USA > Wisconsin > Racine County > Racine county in the world war > Part 24
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"The explosion wrecked everything in the engine room, including the ice machine and
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dynamo, and almost instantly flooded the en- gine room, fireroom, and No. 3 hold, which is just abaft the engine-room bulkhead. The en- gine room was filled with ammonia fumes and with the high-pressure gases from the tor- pedo, and it is believed that everyone on duty in the engine room was either instantly killed or disabled except one oiler. This man hap- pened to be on the upper gratings at the time. He tried to escape through the engine-room door, which is near the level of the upper grat- ings, but found the door jammed, and the knob on his side blown off. Unable to force the door, and finding he was being overcome by the gases and ammonia fumes, he managed to escape through the engine-room skylight just as the ship was going under. Within a few seconds after the explosion the water was over the crossheads of the main engines, which were still turning over slowly. Of the 21 men on duty in the engine room and firerooms only 3 managed to escape. Besides the oiler, 2 fire- men managed to escape through the fireroom ventilator. The fact that the engines could not be maneuvered and the headway of the ship checked added to the difficulty of abandon- ing ship.
"Just as the torpedo struck us I was on the way to the pilot house from the scene of fire. Before I could reach the bridge the offi- cer of the deck had sounded the submarine alarm, and I immediately sounded the signal for 'Abandon ship.' The officer on watch, quar- termaster, and signalman went to their boats. Radio Electrician Watson being relieved by Radio Electrician Ausburne in the radio room, reported on the bridge for instructions. I sent an order to get out an S. O. S. signal. Radio Electrician Watson, who was lost, remained with me on the bridge until the gun crews for- ward were ordered to save themselves. He was wearing a life jacket and was on his way to his boat when I last saw him.
"Before leaving port all boats had been rigged out except the two after boats, which, owing to their low davits, could not with safety be rigged out except in favorable weather. All hands had been carefully instructed and care- fully drilled in the details of abandoning ship. The best seamen in the ship's crew had been detailed and stationed by the falls; men had been stationed by the gripes of each boat, and all boats had been equipped with sea painters; two axes had been placed in each boat, one forward and one aft, for the purpose of cut- ting the falls or sea painters in case they should get jammed, and men had been detailed to cast them off. That only 4 boats out of 10
succeeded in getting clear of the ship was due to several causes-the short time the ship re- mained afloat after being torpedoed; the head- way left on the ship, due to the fact that the engine-room personnel was put out of action by the explosion; the rough sea at the time; the fact that the ship listed heavily; and that one boat was destroyed by the explosion.
"When there was no one left in sight on the decks I went aft on the saloon deck, where several men were struggling in the water in the vicinity of No. 5 boat and making no at- tempt to swim away from the side of the ship. I thought perhaps these men could be induced to get clear of the ship, as it was feared the suction would carry them down. By the time that point was reached, however, the ship, being at an angle with the horizontal of about 45 degrees, started to upend and go down, list- ing heavily to port. This motion threw me across the deck where I was washed overboard. The ship went down vertically. The suction effect was hardly noticeable.
"The behavior of the naval personnel throughout was equal to the best traditions of the service. The two forward gun crews, in charge of Lieutenant Tisdale, remained at their gun stations while the ship went down, and made no move to leave their stations until or- dered to save themselves. Radio Electrician Ausburne went down with the ship while at his station in the radio room. When the ship was struck Ausburne, realizing the seriousness of the situation, told McMahon to get his life pre- server on, saying, as he left to take his station at the radio key, 'Good-bye, Mac.' McMahon, later finding the radio room locked and seeing the ship was sinking, tried to get Ausburne out, but failed.
"As soon as the Henderson saw what was wrong she turned to starboard and made a thick smoke screen which completely hid her from view. The Willehad turned to port and made off at her best speed. The Corsair and Alcedo began the rescue of the survivors, the Corsair continuing to look for the submarine. The total number of persons on board the An- tilles was 234, the Corsair rescuing 50 and the Alcedo 117. Too much credit cannot be given to the officers and men of the Corsair and Al- cedo for their rescue work and for their whole- heartedness and generosity in succoring the needs of the survivors. The work of the medi- cal officers attached to the above vessels was worthy of highest praise.
