Kelly Miller's History of the World War for Human Rights
John Stuart Mill · en
Finally Moeller climbed upon the upturned boat, where he lay listening
to the shrieks of his companions. He said that their cries were most
pitiful. The cabin boy was the next victim. He cried pitifully for a
time, but finally became silent and slid into the water. One after
another, the men died of exposure and slipped into the peaceful sea.
After a time the only persons remaining, besides the third mate, were
the two who had thrown themselves across the bottom of the boat. Finally
one of them gave up the struggle, and the other, in an effort to combat
the cold, pulled the clothes from his dead body and wrapped them about
himself. The boat settled a little, and finally both were corpses, lying
with feet and hands dipping into the sea. The engineer said that he did
not have the heart to push their bodies into the water, although he knew
they were dead.
Finally the third mate was the only other man alive. The clothes of the
engineer were frozen fast to his body, and he felt that he was dying of
cold. The third mate started to get a sort of bluish black from the
cold, and with a gasping cry he attempted to sit up straight. Then
reason left him, and for a couple of hours he shouted and shrieked, and,
as the sun began to streak the sky and dawn brought slight comfort, the
demented man raved and swore.
Then a flash of reason seemed to return to him and he spoke to Moeller.
"I'm going," he said. "Give my love to my wife."
The man had been married just before starting on this ill-fated voyage.
With this farewell message on his lips he died. When Moeller returned to
his home he found that it was impossible to deliver the message to the
wife of the dead man, because of the fact that worry had driven her
insane.
TROUSERS USED AS SIGNAL.
Shortly after the death of his companion Moeller saw the smoke of a
steamer on the horizon. Summoning all his strength, he tore the trousers
from the limbs of one of the dead men, and, using them as a means of
signaling, swung them about his head to attract attention. As the
engineer made every effort to attract the attention of those aboard the
steamship, he saw a sneaking submarine slowly edging toward her. This
made him shout all the louder, thinking thereby to warn the captain of
the ship of his danger. His efforts were vain, however, and in a short
time the ship had gone to the bottom and the crew was adrift in the
lifeboats. The sunken ship proved to be a Russian steamer.
In his efforts to attract the attention of the intended victim of the
U-boat, the drifting man had attracted the attention of the captain of
the submarine, and it was this boat to which his cold-stiffened body was
hauled a few minutes later. It was a time before his numb body could be
thawed out.