Western news and the Libby times. [volume] (Libby, Mont.) 1920-1933, 1929-07-18

cuiatihs. merciless Gree, and the wise
mariner gives her wide berth. Some
OF US Thought the berg was six thou
sand feet long while others thought
II much more than that We were SO
near II that we could hear the clat-
terile and squawking of the thou
SINUS or sea guls that swarmed
around the Ice mountain. In the wild.
heaVlng sea. the berg rolled like some
mammoth ship. There were cracking
sounds as the heavng Ice strained and
split Once. under the stress of the
movement. one whole vast corner
hroke off with q tremendous rending
ana tearing. The block. as big as q
skyseraner. crashed into the sea. and
before II could start off ON a cruise
OF It's own dashed 1t into the berg
with noise like thunder. and this
continued time and again as the par
ent berg drove Its husky offspring be-
| fore It.
Suddenly, there came an omnous
scraping sound. The Seeadler quiv-
cred, and our blood fairly froze. We
| mad grazed a submerged snaut Of Ice.
IN such sea, there would have been
| no chance to launch ifeboats. AL
! though we had not STAYED In our hull.
| nevertheless. the ship had sprung a
teak, 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 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.
"cuiser ahoyr'
saw through the storm twenty.
three-Iiousand ton auxiliary cruiser.
believe II WAS the Otranto, O 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 lis bottom side up. Storm ors
no storm, we were all dead men II
that cruiser ever caught US.
"set all sails"
We must risk II and run with nil
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 10 sen In
Windiamfners cnn imagine whar II Is
20 SET sail In a hurricane The can
yas whipped as though n devil had
taken hold Of 1t. The masts bent un.
der tlie force Of the wind ms IT blast.
ed against the sails Tie shin and It's
rigging creaked and grunned as though,
crying out against the sudden strain.
So. with the combined force Of the
gale and our one-thnusand-hnrse pow.
or motor. we scndded sunfhward. Sud.
denly. flooding ruin broke over lis.
providentlal squall II there ever was
snne. II was like gift of heaven. Ii
botted us out from the cruiser
Ut Is the hand of God" shouted
Our hour hasn't struck yet"
Under cover of fhe squall. we gor
away from there rs fast as we could
20. and after few hours we fell Ger.
tain we had given our pursuer the
slip. In reality, we had moi been pur.
sued al all. The cruiser hadn't even
seen US, and our lookout had been
sharper than hers. We learned this
from later reports. The lronicaI thing
now would nave been for US to have
impaled tile Slender on nn iceberg
In that mad sprint southwark. Bul
luck with us again. The storm blew
itself our.
Still, we were not out of the danger
zone. Days wen by before we were |
safely out Of that .bnsterous region |
and spreading our wings on the broad
expanse of the Pacific Cruisers were
still watching for us. andAwe had 10 |
Keep constant luokuni Our orch |
lem now was how to put them off the
scent i
The Seeadler carried twenty life
bouts and corresponding equipment
Of life preservers These were much
more than enough for our crew we |
had taken Ten Of them of captured
sliips To accommodate our prisoners In
case Of necessity. Now we threw all
these extra lifeboats ovegboard, tax.
ins care that on each boat and each
lie preserNer was painted Seeadler
Our hope was thai some of them
would be picked up. and that the re.
port would then he sent out TINT we
had gone down off tile Horn. Thai
was exactly what happened Two
days later we picked up d wireless.
II carried the news that coastguard
cutter had found one Of our little
BOATS. Later two more we're picked
up. Then three. All along the coast
II South America we we're now given
~ for lost. The cruisers abandoned
he chase and steamed north.
ITO BE CONTINUED
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