TALES OF REMARKABLE EXPLOITS.
American citizens landed from vessels sunk by German submarines tell remarkable tales of the strenuous exploits of the U-boats. In one case three undersea boats appeared simultaneously alongside the ship, one being a submarine cruiser, 800 feet long, and the others old-fashioned submarines, with a length of about 120 feet.
In another case a German submarine wore an elaborate disguise of a fishing boat. This submarine carried a gun which had a range of nearly five miles.
In at least two cases the crews of vessels sunk by submarines were rescued from open boats by passing ships, only to suffer a repetition of disaster when the ship on which they had taken refuge fell prey to an underwater boat.
A seaman from Pensacola, who was a member of the crew of a Swedish sailing vessel, said:
"We were almost within sight of land late in the afternoon when we observed a Norwegian sailing vessel in an encounter with a submarine eight miles away. Apprehending that our turn would come next, we prepared a lifeboat. A 300-foot submarine came up to us in due course and fired three warning shots from its heavy gun.
"We pulled our boat over to the lifeboat from the Norwegian ship previously sunk, and a dozen hours later were picked up by a British steamer. We had only a brief stay on the British boat, as she was torpedoed the same morning. After a few hours in the boats we were found by a British patrol and landed."
A Baltimore seaman from a Danish sailing vessel said:
THE SHIP ABANDONED.
"We abandoned ship in response to three shots from a submarine. Thereupon the submarine fired twenty-two shots into the hull of the ship, sinking her. We tried to speak with the submarine commander, but he told us he was in a hurry, as he had to attend to a Norwegian bark which was waiting a short distance off.