U.S. BOAT DEFEATS U BOAT

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume XLV, Issue XLV, 7 September 1917, Page 1

U.S. BOAT DEFEATS U BOAT

Ail American stearcwr that" l reached! an Atlantic port on June 22 in baj last from an English port, gave details of a thrilling encounter on June 1 with a German sul> marine after the latter had fired,a torpedo which hit but fortunately failed to explode. ' - The submarine was badly damaged/by the fire of the steamer's gun crew, and disappeared after her periscope had been shot'•) away*. A member of the crew told this story of the encounter :—-~ ' We saw the submarine on June 4. A British ship had sent up a signal of distress,, winch we picked up. She reported that she' had been attacked by a submarine. The ship was exchanging shots . with the TJ boat for half an houf,. when she reported by Wireless that the TJ boat had submerged. Another British vessel ; reported she was fighting at close range. After 20' minutes of hard fighting the submarine again submerged, and the vessel wirelessed she was O.K. and not damaged. We could plainly see <l;he shells / from these British vessels as they dropped, hut could not /see the submarine with which they were fighting. After the second attempts to sink the two ships, we considered we were appar- ■ ently out of danger. We were on a zigzag course and mailing foJT speed, when~the lookout sighted a lifeboat. We steered to see what was in it. It was empty. About 20 minutes after ija-ssihg the empty lifeboat, or E.bout 6.30 p.m., ship's time, one ■■ of the gunners sighted a torpedo headedstraight for us. He shouted the bridge : '• Here she' comes; torpedo ~port side!" The chief who was'on the bridge. filiouted to the quartermaster: • "Hard starboard!" We swung off. The ■•'■' torpedo .had a red head, about 16in in diameter. It. was about 10ft long. The torpedo struck us on the port side a glancing, bio iv amidships, near the ehojne room: Our ship-was empty, all thought she had exploded from the terrific noise the torpedo made when hit. Simultaneously the ship's whistle blew short and successive blasts, which was signal to abandon ship and man the The captain, who had remained on the'ship, found the torpedo had failed to explode. All hands were then ordered back. We lay nerfectiy sti 1 ! for at least an hour. ./:'•■ IT' BOAT RENEWS ATTACK. - When the commander of the submarine saw our crew coming back from the lifeboats and climbing on deck he gave up his chase for the two British ships and started for us again. The submarine was about 2,000 yards off our starboard beam. Then came the command to man the guns. The guri crews ran fore and aft to their positions. The chief gunner'gave them the ranges from the bridge. When about 600 yards off our starboard quarter a shell from our forward gun hit the submarine, and she submerged. Again she appeared, and our after gun hit jier and blew away her periscope. Another shot from our* forward run fell right on top of her. There was a shower of black specks which rose high in the air, followed by a great commotion, bubbles of water and a light blue smoke arising from the stern of the TJ boat where a second before had been the eyes of our enemy. Our crew, who were lined up against the starboard rail watching the battle, gave a hearty cheer when the submarine disappeared. Nineteen shots were fired.