Six shots were fired at the Ticonderoga's 3-inch forward gun, killing the gun crew and putting the gun out of commission. Then the U-boat drew away some distance, both ship and submarine keeping up the firing. "During this time most everybody on board our ship was either killed or wounded to such an extent that they were practically helpless from shrapnel," said Ringelman. "The lifeboats hanging on the davits were shelled and full of holes, others carried away. However, we kept the submarine off until our fire was put out and our boats swung on the davits, ready to abandon the ship with the few men left on board. Possibly fifty were left by that time—the rest were dead."
The submarine still continued to shell the ship and then came alongside and fired a torpedo, which struck amidships in the engine room. The ship slowly settled.
There was one life-raft left on top of the deck house. The wounded men were gathered together and lashed to the raft, which was then shoved off from the ship. Three or four minutes after that the Ticonderoga took the final plunge. The submarine picked up the executive officer out of the water and took the first assistant engineer, Fulcher, off the life raft. As Muller, whom Captain Franz, of the submarine, supposed to be the captain of the Ticonderoga, was picked up, Franz's first questions were:
"Where's the chief gunner? Where's the chief gunner's mate?"
"Dead," replied Muller.
Alicke, a machinist's mate of German descent, already hauled aboard the submarine, interpreted for Fulcher. Franz was ordering him to the raft alongside. He pleaded to be kept on board. "Speak for me," he begged his officer, but the German captain replied: "Get back on the raft. What do you mean by fighting against us, against your country? Only God can save such as you now!"
Wounded men on the raft pleaded: "Won't you please take, us? We have no food or water; no chance." But Franz answered, "We have room for no more," and cast them adrift.
All on board that raft were lost. The lifeboat, containing mainly wounded soldiers, was threatened by the Germans, who went aboard it in their search for the ship's commander. They failed to discover Captain Madison, who lay, badly wounded, almost under their feet. The Captain and 21 men were in that boat for four days before they were rescued by the British steamer Moorish Prince.
The two officers made prisoners found that the submarine was the U-152, which had left Kiel September 5, ordered to operate in American waters. The submarine, Muller and Fulcher said, received on October 11 the order from Berlin, "Engage men of war only; merchant war has ended," and on October 20 the radio, "All submarines return to Kiel."
The U-152 arrived at Kiel November 15, four days after the armistice. The two Ticonderoga officers stated that the executive officer of the Kronprinz Heinrich, the mother ship of the submarines, formally released them as prisoners, saying, "Naval officers have no more power over you." He blamed the collapse of Germany upon the entry of the United States into the war. "You have ruined our country," he added. "See what you have done!"