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v THE MORNING STAR, WILMINGTON, N. C., SUNDAY, DECEMBER 16, 1917. SIX , f-llf I 3 It 't. .hi ::j tf iV! . .i . . Kf .11 A ii' II I.- , .. :i- : . '.'--! 5 1 ,1 - i . 4 : si r j . i ... f ..'i mi 111 III' -J I j i- 11 J LIFE Oil UNDERSEA BOATS NOT PL Terrible Experientes of Crew of English Submarine Death in Various Forma' Menaced the British E-17 and Played With Men for Hours Struggle to Save the Submarine. London, Nov. 30. (Corespondence of the Associated Press). Death in va ried forms menaced and played with the crew of the British submarine E-17, wrecked and Anally sunk, after a gallant fight for lifeloff the coast of Holland, according to -the story of .her commander now for the first time told. His account fives a. vivid picture bf air all night struggle to save the sub marine and her company from the battering- o fthe waves which hammered the little vessel upon the shoal, of a fi-ht with Are in her hold, against 4eaks that threatened to All her with vater and to catch and secure a tor pedo thrown from its lashings with its- war-head in place, menacing all with instant destruction. Freed from the shoal only to be confronted by an apparently hostile cruiser bent on their destruction, the submarine commander tells how he was driven to desperate resource of submerging in a waterlogged craft and if the suspense of. the critical mo ments when he discovered ' that his eFse! was Ailing, at the bottom of the orean and of a Aght back to the sur face to face the guns of the cruiser. Writing from a Dutch internment camp, the E-17's commander, after telling of the stranding of the sub marine and the vain struggle to float her. adds: "'The antics of the boat proved' too much for the lashings of one o fthe spare torpedoes; the tail held Arm, but the nose, with the heavy war-head in n!;ace. commenced threshing about in the hnat. and would have done a lot of damage if it had not been rapidly resecured. . ".Large quantities of water had come jown the conning tower and made an awful mess of things. It got at the electric light switchboards, fused the .police lights, and started a Are be hind the switchboards, which had to le put out with one of the patent Are ?xtlnguishers. The resulting fumes of burnt rubber and Are extinguisher made a most unpleasant combination, ith which we were bottled up for ;he rest of the night. "It was a terrible time, that period of waiting for the dawn. None of us thought that the boat could last out. and I take my hat off to the men that made her; it was simply wonderful the amount of hammering she took. My inspection showed that the rudder had gone, and the after compartment had a- large direct connection with the sea. probablythrough the- hole .where the rudder had been. The bulk head of this compartment had also been strained and was leading. Both " propeller shafts had been slightly bent by the bumping, and both main en sines had got damp "and we're full of electric leaks; six of the big main tanks were holed, and the ship was leakiner internally in about a dozen places. "It looked pretty hopeless, so I started to destroy all conAdential pa pers, charts and instructions, the, most -secret things being baked in the elec tric oven until brittle and then powdered- up. Then I. held a council" of .-war upon what we should do if we could get afloat in the morning. I had enough faith in the German spy system- to expect that we had been ob served as we were threshing about in the night and could expect trouble soon after daybreak. "When dawn came I found we were barely flfty yards from shore at a point about midway along the island of Texel, had a clear sea behind us without shoals, and that the sea had gone down a lot. We were leaking so badly that I felt "that diving would be a risky experiment, only to be tried in the extremest case, with probably a 5 to 1- chance against us. I was quite satisfled . however that we could get back to England if the weather held good and we were not interfered with. "About 9:45 we sighted a cruiser coming along the coast and steaming very fast. A rain squall was coming up behind her which blotted her out before we could distinguish details, but she altered her course toward land just before going out of sight. "The most hopeful scheme seemed to 'get straight out seaward, in hope of slfpping away unobserved in the mist. It was painfully slow work; ages passed, and we began to cheer up, thinking all was well. Then sud denly we spotted her. She had alter ed her course again, and was now driving up at a great rate on a. course that looked as if she meant ramming, "When she was 'short half mile away I made out the blurred outline of her guns, and Immediately afterward saw ' them swinging forward. It ia ah un written law of the. sea never to train guns on warships of a nation with whom one is at peace for obvious reasons. Therefore her