The Waterbury Democrat., 1941-09-10
Flag in FnII View

D "our flag was in the light of our f1oodlights and the light of a full moon. It was clearly visible and identifiable. It is our own belief that the plane was sent to attack the Steel Seafarer to prevent her reach- ing port. It accomplished that. It was in our belief a deliberate at- tack against the American flag"
 Chief Officer Pratt, brown-eyed, light-haired, bronzed, stocky, a seafaring type, told me:
 T was asleep when the attack be- gan but I didn't stay that way long. l could not be sure whether one or two bombs struck but to the best of my knowledge 1t was like this:
 "The plane came over. Its motors cut off. We had no warning of Its intention to attack. It glided in and down until 1t was only about l50 feet above our Inastheads. Then 1t let loose It's load.
 There was a terrific explosion. It seemed to raise the Seafarer about three feet out of the water. With one shoe and one slipper on, and nothing else, I ran for the bridge.
 In Complete Darkness
 "All the lights had gone. We were in complete darkness inside the ship except for flashlights. It could have been either bomb or torpedo which hit us. In view of the great column of water that went about 75 feet above us, 1t may have been a heavy caliber bomb which scored near miss and shattered the starboard side, destroying one of our oil fuel tanks.
 After reaching the island we learned that the explosion had been heard 10 miles away. There was no fire but the ship started to heel over at once and to settle.
 within five minutes we had every body cleared away. A few of us re- mained aboard to investigate the damage forward. The captain gave us the order to leave. We were only 200 feet or so away when the Sea- farer went down.
 we were definitely not in con. voy, although We had been with two other ships. We spent all night in heavy running sea attempting to mak land. At Il a. m. our boats ar- rived after Q mighty tough voy- age"
 Cartwright, who was at the wheel when the ship was hit, said:
 T heard @ whirring noise over- head and looked up just in time to see the roughly outlined form of a plane approaching from the star board bow. She raced aft and there was a crash.
 T don't know what kind of plane 1t was but, I'd like to get my hands on the -"
 Returned to Search
 Cartwright was ordered off with the first group but he returned to aid in searching the ship for any, one who might have been trapped below.
 Wireles soperator Abernethy said that he could not send an sos be- cause his wireless ransmitter had been knocked out. He aided in set- ting off emergency flares.
 Chief Engineer M. o. Dade told me:
 q was asleep when the torpedo hit but the explosion lifted me of my bed and I landed on the floor. Everything in the room was shat tered. I put on coveralls and went down to the engine rooms where with the third officer I shut of the engines.
 My place was not in the motor lifeboat but I saw they were unable to start the engine, which was giv- ing trouble, so fixed up the engine and boarded the boat as senior of- ficer.
 we headed for the island. where we were royalty received. The cap- tain flashed a signal from the island to a freighter which was passing by. It communicated with the Brit ish warship which came the next day and picked us up"