ON THE ARABIC

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2587, 8 October 1915, Page 6

ON THE ARABIC

WEHJNGTONIAN'S NARROW ESCAPE -FROMM PIRATES A DRAMATIC NARRATIVE :' •( 'Among'tlio arrivals from England,'via .■:-iUSDnetito l '■lng^.waSjiMr.isAubrey. a pas'Seiiger oil "the trans- ' 'Arabic/when'she,was, 'torpedoed'bj a t ■■■■■■■■. German -submarmo when, steammgwcst v . vJvloag'. t'heiisoutTi 'coast ofvilroland -; on •: VAugustll9. !Mr..Gualter tells artbniluig; •6 torj' t Lot it 1 " appear 'in Mordo ''Wo. loft : Liverpool i on Wednesday, ,'August 18, and made a !?ood run donn ■a • tho Irish Sea. The talk, among -tho ; was naturally of siibmari:iß9, vislis steamers ran in travers- : '. jng: the Homo waters,"but noone con-. • .' tr.mplated a tiagody such as tiieywere ' ■ (to experience'.the next day.>l had just como from the breakfast table, - friend askod mo to go up on deck. Wo • woro then off the South .Coast of -Ire- • ■.. landj near "the 1 spot where ;/Jie, Lusii :-.-tania was-sunk,, and ffliat.-vessel's fate . ■was in our minds. Looking-ahead,, wo saw what appeared to. bo a doreaot vesr sel, well down at tho stern i . This proved ' :to bo .the . steamer D mislay, in her irL death;throes—the half-finished work of : Gorman, submarine. - Wo steamed in . vlier direction, andi saw. well aivav from : . -lier -two:, boats, ?obviously those, of the : Dnnsley, which were making for the land Disaster Anticipated. »-,■ '"The moment Isaw tne Dunsley I said .- to my friend; iThat submarine is still . f. .'i there; and wo'ro- in for it!' I. took 1 ....a.few turns round the deck as.the )Ara-: . iic. approached the Dunsley slowly. _ I i ■ could not understand -Why 'the captain of the Arabic did-not.' pursue other r ' tactics, as the/danger to mo , seemed t- ' quite obvious. .As a matter of fact, I suggested ..to- my: friend 'that- 1 if,:the • :- i lArabic reversed her engines-she could- . ■ have coveredv some miles before-thoso . : . on the submarmo discovered the ruse, ,andmthomeantimeivo could have wire- ■ Messed for aid, .majurig: escape probable, -; ''and tliecapturo of the submarine possible. Suddenly I came to tho opening, between two of the deck-houses, and saw a row of passengers - • with ■ horror-stricken faces and mouths • wide open, glaring at i ;y something-m the sea. ' A glanco in:tho. ■ 'same, direotapn told -mo what it was— 1 ;- a torpedo-,was tearing its way through ' .the: water,, coming'light at us'like: a : .• i'Wild beast - eagerly-. ; -seeking-.-its prey.- .< ■ • t 'You could seo a. dark object cleaving :> v 41io water, with long tendrils of' bub- ■' and a .smother of white foam in -its Bake i ' i It Could Not Miss, fv, '-It/was coming at such a,pace that t . anyone could; see 1 , that v it could not | miss the ship. They all seemed to bo : ' ' fascmated:or-dazed at the-sight,-of- tho j ■ appipaching-cngme of; death,- and-;! at :. l v for-them, to 'get-over Ito ■ .. ; the other 'sideof tho slup. . My' shout , 5 of. warning seemed to release tlrem'from t- - -a- spelly -and, most of. them crossed tho £ ii. . deck, some, of : t'he; women"sobbing and ■- ■: :moaumg. in . their 'fear tof; impending ,• ■ v ifato.v < A'moment later and vine : tor- | . .' pedo struok tho ship about 100 foot-from t the stem (for she had partly turned); ly :t fl'here was,, a loud,- smothered : explosion, : and it made tho vessel jump a little, [ and- then„tremblo from' stem to stern; j ... /Tho ,only notice of the -disaster ■ • given'- | , any of the - passengers m. my vicinity ( ~. was a,blast of ..the bugle given, by-one , i.,- ,of tho stewards. The boats had already , ; : been - swung out in case of accident, . and thoy quickly and quietly filled'from tho decks, and were-lowered into the , -.- ■ •water —tho women.: and- .children first. • J 1 Touch and Co. , r ■ .■"I was helpmg ;.a woman-, with somo s : children into a. boat • when ;sh© begged V me to try and get life-belts for her childron.l-1L happened, to know , where I ; there.'wasra-.pile of . them, and: went -to i : -got-some, but found that they had all . been taken. I then- made - for- the companion-way to get some from bolow, when a sailor.called out to me that ; if I went down .I would never. como up again. :He pointed: aft; and 1 saw that tho deck astern was already awash ■ I ; got into .the- last, boat'- that;left our.' side. 1 1 ; ofthe ship, descending to it by arope I f was pushing the boat off from the. J sido v of tho liner with an . oar; w-hen tho i great vessel... slowly elevated . her bow d i • some 2Cofti into the .air, almost to-a v : .vertical position, and then : witlt a roar t and a rush- dived stern first to the b bottom. .y 'x]X- 1 '!. - '' v A Smother of Soot and Steam. t : \'We could not hay© been,more than 'i from twolve to fifteen feet off tho vessel r . , ; when she went down, and. wero smoth- t «rod in the soot, steam, smoke, and 1 . cashes: that.wore-shot'frota'her funnels' 0 And in tho.midst of this sceno of chaos t our boat was drawn .by the suction f right over tho, spot where the Arabic v ; : ; had been, and other of the ship's boats 1 ;- il .-wreckage, and human beings struggling" s ■/. in. the water:were all bumping and' 1< grinding together m tho - hornblo ■ vor- t- , tex. To add to our misery the Arabic t- ■.: had, on board a considerable consign- t 1 . . jmont of carbide, and great barrels of b it came to the top amongst us, tho - ! . Miction of tho lvater making tho sec. a J boiling cauldron,, and the awful fumes—.' * phew l t i : The Work of Rescue. s : , r. "It took us some, time •to get free of }? ». • the confusion ,of boats, wreckage; and gear, so that- .we could help thoso in n ! the water.. By this time..we were all, I , Wet through, and getting cold, but wo i; '. did our best- to rescuo those wo found clinging to pieces of wreckage. We T' saved all we could,, but the big lifeboats.: were., terribly heavy . to-, raw,: and ' : ; • we found it all but impossible to drag s ! women out of tho water, even when 0 • wo, got-hold of them. ■ Our- liands wero r ' - numbedwith f the cold, and we wero fagged with the work at .-.tho oars.: On ono occasion four of ua-""got hold of-a woman,- and then wo could -not lift -her ; , into .tho boat with,our . hands. I asked