action in train ing her guns on us at this moment seemed to prove conclusively that she was hostile and about to open Are. To stay on the surface 'seemed certain death, either from gunAre or ramming,' .so I took the 1 to 5 chance for life under water. "The moments following my order to' dive were rather exciting. When I tried to close the conning tower lid 1 found to my horror that it had Jam med. By the feel. of it I fancy a piece -of waste or rope's end had fouled, the counter balance weight. The water - "was helf way "up the conning tower. No time to do anything, so I started down again with .the idea- of Closing the lower door. I had barely got to the edge of the hole when the water came. The first wave hit the lit a great smack, and luckily f broke the -obstruction and closed the lid wi.th a oang, although an avalanche of water eot into the boat first. "I found things pretty series inside, "for as soon as the pressure came on the leaks had opened, up, and the boat had taken charge of . itself, sinking "like a stone. The water inside had ' run aft, depressing the stern to such an angle that It was ' impossible to tand without holding on to some thing. ' "It was out of .the question to re main suberged, the question was rath- ' 8r whether we would be able to get back to the surface at all. The boat had gone right down until she touched bottom with her tail. As she did so -Mia door of the after compartment - f-nmmenced to eaoe and give. :lf the - boat had stayed at that depth It would have eorie. But immediately on loucn I no- bottom she commenced to rse M IT again, because the water blown out of her tanks was sufficient to give tier a slight buoyancy as soon as her downward momentum was stopped. "There was a tremendous lot of free water in the interior. Some of the men were literally washed away from their stations. Those who were wash ed away stayed as near their billets as possible, ready to dive back and work their valves if it required it. They might have been doing a , routine practice in home 5 waters for all the difference it made. "We were now rising siowly, when suddenly the port motor blew out, wa ter having reached it and short cir cuited it. This happened at 45 feet, then stopped and -colhmenced' sinking again slowly. The dial' pointer crept round to 4S feet, stopped, then went to 49, then 49 1-2, . stopped there for a long time and then started to rise again. This was the critical moment. If she had gone down instead of up noth ing could have saved us. Once she made up her mind to come up, she came with a rush. .We emerged ready to torpedo the German cruiser if we could, and the men standing ready to swim for it as soon as we had fired. When we broke surface there was the ship, lying motionless 400 yards away, a beautiful shot. But it had stopped raining, and I was astonished to .find at first sight, that she was a irutch man. Her ensign was clearly visible and her silhouette, which I now saw for the first time, was unmistakable. "My boat was practically-in a sink ing condition and I signalled to the Dutch cruiser for help. Boats were sent over with the utmost promptitude and we shortly found ourselves aboard the Noord Brabant, of the Dutch royal navy, stationed -at the Helder. We were received and treated most warmheart edly. I went up on the bridge and watched my boat take its last plunge. As she went down a bugle sounded the 'Attention' and the SToord" Brabant saluted her while she died." GERMANY IS BELIEVED EFFECTUALLT3L0 CKADED Rigid Action by " America and Allien Prevents Supplies Reaching Germany From Xeutrala. London, Nov., 20f (Correspondence). Germany is now believed to be ef fectually blockaded. Acording to es timate made here, she now is com pletely cut off from receiving imports from other than ' her allies owing to the fact that the prevailing shortage of food stuffs in neutral" countries nearby have made it necessary for them to withhold from her any im ports needed by their own people. Virtually nothing is now permitted to go into Holland or the Scandinavian countries froni .England, the United States or. any of " the Entente coun tries. These nowalrooaft control the world's exports' --.of i"f oodstuffs, feeding stuffs, and raw materials of every kind. This stiffening up o fthe blockade is attributed to the policy adopted by the United States in July of with holding its exports from neutral countries near Germany except on terms under which they must cease the export even of their own produce to Germany. This principle was ex pressed in London in the phrase: "We will not send you wheat or fodder to enable you to export meat and butter to Germany. Until you agree to stop your exports to Germany we will send you nothing.". America's memorandum to Norway as published in that country says sub stantially: "The United States will regard all export to the central pow ers as a subtraction from the food supplies or other necessaries which the country concerned should expect to obtain for its own industries or support. It can hardly be expected that the United States will assist these countries with necessaries if they con tinue to give helptQ the central pow ers." Imports of oils and fats into Hol land and Scandinavian countries have decreased from an average of 75,000 tons a month before the .war to a monthly average of 22.500 tons at present, according to figures made public here. Imports of cereal and fodder, formerly 342,000 tons a month, have decreased to . 