Horrors and Atrocities of the Great War: Including the Tragic Destruction of the LusitaniaMarshall, Logan
History
Horrors and Atrocities of the Great War: Including the Tragic Destruction of the Lusitania
Marshall, Logan
World War, 1914-1918 -- Atrocities
“We had left Liverpool without unusual incident, and it was two o’clock
on the afternoon of Friday, May 7, that we received the S. O. S. call
from the Lusitania. Her wireless operator sent this message: ‘We are ten
miles south of Kinsale. Come at once.’
“I was then about forty-two miles from the position he gave me. Two
other steamships were ahead of me, going in the same direction. They
were the Narragansett and the City of Exeter. The Narragansett was
closer to the Lusitania, and she answered the S. O. S. call.
“At 5 P. M. I observed the City of Exeter across our bow and she
signaled, ‘Have you heard anything of the disaster?’
“At that very moment I saw the periscope of a submarine between the
Etonian and the City of Exeter. The submarine was about a quarter of a
mile directly ahead of us. She immediately dived as soon as she saw us
coming for her. I distinctly saw the splash in the water caused by her
submerging.
[Illustration: CHARGING THROUGH BARBED-WIRE ENTANGLEMENTS.
The King’s Regiment of the British Army suffered heavily while trying to
penetrate the enemy’s wire entanglement at Givenchy. Three lines of a
perfect thicket of barbed-wire lay between them and the enemy. Only one
brave officer even managed to penetrate the wire. (_Il. L. News
copr._)]
[Illustration: A LAND MINE EXPLODED UNDERNEATH A SECTION OF THE ENEMY’S
TRENCHES.
A method which has been known to blow forty men to pieces at once. By
sapping and mining the gallery was dug almost to the enemy’s trenches
underground and explosives placed, which were then fired by electric
wire. The explosion hurled a piece of railroad iron weighing twenty-five
pounds a distance of over a mile. (_Il. L. News copr._)]
DODGED TWO SUBMARINES
“I signaled to the engine room for every available inch of speed, and
there was a prompt response. Then we saw the submarine come up astern of
us with the periscope in line afterward. I now ordered full speed ahead,
and we left the submarine slowly behind. The periscope remained in sight
about twenty minutes. Our speed was perhaps two miles an hour better
than the submarine could do.
“No sooner had we lost sight of the submarine astern than I made out
another on the starboard bow. This one was directly ahead and on the
surface, not submerged. I starboarded hard away from him, he swinging as
we did. About eight minutes later he submerged. I continued at top speed
for four hours, and saw no more of the submarines. It was the ship’s
speed that saved her. That’s all.
“Both these submarines were long craft, and the second one had wireless
masts. There is no question in my mind that these two submarines were
acting in concert and were so placed as to torpedo any ship that might
attempt to go to the rescue of the passengers of the Lusitania.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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