YAWL SINKS U-BOAT.

Taranaki Daily News, 19 October 1917, Page 6

YAWL SINKS U-BOAT.

AN "UNPARALLELED BATTLE." j EPIC ON FRENCH COAST. FISHERMAN RETURNS GERMAN'S SHOUT. When a small sailboat gives battle to a submarine and sinks it, the victorious crew is entitled to be listed among the heroes. So it is that the six French fisherman who manned the little yawl Hyacinthe-Yvonne are to-day not merely the lions of the village of Les Sables in Brittany, but are seeing their portraits in the great newspapers of Paris. The "unparalleled battle," as Raymond Lestonnat calls it in an article in L'lllustration," from which the following account is drawn, took place last March, and the French censorship is only now allowing publication of the facts. In the early days of March a German submarine sent panic into the fishing fleets all the way from the He de Yeu to Corduan. The people of the villages •along the coast and on the islands were terrorised. The commander of the U'boat had the cynical effrontery to force his wretched victims to obtain for him white wine, that light and unpretentious white wine of Charentes, which he dranlc with gusto. Before submerging he used to apologise with a mocking laugh for not being in a position to shout in his turn.

The fishermen dreadPd this pirate, and, through fear of adding an avoidable danger to those they faced every day in their vocation, hesitated to leave harbor, unless protected by a patrol, or in default of this, by one of their own boats armed with a gun.

Thus it was that on March lfi the yawl-rigged Hyacinthe-Yvonne, owned by Hyacinthe Cuisiat, with a small gun in her bows, sailed out from Les Sables about 6 p.m., with several other Sables fishing smacks, all bound for the fishing banks. Cuisiat's boat was to act as guardian over the others. CREW OF VETERANS. This dangerous task did not worry Capt. Cuisiat, for he was already a veteran of the war. At the beginning, in a regiment of Colonials, he had fought in the Argonne and had been through the terrific batles of the Eparges. His gunner, Laurent Vichon, had been a sailor on the Charlemagne, and had done his share of gun-firing in the Dardanelles I until the famous battle of Chanak, where | he narrowly escaped drowning with all his comrades. The other members of the crew, Auguste Moneron, Georges Butaud, Georges Petirot, and Jean Phillibcrt and all been under fire in Flanders and in other hot places along the front. Just before dawn on March 18 the distant sound of cannon-firing was heard. Somebody said: "There is the German going after his white wine." Everybody got ready for immediate action. At seven bulls the U-boat for which they were watching suddenly emerged 5100 yards ahwaji of .the (HyacinthtfYvonne, heading south-west, directly towards the little fishing craft. The submarine had scarely rison from the water when a hatchway opened, two men appeared upon the deck, aimed a 3in gun at the yawl, and fired. The shot was good, but a bit short, and it struck the bow.

Captain Cuisiat was at the helm. He instantly brought her up to the wind and lashed the tiller so as to leave himself free to go to help Vichon with the gun, which was masked from view as much as possible under a sail and. some nets. He opened fife at the very moment that a second shell from the submarine struck on the port bow, close to the cut-water,starting a bad leak. The Üboat's engines stopped, bnt it continued its course, firing ever at the HyacintheYvonne. Its commander was trying to get astern, so as to avoid the shots from the bow, the gun not being able to fire astern because of the rigging.

Three men on the submarine, armed with revolvers, fired without ceasing at the fishing smack, but almost all their shots landed harmlessly in the spare mainsail boom lashed upon the deck.

Cuisiat. understood the manoeuvre of his enemy. He retook the tiller, brought the boat about, and thus cleared the field for action for the gun, which Vichon aimed to port again9t the U-boat, now heading north-west. THE FRENCHMEN'S TURN. Strange, but the men have vanished from the enemy's deck; all hatchways are closed. It is ready to submerge; yet it remains motionless at 300 yards. This distance is verified by the elevation of the fisherman's gun, all the shots from which score hits, five of them, striking the lower part of the submarine's con-ning-tower. Suddenly the U-boat plunges head foremost; about 25ft 1 of its stern rises from the water, and remains in an almost vertical position for four or five minutes. "It's our Bhout this time!" cries Vichon. Without haste the brave gunner takes aim and sends another shot home. The U-boat quivers under the leaden raillery of the yawl, the crew of which has noS yet noticed that their own craft is about to disappear, its hold being full of rapid-ly-deepening water. They are having such a good time! "Just another, you old brigand! Gulp that one down." "To your jolly good health, pirate!" "Steady, Vichon, don't miss!" "Goodf Epaulettes for you, my boy, and. gold ones at that. You have well won them!" | "'There will never be enough pipes for you at Les Sables fair!" They laughed till their sides were sore, and it was not until the U-boat went down pcrper dicularly, less than 100 yards away, that they began seriously to think of saving themselves. They saw at once that they could not keep out the water,.all the mattresses they sent down passing through the hol» in the side; so they got ready to leave the boat. Hastily the sides of the skiff, broken by the gunfire were nailed up. The flag was hoisted upside down to attract the attention of the nearby fishing •boats. They got into the little skiff, which was making water like a basket, and bailed it with casseroles, singing the while—for all were so happy at having defeated an enemy vastly superior in strength. GALLANT LITTLE FIGHTER'S END. About a quarter after eight bells, the Hyacinthe-Yvonne gently sank; saluted by the sailors, sadly, it is tme—for a boat is a sort of sweetheart. But tltey were quite satisfied with the feat they had accomplished. Anil they sang again as they rode across the three' hundred yards of floating oil that marked tli# spot where the submarine had gone to the bottom. 4 few minutes later, the

Pierre-Emile took the brave fellows on board. Thus did the crew of the little yawl Hyacinthe-Yvonne hold up the traditions of the intrepid Breton fishermen. Thus did six humble sailors on a small sailboat give battle to the most perfect of war machines, the most dreaded instrument of modern "fearfulness," rushing undaunted into the fusillade of artillery and replying calmly and accurately with their one small gun. Thus did they, like knights in the days of chivalry, fight and , slay the dreaded sea-monster that had been devouring the hard-working toil of the ocean, and spreading desolation and panic in many a humble village.