The Bamberg herald. (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, April 17, 1919, Image 7
?. OFFICER OFN
PRISONER
. Lieut. Frank L. Muller, c
By a German Subma
4 perience While in H
* Aboard the Madawaska which
brought troops from France was
\ Lieut. Frank L. Muller, of Oakland,
Cal., a survivor of the ill-starrea
Ticonderoga which was sunk in September
by a German submarine after
a running fight which lasted for two
hours. Lieut. Muller was executive
officer of the Ticonderoga and was a
captive aboard the u-boat which sank
the vessel until it was surrendered
j along with the rest of the German
fleet late in November of last year.
Lieut. Muller in speaking of his experience
says that it seems like a
"bad dream and that he can hardly'
realize that it happened.
The Ticonderoga was proceeding
, from the United States to France as
part of a convoy when it was attacked
by u-boat 152 in mid ocean.
The attack was made early in the
morning of September 30, 1918. The
' lookout on the vessel sighted the
submarine and the signal was given.
An attempt was made to ram it, missing
by five feet. Then started the
battle which ended by the ship being j
abandoned four minutes before it i
sank and by the killing of most of:
the men aboard.
Heavy Damage by Germans. .
4, The submarine opened fire almost
immediately. The first shell was fired
at 5.40 a. m. and the attack lasted
r" until 6.15 a. m., by which time the
Germans had fired twenty-six times.
| ^ Forty men had been killed, the threeinch
gun of the ship had been put
out of business, the steering appa..
f ratus smashed, and Capt. Madison,
of the Ticonderoga, seriously wounded.
The Germans were using shrapnel
and in addition to the forty men
killed about the same number
had been wounded. The guns of the
Ticonderoga were useless, as the ship
. I
' could not be steered into a position
whjerp they could be used. However,
, * / about fifteen shots had been fired.
At this time the u-boat submerged
and Capt. Madison ordered Lieut.
' * Muller to have the debris cleared
aWay. The entire superstructure of
\ the Ticonderoga was afire, but was
lj|' extinguished, the wounded were |
cared for, and the auxiliary steering
gear utilized.
; * - " This work was completed at 6.40
o'clock and five minutes later the |
submarine reappeared about four
miles off the port quarter of the ship, i
The guns of the Ticonderoga were
trained on it and fired, the subma-i
I
rine returning the fire. The distance
. in targets may be appreciated inas-|
much as the submarine appeared as a j
gray streak in the water, while the
merchant ship loomed high and was
J an easy mark.to hit.
The exchange of fire continued until
7.15 o'clock and the crew and am
munition parties had to be replaced
^ several times, the men having been
killed or disabled. It was then discovered
that the vessel was sinking,
'it having been struck below .the
! - water line. All the woodwork had j
4 been shot away and it was nothing j
more than a hulk. The decks were
. covered with dead and wounded men,
the aim of the Germans having been
. J /good. Capt. Madison, during the entire
time, although severely wounded,
had been propped up against a bulkhead
and had issued orders for the
-defense of the ship. He now ordered
that the vessel be abandoned and
... , i
against his protest he was placed
in one of the three lifeboats remaining
undamaged. He fainted as the
lifeboat was lowered.
<4 Germans Sank Lifeboats.
In each boat there were three able
men and a load of wounded soldiers, j
Two of these were sunk by the Ger-'
mans as they pushed away from the
ship, but the third lifeboat, No. 9,
got away safely. Capt. Madison was
in< this one. At 7.30 o'clock a torpedo
was fired by the Germans at the
Ticonderoga and it began to sink rapidly.
At 7.35 o'clock Lieut. Muller and
the remainder of the crew aboard the
vessel took to a lifeboat and an old
^ wherry. Four minutes later when
they were about 150 feet from the
vessel it sank. On the raft were seventeen
men and nine were in the
wherry, Lieut. Muller being among
them. The craft was clumsy and
* could not he kept on an even keel.
It would turn over and over with the
waves and the nine men were kept
scrambling up the sides as it turned,
being half drowned each time it upset.
Very shortly, according to Lieut.