"An instance comes back which indicates the coolness of the gun crews. One member was rescued from the top of an ammunition
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box which by some means had floated clear and in an upright position. When this young man saw the Corsair standing down to pick him up he semaphored not to come too close, as the box on which he was sitting contained live ammunition."
In the above instance the German submarine commander made no attempt to rescue sur- vivors of the wreck. This was generally the policy, but sometimes a boat-load of sailors would be "given a tow" toward land, and on other occasions the lifeboats would be shelled and sunk by the assailant. It seemed to de- pend upon the nature of the U-boat captain rather than upon any rules recognized by the German navy.
The methods used to combat the U-boat men- ace have been touched upon before in this volume.
Commander Taussig gave the following in- teresting description of the voyage of the first flotilla of destroyers and their work:
"When the United States became a belliger- ent, one of the first requests the Allies made was that we send as many destroyers and oth- er patrol boats as we could possibly muster over to the other side to assist them in com- bating the submarines. At 9:30 one April night I received orders to proceed at daylight to my home navy yard to fit out for distant service. What was before us I did not know. There were five other commanding officers of destroyers who received the same orders, and at 5 o'clock the following morning we left Chesapeake Bay and were on our way to New York and Boston at a high speed, in order that we might get ready, as soon as possible, for whatever it was to be.
"So anxious was the Navy Department that the outside world in general know nothing of the movement of these ships that not even I, who was in command of the expedition, was informed of our destination. We went to the navy yards, the ships went in dock, had their bottoms cleaned and painted, we took cn stores and provisions to last three months, and in a few days sailed from Boston.
"My orders were to proceed to a point fifty miles east of Cape Cod and then open my sealed instructions. Until 1 got to that point, at midnight of the first night out, I did not know that our first port of call was to be Queenstown. It was quite natural that the few in authority who knew our movements watched with anxiety for news of our crossing. It was the first time that vessels of this type had ever made so long a continuous passage
without refueling or without the company of larger vessels.
"We were ten days in making the trip, due mostly to a southeast gale, which accompanied us for seven of the ten days. So rough was the sea during this time that for seven of the ten days we did not set our mess tables; we ate off our laps. On the ninth day we were pleased to be met by a little British destroyer named the Mary Rose. She picked us up early one morning and came along flying the inter- national signal, 'Welcome to the American Colors.' To this we replied, 'Thank you, we are glad of your company.' The Mary Rose then accompanied us to Queenstown. I am sorry to say that three months later the Mary Rose was sunk with all hands by a German raider in the North Sea. We received a very hearty welcome at Queenstown by the British Admiral, Sir Lewis Bayly, and by the others in authority there. They were very glad to see us.
"Things were looking black. In the three previous weeks the submarines had sunk 152 British merchant ships. It was manifest that this thing could not go on if the Allies were to win the war. The British Admiral gave us some wholesome advice in regard to how best to fight the submarines. We immediately pre- pared for this service by having what are known as depth charges or depth bombs in- stalled. We put ashore all of our surplus stores and provisions in order to lighten our draft, as it was possible that a few inches might save us from striking a mine.
"The seriousness of the work before us was made evident, not only by the large number of vessels that were being sunk, but by the fact that the night before we entered the harbor a German submarine had planted twelve mines right in the channel. Fortunate- ly for us, they were swept up by the ever-vigi- lant British mine sweepers before we arrived. The day following our arrival one of the British gunboats from our station was torpedoed and her captain and forty of her crew were lost. Patrol vessels were continually bringing in the survivors from the various ships as they were sunk.
"The British Admiral told us that we would go on patrol duty for six days at a time, and then come in for two or three days' rest. In this patrol duty we were assigned to certain areas, as far as 300 miles off shore, as the submarines were then operating that far out. Our orders were to destroy submarines; to escort or convoy valuable merchant ships; to
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GREAT LAKES NAVAL TRAINING STATION SCENES-NOW A MEMORY
"The Lakes" was a familiar place to Racine people, for hundreds of local boys went into service there. The pictures above were taken when the station's roster was at its largest. Thousands occupied tents on the grounds and the walks and parade were thronged at all hours of the day. Below is shown contingents of men lined up with their kit bags ready to entrain to coast points for sea duty. Men selected for these adventuresome journeys were told of it only a few hours be- fore their trains started and they had little more than time to get their belongings together.