a steward to hold oh to the;poor,, strug." gling creature' whilst I- looked 'Tound— for an inspiration. There were four men - lying in a dazed condition, in tho Bottom' of. the boat—-jinf! oil* a rope. The very idea! I jerked the ropo from under them, , passed one end to tho stern

(I was in the; bow),' then coaxed the j;. slack of tlio ropo under tho"woman: She got lior foot on to it and,hung on with her hands, and by pulling on the ropo stem and stern we got her into the boat fn a very exhausted condition.; - Afterwards. ...... v . "After the boats had picked up all those who were visible on tho surface, - . those boats which had sails hoisted them, and each one taking a sailless • boat in tow made for the land. The . disaster had occurred at 9.15 a.m., and it was 3.30 p.m. before we saw smoko i on the horizon. At first wo thought it i; : . v : was another victim for'the .Huns; -As i ■, it drew nearer we heard guns fired, and ' ;v.> wo surmised that they, had! seen; us. ■ Oil it camo in a. flurry unl'il it ivas ■ quito close to us, then it turned round ; suddenly and made off at tap speed, and then zig-zagged about like a mad ' : thing By this time we knew it to bo a' British jpatrol boat. It came at us again, picked up one boat's crew; and i - repeated its former, .tactics,. and after • zig-zaggmg darted back-again, and picked up a second boat's load in the ' same '.dramatic manner. Then a sec- . ond patrol boat arrived, aacL picked the occupants j>f Jhej>ther^haate"M^att^

Spoil we were all safe and sound oil an armed. British patrol. Looking for Periscopes." "■What ,i' sight it was on that , little boat (only about 1500 tons). The guns ivero boing swung i;ound backwards and forwards,- ceaselessly covering the sea on all sides, and : sailors were posted ovcry few feet round the deck, watching; for periscopes. On board we found a ; large .cask of. rum labelled— 'Take what you want—waste none!' jVnd the' blue-faced survivors from the Arabichuddled round 'that cask ( had the'drink lofr- thoir; lives', thanked tho Giver of all good things. That evening we arrived in Queenstown, and the good Irish—though they aro getting . used to these disasters — did, all they possibly could to make us comfortablo. No. "5.0.5." Signal Sent. - ! :■ "Whilst'in Quecnstown I had somo talk /with.';a •Brjtish.^afal; officer, and lie' informed!: me. that itfoo.- patrol. boats had been sent out in answer to a wirc--Iless -message," ,;whioh.,we,; liadA sent before -the catastrophe was anticipated, reporting; .the presence of.; the: .. "derelict Dunsley. > lie said .no" 'S.O.S.' message had been sent by tfiie Arabic. If had they;-could not possibly havo missed : it.' . i.The. shots fired by tho patrol -boats ivoro not for our benefit, but- were double, periscopes of German submarines; Personally,, -I never saw'submarine or peri- i scopc, but half a dozen of our passen- i gcrs assured mo ' that' they saw two double periscopes hiding behind.- our boats,' so that .we were evidently in a nest of them. ■ i

, "I afterwards met: the captain and officers": of the Dunsley; who- informed me:,that one 6f- : their; boats .had changed its course, to give the Arabic warning, when it was headed by a submarine. They also said that a submarino had lam •m • wait for us behind the bow of tlie Dunsley. That;the:Dunsley's men. knew there-was .a tragedy preparing for us was proved by the fact that they had .their watches.: out to time the catastrophe,'.' :', TKcylstafed that from./ :the time-of, the explosion to',-the, sinking, of. the Arabic 4 minutes 59 seconds elapsed. To. us it seemed more like 17 to 20 minutes." . »■■