Muller, the wherry drifted among
some potatoes from the Ticonderoga
and' an effort was made to gather
them. It was while doing this that
the wherry capsized again and he was
J caught under it. It was impossible
tAD AW ASK A
ON A U-BOAT
if the Ticonderoga, Sunk
rine, Tells of His Exlands
of the Enemy.
to dive from under the craft, as he
had a lifebelt strapped tightly about
him and very soon he lost consciousness
after having been in the water
ohrmt on hnnr
U.UV/UV uu
Found by Potato Hunters.
One hour later, as he was told afterward,
he was picked up by the
crew of the stftmarine who were
hunting for the potatoes. For three
days he was put through a mental
third degree in an effort to extract
information concerning the movements
of vessels and about the preparations
of America as well. Then he
was told that he would be heard
[ aboard. The fourth day after being
| captured he was informed that Lieut.
5 F. J. Fulcher, another officer of the
Ticonderoga, was a prisoner aboard
the submarine and that the craft was
bound for the American coast.
Lieut. Muller says that when he
awoke from his stupor, after having
i been captured, all doubt as to where
he was was removed when he saw on
the opposite side of the cabin pictures
of Frederick the Great and von
Hindenburg.
The submarine proceeded toward
the American coast for eleven days
and was then 400 miles off New
York city. October 11 an order came
from the German admiralty to abandon
the expedition to America and to
cease operations. The captain of the
BiiVimorino tnlrl T.iont Afnllor +Vjf lia
UUMJLUU1 W*U AJiVUVi Uli^l V .at i*vy
believed that the orders meant that
negotiations for peace would be
started bv the German government.
October 20 the submarine was ordered
back to Kiel and also ordered to
discontinue all warfare on merchant
ships. In these nine days there had
been an engagement with a vessel
every day and on the seventeenth
threje merchantmen had been attacked.
Lieut. Muller says that it was
far from a nice feeling to be kept
confined in the submarine while the
attacks were proceeding when he
could hear the shells whizzing by
overhead. On the thirteenth a Norwegian
ship, the Steifinder, a neutral
vessel, was sunk by the Germans
j after they had looted her of everyi
thing of value. On the fifteenth the
| submarine was depthbombed by two
' destroyers, nine bombs being dropI
ped. On this day the u-boat also
sank a ship.
Joyous Over Armistice.
After the order to proceed to Kiel
was received submarine warfare was
given up entirely. From November
j 1 to November 9 the craft dodged
I cruisers off the coast of Ireland. On
the ninth it was bombed by a seai
_
j plane in the North Sea. November
11, t^e day the armistice was signed,
I the g^eat barrage of 160,000 mines
j laid by the allies in the North Sea
was crossed.
| The joy of the Germans upon hearI
ing of the armistice knew no bounds,
j They were heartily sick of war and
demonstrated the fact: Lieuts. Muller
j and Fulcher were released as prisonj
ers of war on this day. In passing
through the Kattegat mine field the
u-boat 156, returning from America,
was blown up, but the 152 escaped.
The craft arrived in Kiel on the 15th
of November and Lieut. Muller says
that red flags were everywhere,
while the Soldiers' and Sailors' Council
took charge of the submarine at
j once. The commander-in-chief of
j the German navy under this new govj
ernment was a former seaman. The
two lieutenants were treated well Inasmuch
as the Reds were down on the
German officers and in fact told the
Americans that if they were insulted
by any one to report it and the of!
A U V_ J.-ii. ?*j ' - '
icuuci wuuiu ue ueau wun. L?ieui.
Muller says that he believes the object
of this was to make a good impression.
The two officers remained in Kiel
aboard the Kronprinz Heinrich,
mother ships of the submarines, until
November 20, when they were
given permission by the Red government
to travel aboard the submarine
which had captured them to Harwich,
England, where it was to be surrendered
to the allies. They saw the
surrender of the German submarine
fleet and the flag of Great Britain
raised over that of Germany.
Welcomed by a Briton.
Lieut. Muller says the first man to
speak to him as he stepped ashore at
Harwich, England, was Admiral Sir
Eric Geddes, first lord of the British
admiralty. He said, "Welcome back
to your own people." The English
treated them royally and they were
very much pleased with the reception.