25,000 a month. Cot ton Imports have declined one-half since 1916 and Imports o fhides and leather are now a mere fraction of what they formerly were. Copper im ports have declined almost to one fifth their former proportions. EDIBLE EARTH IS EATEN IN CENTRAL. EMPIRES NOW Was Highly Esteemed. Delicacy in the i Lean Years Between 1719-1733. Amsterdam, Netherlands, Dec. 15. In their frantic search tor new food substitutes, Germans have made the discovery that so-called - edible earth exists in many parts of Germany, and learned professors have lost no time in . making it known that the eating of earth is by no means confined to certain savage tribes of New Guinea and South America. It was a highly esteemed delicacy, they say, during the Thirty Years War -,- and also in . the "lean years"; between 1T19 and 1733. Layers of edible earth, it is stated, have been located on the moors of Liuneburg, near Koenigsberg, in the valley of the lower Vistula and in the Grand Duchy bf Hesse, while the Aus trians, it is announced, "have tfceir own deposits o fedible earth near Eger and Franzensbad in Bohemia. SWISS TO SUPPLY AMERICANS 2,000 WOODEN BUILDINGS Berne. Dec. 15. The American military- commission' in' Switzerland, it is announced, has just "contracted for an additional 2.00fr- wooden buildings to be used as barracks which are to be delivered not later than next February to the American military authorities. These will supplement 1,500 such bar racks ordered months ago. The barracks are to be about 100 feet long by 20 feet wide, and are of double thickness so as to protect the soldiers from cold and dampness. They are of pine and are so built that they can be shipped In parts and erected without the use of nails. Each part is numbered sq that the assembling is an easy .matter. A number of Sws building, concerns are to fulfill the contract.' GERMAN SMUGGLING STILL ATTEMPTED IN SWITZERLAND Berne, Dee. 15. Smuggling food stuffs into Germany is still practiced in ingenious and unexpected ways. The other night a party of about flfty persons crossed the frontier to take part in a masked ball in a little Swiss town. . Towards midnight they re turned in automobiles, which were warned to stop at the frontier. No notice - -bei-ng. ,aken of the warn ing, the sentinels fired : and brought the cars td ' a standstill: The occu pants, most of whom were discovered to be German soldiers, succeeded in making their essape, but the cars, in which were hidden large quantities of soap, chocolate, butter, leather and fats, were seized by the authorities. CRIMINALS FREE MEN IN DEMOCRATIC RUSSIA Prisoner Whose Plots Caused 3,000 Deaths Escapes After Being L(d I'pon Scaffold lie Stirs, Crowd With a Speech and While Comrades Vote on His Freedom Escapes. Petrograd, Nov. 15. (Correspond ence of the Associated Press). The provincial newspaper Priasovsky Krai publishes an amazing account of the escape of a Russian military prisoner who had been sentenced to be execut ed for selling military seqrets to Ger many and plotting explosions in two powder factories which caused the death of 3,000 persons. When a squad of soldiers and gov ernment agents had assembled to watch the hangman do. his work, the condemned man startled them by a proposal that, instead of executing him, they, give him a vote of approval. In the debate which which ensued the executioner narrowly escaped hanging in place" of the prisoner. The convict ed man was. elected as secretary of the meeting and escaped while the vote whether to kill him or the executioner was being taken. The meeting then voted to sentence the executioner to imprisonment for failure to do his duty. Smiling contemptuously the prisoner was led to the scaffold. When the sentence had been read, he raised his hands and demanded 'to be heard. "No," objected the prosecuting at torney. "It is " too late now. You should have spoken before, at the trial." One of the squad of soldiers stepped out and said in a tone of amazement: "What? Why too late? .Is not speech free? Thank God, there's no czarist regime to keep, our mouths closed. Speak, comrade, speak'." The condemned man began: "Com rades! Do you know who has con demned me? A court constituted en tirely of lower middle class capitalists, inspired by the imperialists of the al lied countries. The prosecutor, as I know