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save lives if we could. We did escort many ships, and we did save many lives.
"I cannot say that we sank many subma- rines. The submarine, I found, is a very diffi- cult bird to catch. He has tremendous ad- vantage over the surface craft. In the first place, he always sees you first. This is be- cause when on the surface he is very low, and when submerged he has only his periscope out, or perhaps nothing at all. As he was not after destroyers, he avoided us whenever he could. That is, if he saw the destroyer on the horizon, the submarine immediately went the other way.
"When we saw a submarine, which some- times happened frequently, and at other times several days might pass without seeing one, we would immediately go after him full speed, and open fire with our guns in the hopes of get- ting in a shot before he submerged; but he always submerged very quickly. Only once did my vessel in seven months succeed in actually fighting a submarine. He then went down after the fifth shot was fired. At that time he was five miles away. But what they are afraid of are the depth charges or depth bombs.
"I will tell you how they operate. A depth- charge is about two or three hundred pounds of a high explosive. It is fitted so as to ex- plode automatically at any depth we may de- sire. The destroyers and patrol vessels carry them on deck at the stern. When we see a submarine submerge we try to find his wake, and if we can see the wake of a submerged vessel we run over it, drop the depth charge by simply pulling a lever, and in a few seconds there is a terrific explosion.
"This explosion is so great that on one or two occasions, when I happened to be in the chart house when they let go, I thought my own ship was torpedoed. They can be felt under the water for a distance of several miles, but, of course, they must be dropped very close to the submarine in order to destroy him. If we get it say within ninety feet of the hull, it may damage it enough to cause him to sink, otherwise only superficial damage may result.
"The patrol duty was very trying, as the ocean was strewn with wreckage for a distance of 300 miles off shore. It was hard to tell a periscope when we saw one. Fish, floating spars, and many other objects were taken for periscopes and fired at; we could not afford to take a chance, as our whole safety depended on our being vigilant.
"The submarines did less damage, as the
summer wore on, due, undoubtedly, to our hav- ing more patrol vessels.
"Then the scheme was taken up of having convoys. The advantage of a convoy is that six or ten destroyers can protect from twenty to thirty merchant ships, while in the patrol system only one destroyer could be with one merchant ship at a time. The convoy system developed so that practically all vessels passing through the danger zone were in large convoys of from ten to thirty with an escort of from six to ten destroyers.
"These convoy trips would take us out of port from six to eight days. They were very trying days, especially during the latter part of fall, when the weather got bad. When we are at sea in this way we do not take off our clothes, neither officer nor man. We must be ready at all times. We do not even have the pleasure of taking a bath, as something might happen and we would not be ready for it. As one young officer expressed it, we had to come down to the Saturday night bath habit, and if we happened to be at sea Saturday night we might be out of luck.
"The night work was very difficult, as the danger of collision was great with so many ships without lights operating in close proxim- ity. There are frequent collisions, and we must use our judgment as to whether we should turn on our lights and avoid the danger of collisions, and take the risk of a submarine seeing us, or keeping our lights out and taking our chances. We have this to remember, that if a submarine sinks us she only sinks one ship, but a serious collision may result in the sink- ing of two ships, so it is a matter of judg- ment."
The American destroyers operating in the war zone had been on constant duty for seven months before the first and only one sunk by enemy submarine, the Jacob Jones, was tor- pedoed. The little Chauncey, of 592 tons dis- placement, had been, on November 19th, sunk in collision with a British transport, 18 lives being lost. The Cassin was struck by a tor- pedo on October 15, but was taken to port and repaired. But one man was killed, Gunner's Mate Osmond K. Ingram, who gave his life to save the ship. To commemorate this coura- geous act, Secretary Daniels named one of the new destroyers the Ingram. Commander W. N. Vernou was in command of the Cassin, which was patrolling off the Irish coast about 20 miles south of Mine Head when, at 1:30 P. M., a submarine was sighted some distance away. The Cassin went at full speed for the spot, but the submarine had submerged.
