MYSTERY V.C.

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 263, 25 July 1918, Page 11

MYSTERY V.C.

HOW DECORATION WAS WON AN ASTONISHING STORY An American paper a month or two ago lifted the veil of mystery and told a romantic story of bow tho mystery V.C, torpedoed in (he North Sen, swam around until he was lifted up on to the deck of a submarino, and how then he stood at the conning tower aul with his waterproof p'islol shot tho explain and hold the remainder of tho cow at bay until the arrival of a British destroyer settled all the hopes uf ths Huns to escape. As wonderful as that story is—and if it were triio it would bo as strange as fiction—it is lew thrilling and less wonderful than tho slory told recently by a captain of the mercantile- marine, fresh from tho scone of naval activity, a story which, he snys, is popularly accepted as tho feats performed by Iho man whoso grand work will not bo chronicled until I the war is over, if then, The singe of the drama was an old -barque, and the cast was small—the captain, an officer or two, a email crew, ami the captain's wife and child. They cruised round aimlessly, inviting attack. Suddenly'in the distance the ererfuwof the water was broken by the periscope ' of an enemy suhinarine, and in a few : moments the 'U-boat wna alongside ;>.iid the captain of ths sailing boat, was ordered to stop and the crew to lake lo ■the boats. The drama-then developed. Tho English captain pleaded witli tho German. "But," he said, "would you cast my poor wifo and child adrift in an open boat in this weather?" The captain's wife—an exceedingly coinely-looking woman—clasped her child to her breast and moved ■ towards her hiwband. The U-boat captain insolently stared at her. . ' . "But my child will die," Ibe captain pleaded. ''There is nothing for it." "Can't you take, her on board with you?" tho captain of the barque asked, hesitatingly, as if the idea pained him. Tho U-boat captain consented. The crew thereupon lowered a boat, tho captain's wife was carefully kelwd into it, the captain and the crew followed, and tho men rowed to the U-bnat. V Hi unusual care the woman was helped .by the captain to the deck of the submarine, and to the conning-towor, then to the trapdoor, and she was even told to bo careful of the step. , ■~ ■ The-Climax. Then tho' climax of tho drama occurred. The captain's wife, who was paiu- - fully nervous, (stumbled. Sho shrieked, and the baby fell from her arms through . tho hatch of the U-boat to the bottom of 'the ladder. Simultaneously tho woman showed remarkable athletic- powers. Pushing the captain aside, (me leapt overboard, and even as oho cleared the deck of tho boat, before.the startle! Hun, could appreciate what bad occurred, there wab a terrific explosion, the bottom was blown put of the enemy's craft, and .the boat, snihk rapidly. '•.' ■ ': '.The captain's wifo was rescued by her friend's, who'were breathlessly awaiting .-the.explosioiiy and they wero back in the )barque-a. few-minutes after the U-boat .had disappeared.; : ; Tho; captain's.-,wife.was the mystery : V.C.T-a/'.handsome, young mnn pf .28, vr'io .'made up. into a feminine of so striking beauty that Me hen A of the U-boat captain -was turned. '■" The baby was n most powerful-bomb, : lovingly and carefully clothed in a'thick■ ehrnvl. The pnrty sailed the sea until nightfall—npparently an easy victim, to the torpedoes of the onomy. Three more U-boats h'ailwl them! Three times the dialogue about tV vnmn'n nnd .the child was repealed, and three times the ruse succeeded! Three babies fell'down three more hatchways, and three TJ-bonts went, with 'all hands, to the bottom of the North Ren. The originating brain of this remarkfhle plan to defeat-the. cruellest foe any Navy was called npon to fnee w*>s n wlj- ■ known Tiondon. actor, brother of-the-mys-tery V.C. ' The V.C. bus made a name Cor himself amongst a limited circle nf friend.*' ns an amateur actor, but this magnificent series of heroic actions, played in a srreat drama of death, transcp*vW "11 hi" oth»r '■(Torts.No V.C. was ever more nobly eiirned.