On the Sea

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXVIV, Issue 50, 4 February 1916, Page 6

On the Sea

THE JOY OF THE FUGITIVES. RAIDER FORMERLY THE PONCA APPAM PASSENGER'S STORY. [UNITMJ PiiliSß ASSOCIATION.] (Received 12.40 p.m.) New York, February 'A. Cheers greeted the British officials' launch as it "was approaching the Appam tit inform the captives that they had been granted permission tS land. The German guard vainly tried to quell the outburst of joy The captives eagerly demanded tobacco and the news of the war. Nine boarded the launch, including Sir E. Mereweather and six skippers o 7 sunken vessels. Sir K. Mereweather states that, the raider was of about 4000 tonnage. The skippers declare she was formerly called the "Ponga," as they saw the name on a plate and also on papers in the commander's cabin. They observed that the hold was iitted out for Truft-carrying. There was a crew of several hundred and the deck had been strengthened for k heavy battery of four guns forward and two aft. Sir E. Mereweather relates that the raider approached the Appam, and when within two hundred yards the forward and aft railings disappeared

magically in sections, being composed like an aeeordeon of strips of steel, which dropped into slots upon the pressure of a button on the bridge. Then a square structure which Avas mistaken for a dockhouse collapsed and exposed four-inch or six-inch guns and the crews at their stations. It was useless to resist, he said, especially when the German prisoners were released and armed to guard us. There were forty-three armed Germans aboard the Appam.

The light put up by the Clan McTavish was a fine one, though it was one-sided. It lasted fully half an hour, but the tiny six-pounder continued to bark long after the German shells had set the Clan McTavish afire in half a dozen places. Finally, the Germans discharged two torpedoes; both struck the Clan .McTavish, which heeled over in a short time and disappeared. GERMAN WAR CRUISER IN THE ATLANTIC. Washington, February 3. Rumors are current here that the German war cruiser Boon is roving the. Atlantic.