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What occurred afterward is told in the offi- cial report :
"At about 1:57 P. M. the commanding officer sighted a torpedo apparently shortly after it had been fired, running near the surface and in a direction that was estimated would make a hit either in the engine or fire room. When first seen the torpedo was between 300 and 400 yards from the ship, and the wake could be followed on the other side for abont 400 yards. The torpedo was running at high speed, at least 35 knots. The Cassin was maneuver- ing to dodge the torpedo, double emergency full speed ahead having been signaled from the engine room and the rudder put hard left as soon as the torpedo was sighted. It looked for the moment as though the torpedo would pass astern. When about 15 or 20 feet away the torpedo porpoised, completely leaving the water and sheering to the left. Before again taking the water the torpedo hit the ship well aft on the port side about frame 163 and above the water line. Almost immediately after the explosion of the torpedo the depth charges, located on the stern and ready for firing, ex- ploded. There were two distinct explosions in quick succession after the torpedo hit.
"But one life was lost. Osmond K. Ingram, gunner's mate first class, was cleaning the muzzle of No. 4 gun, target practice being just over when the attack occurred. With rare presence of mind, realizing that the torpedo was about to strike the part of the ship where the depth charges were stored and that the setting off of these explosives might sink the ship, Ingram, immediately seeing the danger, ran aft to strip these charges and throw them overboard. He was blown to pieces when the torpedo struck. Thus Ingram sacrificed his life in performing a duty which he believed would save his ship and the lives of the officers and men on board.
"Nine members of the crew received minor injuries.
"After the ship was hit, the crew was kept at general quarters.
"The executive officer and engineer officer inspected the parts of the ship that were dam- aged, and those adjacent to the damage. It was found that the engine and fire rooms and after magazine were intact and that the en- gines could be worked; but that the ship could not be steered, the rudder having been blown off and the stern blown to starboard. The ship continued to turn to starboard in a circle. In an effort to put the ship on a course by the use of the engines, something carried away which put the starboard engine out of commis-
sion. The port engine was kept going at slow speed. The ship, being absolutely unmanage- able, sometimes turned in a circle and at times held an approximate course for several min- utes.
"Immediately after the ship was torpedoed the radio was out of commission. The radio officer and radio electrician chief managed to improvise a temporary auxiliary antenna. The generators were out of commission for a short time after the explosion, the ship being in darkness below.
"When this vessel was torpedoed, there was another United States destroyer, name un- known, within signal distance. After being torpedoed, an attempt was made to signal her by searchlight, flag, and whistle, and the dis- tress signal was hoisted. Apparently through a misunderstanding she steamed away and was lost sight of.
"At about 2:30 P. M., when we were in ap- proximately the same position as when tor- pedoed, a submarine conning tower was sight- ed on port beam, distant about 1,500 yards, ship still circling under port engine. Opened fire with No. 2 gun, firing four rounds. Sub- marine submerged and was not seen again. Two shots struck very close to the submarine.
"At 3:50 P. M., U. S. S. Porter stood by. At 4:25 P. M., wreckage which was hanging to stern dropped off. At dark stopped port engine and drifted. At about 9 P. M., H. M. S. Jessamine and II. M. S. Tamarisk stood by. H. M. S. Jessamine signalled she could stand by until morning and then take us in tow. At this time sea was very rough, wind about six or seven (34 or 40 miles an honr) and in- creasing.
"H. M. S. Tamarisk prepared to take ns in tow and made one attempt after another to get a line to us. Finally, about 2:10 A. M., October 16th, the Tamarisk lowered a boat in rongh sea and sent grass line by means of which our 8-inch hawser was sent over to her. At about 2:30 A. M. Tamarisk started towing us to Queenstown, speed about 4 knots, this vessel towing well on starboard quarter of Tamarisk, due to condition of stern described above. At 3:25 hawser parted.
