THE POLITE BUCCANEER

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2418, 25 March 1915, Page 6

THE POLITE BUCCANEER

SINKING OF THE BEN CRUACHAN (From tho "Daily Mail.") Early one morning a group of British sailors, each man carrying a bundle of clothing, arrived at the little windswept port of Fleetwood. They had belonged to two steamships—the Ben Cruacban and the Linda Blanche—which when crossing the Irish Sea encountered tho German submarine U 21, and were both Sent to tho bottom. The Ben Cruachan, which was the first to meet the submarine, was a vessel of about 3000 tons, belonging to South Shields. The meeting with submarine U 21 was sudden and dramatic. The quartermaster of the collier, a frcsh-complexioned young man named Inglis, gave me to-day a vivid description of what took place. The Raider "Spotted." "We were about 21 miles west by south of the Lune gas buoy when we 'spotted' the Gorman submarine. Thero was no mistaking who she was by the way she came after ns. Her periscope peeped through tile water, and a second inter she was alongside. A German officer appeared and in the best ]>ossible English called upon us io slop. There was nothing else, of course, for us to do. We were asked what we bad on heard. 'Coal,' cried the mate, a Liverpool man named Haggie, who was acting as captain " 'Very well,' replied the German, 'then I am afraid you must go up,' and he both looked and pointed skywards. "With two. officers the German commandant came on board the Ren C'niacl'an. 'J am sorry, gontlonien,' lie said, after, saluting, 'but war is war, von know, and you must, lie otT in t.lie boat within ton minutes. I'"rliaps vou will set together some of your things and also all the money ycu have and theu

got away. I regret it, but ten minutes is the most I can give you.' Ten Minutes to Co. "Out came the German watches and the enemy began ticking off the minutes. Down below rushed tho crew, twenty-one hands all told. Before the allotted ten minutes had expired one lifeboat was full and men wore stepping into tho other. "When all the crew had left the vessel a bomb with a long fuse attached was put on board. 'How away,' ordered the German commandant, and tho sailors lost no time in obeying the oricr. As they did so the whole of the crew of the submarine stood on the deck of their vessel and saluted. One German actually cheered. "A few seconds later the U2l was again submerged.' Five minutes afterwards we heard a terrific explosion, aud looking back saw the poor old ship going down. As near as I can say it would be about 10.30 a.m. when she blew up, or about twenty minutes after the submarine stopped us. After rowing for about four hours and a half wo were picked up by the. smack Margarot, from Fleetwood. It was a strange experience," ' added the quartermaster, "hut the politeness tho Germans showed us. was ..wonderful.- They seemed sports, whatever their real intentions may have been."