absolutely, was a masquerading Kornilovlst! Comrades! Shall not democracy itself speak? Shall it not say 'Hands off the creators and ln spirers of the Internationale?' "Comrades! Can you possibly rec ognize a decision of this counter revo lutionary, anti-democratic " court as binding on you?" "Bravo," shouted a guard. "Let me also speak!" The condemned man yielded the floor to the guard, who began: "Comrades! Can anything be more atrocious than for is to permit the hanging of this man, who speaks as an apostle and champion of the In ternationale? Comrades. I propose a vote of want of confidence in the exe cutioner." "I demand the right to speak," .said the executioner. "Comrades, I solemnly protest against this universal condemnation of all executioners. I am just as good a revolutionist as any of you, and if the revolutionary people has Imposed on me this -sad duty, I am bound by my conscience. I demand, comrades, that you pass a resolution confirming the lawfulness of my acts. I hope that you understand that it is better to deprive -one ; dangerous individual of his life rather than sacrifice thous ands of useful lives." "I move to discontinue your speech, Comrade Hangman," broke in the con demned man. "And by what right, Comrade Ex ploder of Powder Magazines, do you constitute yourself the chairman?" re plied the executioner, vehemently. "Chairman! Chairman! Let's elect a chairman," came from several parts of the audience. , The election proceeded fast. It took only half en hour, and the condemned man had the office thrust upon him of secretary of the meeting. At this point an unfortunate diver gency arose among three of the sol diers and workmen's delegates. One of them, a Minimalist, demanded the instant execution of the prisoner; an other, a socialist revolutionary inter nationalist, suggested getting explan ations from the government; the third, a Maximalist, proposed that they should release the prisoner and in his stead execute the executioner as a servant and agent of the counter rev- olution. The drummer got up to declaim against the third suggestion, but after his first sentence he began, talking, not to the point, but to demand the transfer of all the land without pur chase to the masses. A vote of clos ure was invoked to cut his speech off. A very eloquent speech followed by the secretary of the garriBon commit tee, although it was not much to the point. He said that the revolutionary government was now organized, that there was no reason now to fear Ger-' man spies or explosions at powder magazines, and therefore, in the name of the garrison, he called for the dis closure of all secret treaties. The chairman had turned the discus sion to the actual subject, putting two questions to vote first, the fate store for the condemned prisoner; second, the rate in store for the exe cutioner. - The voting showed a two-thirds majority in favor of executing the sentence, whereupon the condemned man expressed dissatisfaction as to the accuracy of the voting and de manded a formal division of the house. Thus the matter was carried to the prison court yard, and the ayes and nays were requested to line up on op posite sides of the gates. The result was still Ihe same, but when, they looked around for the secretary, who was also the condemned prisoner, he was nowhere to be seen. It was explained that he had voted by marching out at the gate ajid had failed to return subsequently, i After some discussion, "the meeting decided that the disappearance of the prisoner had disposed of any neces sity of further discussing question number one, and that there remained before the meeting-only question num ber two, namely, the fate in store for the executioner. This time the vote was unanimous, and the following resolution was passed: "In consequence of the fact that the revolutionary people on February 28 to March 12 gained its freedom, not in order to down civil liberty, also in con sequence of the fact that Executioner Demochkin neglected to execute sen, tence on the condemned man, the as sembly has decided to condemn Demo chkin to. three month' imorisontn en t. i.ong live the -.self-determination of rlVi "!"1,lca on me basis of Russian federative and indivisible!" . t est? PROVIDING WATER IS . IMPORTANT WAR WORK Activities of the Corps That liooks Out For Soldiers Drink Clean AVells and Lay Pipe. French Front. Nov. 30. ( Corespond ence). Next after a plentiful supply of munitions the ' provision of water for the troops in the trenches is the most Important task facing the staff of an army in" the field. When the correspondent of the Associated Press, following close on the heels of an at tacking force, arives in the front lines where the troops are engaged in con solidating their newly conquered po sitions, he is most welcome when he has with him a weU filled water bot tle. The soldiers during an advance have generally exhausted their water