout. Our prob
lem now was how to put them off the
scent.
The Seeadler carried twenty life
boats and corresponding equipment
of life preservers These were much
f
more than enough for our crew. We
had taken ten of them off captured
ships to Accommodate our prisoners in
case Of necessity Now we threw all
these extra lifeboats overheard. tax.
ing care that on each boat and each
life presprver was painted Seeadler.
Our hope was that some OF them
would be picked up, and that the re-
port would then he sent out that we
had gone down off the Horn. That
was exactly what happened. Two
days later we picked up wireless.
1t Carried the news that cOastguard
cutter had found one of our little
boats. Later. two more were picked
up. Then three. All along the coast
of South America we were now given
up for lost. The cruisers abandoned
the chase and steamed north.
ITO BE CONT1NUED.)