FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   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   >>   >|  
me to sit on, whisper into his cocked ear that they were going to try to catch a Hun in the next day or two for him to sharpen his teeth on. * * * * * These boys told me a number of stories in connection with the survivors they had rescued, or failed to rescue, from ships sunk by U-boats. Most of them were the usual accounts of firing on open boats in an attempt to sink without a trace, but there was one piquant recital which revealed the always diverting Hun sense of humour at a new slant. This was displayed, as it chanced, on the occasion of the sinking of "Ole's" ship, the Norwegian barque. After this unlucky craft had been put down by shell-fire and bombs, the U-boat ran alongside the whaler containing the captain and mate, and they were ordered aboard to be interrogated. Under the pretence of preventing any attempt to escape on the part of the remainder of those in this boat, the Germans made them clamber up and stand on the narrow steel run-way which serves as the upper deck of a submarine. No sooner were they here, however, than the Hun humorist on the bridge began slowly submerging. When the water was lapping round the necks of the unfortunate Norwegians, and just threatening to engulf them, the nose of the U-boat was slanted up again, this finely finessed operation being repeated during all of the time that the captain and mate were being pumped below by the commander of the submarine. No great harm--save that one of the sailors, losing his nerve when the U-boat started down the first time, dived over, struck his head on one of the bow-rudders and was drowned--was done by this little pleasantry, but it is so illuminative of what the Hun is in his lightsome moods that I have thought it worth setting down. [Illustration: "KAMERADING" WITH UPLIFTED PAWS] [Illustration: HELPING THE COOK TO PEEL POTATOES] The American is more violent in his feelings than the Briton, and much more inclined to say what he thinks; and I found these boys--to use the expressive phrase of one of them--"mad clean through" at the Hun pirate and all he stands for. America--with more time to do that sort of thing--has undoubtedly gone farther than any other country in the war in trying to give her soldiers and sailors a proper idea of the beast they have been sent out to slay. These lessons seem to have sunk home with all of them, and when it has been supplemented--as in the case of the sailors in the
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   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   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

sailors

 

captain

 

attempt

 
submarine
 
Illustration
 

illuminative

 
setting
 

thought

 

slanted

 

lightsome


pleasantry
 

struck

 

losing

 

operation

 

repeated

 
pumped
 

commander

 

started

 

finessed

 
finely

drowned

 
rudders
 

feelings

 

farther

 

country

 

undoubtedly

 

America

 
stands
 

lessons

 

supplemented


proper

 

soldiers

 

pirate

 

POTATOES

 

American

 

violent

 

UPLIFTED

 

HELPING

 

engulf

 

Briton


expressive

 

phrase

 

inclined

 

thinks

 

KAMERADING

 

serves

 
piquant
 

recital

 

revealed

 

accounts