FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93  
94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   >>   >|  
ame ashore at Portliskey in Wales, bottom up and shattered; of the seven men who had manned her there was no trace. Six of _Cottingham's_ crew survived the bitter weather--six hardy seamen were spared to return to service afloat. The German became dissatisfied with a frightfulness that murdered only half a merchant ship's crew when it was possible to murder all. It was not enough to destroy the ships and leave the seamen to the wind and sea and bitter weather. If they were not to be driven from their calling by fear, there were other measures--sure, definite, final. There was to be no weakness among the apostles of the new creed, no shrinking, no humanity--British seamen were to follow their shattered ships to the litter of the channel bottom. The _Koelnische Zeitung_ set forth that "in future, our German submarines and aircraft would wage war against British mercantile vessels without troubling themselves in any way about the fate of the crews." The _Koelnische Zeitung_ could not have been well informed. Their submarine commanders troubled themselves greatly about the fate of our crews. They shelled the boats in many subsequent attacks. They expended ammunition in efforts to secure that no further seafaring would be possible to their victims. Sheer individual murder took the place of an illegal act of war. ". . . We were unarmed, a slow ship. The submarine hit us with a shot on the bow and then ran up the signal to take to the lifeboats. We did so, and several shots were fired at the _Palermo_. They did not take effect, however, and a torpedo was sent into her side. She sank within a few minutes. Whether the fact that he had to use a torpedo to send our vessel to the bottom angered the commander I do not know, but the submarine came directly alongside of our lifeboats. The commander was on the deck, and yelled, 'Where is the captain of that ship?' The captain stood up and made his way to the side where the German was standing. The German held his revolver close to our captain's head. 'You will never bring _another ship across this ocean_,' he said, using several oaths, then he pulled the trigger. Our captain fell dead, and we were permitted to continue." The new campaign was directed particularly against the coasters and fishermen. The procedure was simple. No great speed or gun-range was required. There was no risk, if a good look-out was kept for patrols and war craft. The helpless, unarmed vessel, outsped and hulled
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93  
94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

German

 

captain

 

seamen

 
submarine
 
bottom
 

shattered

 
commander
 

murder

 

vessel

 

Zeitung


Koelnische
 

lifeboats

 

bitter

 

torpedo

 

British

 
weather
 

unarmed

 

directly

 

yelled

 
alongside

minutes

 
effect
 

Palermo

 

signal

 

angered

 

Whether

 

simple

 
directed
 

coasters

 

fishermen


procedure

 

required

 

patrols

 

helpless

 

outsped

 

hulled

 

campaign

 

continue

 

revolver

 

standing


permitted

 

trigger

 

pulled

 

greatly

 

destroy

 

driven

 
definite
 

weakness

 

measures

 

calling