"Between this time and 10:37 A. M., when a towing line was received from H. M. S. Snow- drop, various attempts were made by the Tamarisk and two trawlers and a tug to tow the Cassin. An 11-inch towing hawser from the Tamarisk parted. All ships, except her, lost the Cassin during the night. The Cassin was drifting rapidly on a lee shore, and had it not been for the Tamarisk getting ont a
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line in the early morning, the vessel would undoubtedly have grounded on Hook Point, as it is extremely doubtful if her anchors would have held.
"About 35 feet of stern was blown off or completely ruptured. The after living com- partments and after storerooms are completely wrecked or gone, and all stores and clothing from these parts of the ship are gone or ruined. Abont 45 members of the crew, in- cluding the chief petty officers, lost practical- ly everything but the clothes they had on."
Lieutenant Isaacs, who was captured by the submarine which sank the Transport Presi- dent Lincoln, had one of the most remarkable experiences on record. The U-boat was bombed by American destroyers, and for a time it seemed that he would perish with all aboard the German vessel. Taken to Germany, after repeated attempts in which, time and again, he risked his life, he managed to es- cape, and made his way to Switzerland. De- scribing his experiences, Lieutenant Isaacs said:
"The President Lincoln went down about 9:30 in the morning, 30 minutes after being struck by three torpedoes. In obedience to orders I abandoned ship after seeing all hands aft safely off the vessel. The boats had pulled away, but I stepped on a raft floating along- side, the quarter deck being then awash. A few minutes later one of the boats picked me up. The submarine, the U-90, then returned and the commanding officer, while searching for Captain Foote of the President Lincoln, took me out of the boat. I told him my cap- tain had gone down with the ship, whereupon he steamed away, taking me prisoner to Ger- many. We passed to the North of the Shet- lands into the North Sea, the Skaggerak, the Cattegat, and the Sound into the Baltic. Pro- ceeding to Kiel, we passed down the canal through the Heligoland Bight to Wilhelms- haven.
"On the way to the Shetlands we fell in with two American destroyers, the Smith and the Warrington, who dropped 22 depth bombs on us. We were submerged to a depth of 60 meters and weathered the storm, although five bombs were very close and shook us con- siderably. The information I had been able to collect was, I considered, of enongh im- portance to warrant my trying to escape. Ac- cordingly in Danish waters I attempted to jump from the deck of the submarine but was canght and ordered below.
"The German Navy authorities took me from Wilhelmshaven to Karlsruhe, where I was
turned over to the army. Here I met officers of all the Allied armies, and with them I at- tempted several escapes, all of which were un- successful. After three weeks at Karlsruhe I was sent to the American and Russian officers' camp at Villengen. On the way I attempted to escape from the train by jumping out of the window. With the train making about 40 miles an hour, I landed on the opposite rail- road track and was so severely wounded by the fall that I could not get away from my guard. They followed me, firing continuously. When they recaptured me they struck me on the head and body with their guns until one broke his rifle. It snapped in two at the small of the stock as he struck me with the butt on the back of the head.
"I was given two weeks' solitary confine- ment for this attempt to escape, but continued trying, for I was determined to get my infor- mation back to the Navy. Finally, on the night of October 6th, assisted by several American Army officers, I was able to effect an escape by short-circuiting all lighting circuits in the prison camp and cutting through barbed- wire fences surrounding the camp. This had to be done in the face of a heavy rifle fire from the guards. But it was difficult for them to see in the darkness, so I escaped unscathed.
"In company with an American officer in the French Army, I made my way for seven days and nights over mountains to the Rhine, which to the south of Baden forms the boun- dary between Germany and Switzerland. After a four-hour crawl on hands and knees I was able to elude the sentries along the Rhine. Plunging in, I made for the Swiss shore. After being carried several miles down the stream, being frequently submerged by the rapid current, I finally reached the opposite shore and gave myself up to the Swiss gen- darmes, who turned me over to the American legation at Berne. From there I made my way to Paris and then London and finally Washington, where I arrived four weeks after my escape from Germany."
Within little more than a year the person- nel of the Naval service grew to a force of half a million. To house and train these re- cruits a score of new camps and stations were erected, each a little city in itself; and numer- ous schools were established to train men in special branches. Sir Eric Geddes, First Lord of the British Admiralty, said of this:
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