bot tles on the march over the ground torn JJP. by, shells, or perhaps have seen the water spurt out as a bullet passed through the tin gourd. tespite their physical exhaustion and nervous ten slon, the troops nyist continue to fight and donkeys attached to the batta f-Dl ?m? LtimGS f'da3:S tJriions occupying the lines arelJ, or food up to them even during the nigljt. without sacrifice-of many of the lives of men of the supply column. Even behind the front lines, in the cantenments and villages where the troops in reserve .or. at reast are quar tered, the supply of water for both men and horses is surrounded with many difficulties, since large quantities-are needed for both' drinking and washing, and those not., available in, country communities. Also the nu merous small locomotives of the net ,work of narrow- gauge railroads' con sume Immense amounts., . The closest study has. been given to this question by army engineers, and with the progress of the war they e 3 7" - V2 CANNON AUTO COMPANY ZU5-Z1U Market Street have developed an excellent system of supplying the needs . of the army in this direction. Special companies of officers and men have been organized j into what is called the army water service. Each army composed of sev eral army corps now is provided with a superior officer in command of sev eral other officers and a company of expert will sinkers, borers, plumbers, and pump erectors, to whom are at tached, according to the importance of the work to be undertaken, labor units for the construction of water chan nels, the laying of heavy piping and the loading and unloading of mate rials. No fewer than "75 officers and 3,500 experts are employed on the French front in France in this highly important work, while the number of labor units they can call upon to aid them is almost unlimited. These men have cleaned 3,800 wells contaminated by the Germans in their retreat and have laid over two hun dred miles of water pipes. From the water supply tenters mo tor trucks, each carrying three bar rels containing 500 quarters apiece, make several trips daily, to points as near the front lines as possible, where they discharge the contents into cis terns. To these cisterns the mules each night and are loaded with small barrels of water, one on each side of the saddle, with which they make their way through communication trenches to the thirsty troopers. Air Raid Du Out" in London. London, Dec. 11. The biggest air raid dug-out in England has just been opened to the public for use during air raids. It will accommodate 20,000 persons. The dug-out is really an un finished railway, tunnel, 100 feet un derground, on which work was discon tinued at the beginning of the war. It is electric lighted and seats havo been provided for 2,000 persons. m m teg? son istmas- Your Family DO NOT WASTE money this Christmas invest it so as to benefit your whole family for a long time. Get this car that is built for complete auto mobile satisfaction at a price it is good busi ness to pay. To possess less is to be deprived of maxi mum service is to fall short of the very pur pose of owning a car. More than 80,000 Overland Model 90 cars have already been sold proving that the pub lic appreciates .superior value. But do you realize what a bargain it is? Let your Willys-Overland dealer show how complete satisfactionTesults from this car be cause it meets all five basic requirements: appearance, performance, comfort, service and price You must know this car to realize it gives more for less money than others. Take nothing for granted get the facts for yourself I Arrange now for Christmas delivery! 3f M - it-. 9fi 8 n. rhone 4ZZ HOLLAND FIRMS FIXED. Overseas Trust Gives Drastic Treat ment for Trade Violations. Amsterdam, Netherlands, Nov. 30. Infractions of the rules of the Nether lands Oversea Trust, the official body of which regulates the import trade of this country during the war, are punished with drastic severity, as some business firms here have found out to utter comfort has dictated that head and foot have perfect rest. A majority elects MEN'S SOCKS, 35c TO $1.23 Jwice usual weaver an oih erf air Also hose for Women Ash vmv dealer True Shape Hosiery Co. PHiladelphia mi a gMS! 63 S OF 1 74 m 3 LtiRfFout LOi . o. b. Toledo Tax Free Price subject to change without noiic their cost. A margarine firm whin has been caught in attempting f j port its produce against the terms oi its contract with the trust overnir,-, the conditions on which its raw terials had been imported. haR ot. mulcted in S120,;00n. The record fines so far is held by a cocoa w which has had to pay $J00.0 ' ; similar infraction. So far t.je tni fines inflicted by the trust aggrega. $1,600,000.. d 9 : : n v: 1 'I
Wilmington Morning Star (Wilmington, N.C.)
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Dec. 16, 1917, edition 1
18
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