In speaking of the treatment
aboard the submarine Lieut. Muller
said he had no complaint to find.
IX HANDS OF RECEIVERS.
Co-operative Corporation Exhibits a
Romance of Mismanagement.
The Orangeburg Packing Company j
went in the hands of temporary receivers
Thursday when Judge I. W. |
Bowman signed a temporary order,
naming Mr. J.# Stokes Salley and Mr.
S. A. Dantzler the receivers. The
action was taken as a result of a
complaint filed by a local bank, alleging
insolvency, the preferment of
certain creditors, and demanding the
appointment of receivers.
The step marks the beginning of
the end of the local packing company
as far as local stockholders are concerned
as the fonoMi ^ ~
, 9vuv>ui liiipt COOlUll 19
that the debts are more than the sum
which will probably be realized when
the business is disposed. This com-!
pany was organized several years
ago as a result of a great campaign j
by local citizens, assisted by extension
department officials, and as a step
towards meeting the competition of
the boll weevil. With the weevil in
the county, the plant goes into the receivership.
Going into receivership doesn't
mean, necessarily, that the plant will
not resume operation. In all probability
it will be bought by some
packing concern, which may operate
it here later as a part of their chain
of packing plants. This will insure
a packing house at Orangeburg, even
if the stockholders lose money, and
will give a market for livestock.
The failure of the present plant is
ascribed to many different things,
among which are the dislocation of
conditions by the war, the strength
of outside competition, and poor management.
Even the friends of the
present company do not deny that the
management of the industry in this
city has been inefficient and that the
product Of the nlant ermlrf nM
A - - v-w W14AU UVt
disposed of advantageously locally.
The failure of the Orangeburg
Packing Company is generally regretted,
and its financial losses will
be scattered over three or four
counties, although, the bulk of its
stock is held by citizens in Orangeburg,
and the surrounding country.
?Orangeburg Times and Democrat.
This Is Prom Boston.
" 4
Mother?That young man of yours
is simply impossible. He doesn't
like Shaw; he doesn't like Ibsen; he
doesn't like Galsworthy. Whom doe9
he like?
Daughter (demurely)?Me.?Boston
Transcript.
The warfare practiced by the Germans
upon merchants ships was terrible,
he said. They thought it was
good treatment accorded the crew of
a Norwegian bark which they sank
when they put them adrift in small
boats 1,000 miles from shore.
The captain of the under-water
craft was prone to discuss politics
with the American officers. He asked
why America was in the war and did
the Americans want war. Lieut. Mullor
tnW V?im in n/* ?
wm xxAixz m i?\j uncertain terms
\ . i
that America did not want war, but
was fighting because Germany had
violated every law of humanity, and
America had principles to uphold. All
of the German officers -spoke good
English. The captain was very anxious
to get President Wilson's opinion
on every subject connected with
the war and asked for an explanation
of the famous fourteen points which
Lieut. Muller said he furnished to the
best of his knowledge.
Aboard the vessel was a copy of
Ambassador Gerard's book, "My Four
Years in Germany," and the captain
said that if they ever got Gerard back
in Germany they would make each of
those four years seem like ten to him.
They did not like the reference to the
German people as Huns and barbarians.
In the course of one of their
talks the captain told Lieut. Muller
that he and his fellow officer were
being held prisoners, not because
they wanted to save them from
drowning, but as proof of the sinking
of the Tfconderoga.?News and Courier.
'
J. F. Carter B. D. Carter
CARTER & CARTER
I rTTTAT)\rPVC Ann T. A TIT
/xx x uxm in jl u-rxx-xxrx n
Special attention given to settlement
of Estates and investigation
of Land Titlea.
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I RILEY & COPELAND I
Successors to W. P. Riley.
Fire, Life
Accident
INSURANCE
Office in J. D. Copland's Store
BAMBERG. 8. O.
BUY WAR SAVING STAMPS
1 and
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I the people of this natior
I in greater detail in se
| appearing in this paper
a start of the Victory Libe:
J 1. This nation?your cc
H approximately $10,00
I bills?for a Victory tl
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continue to exist as
nations of the world
3. There are only two v
secure the money?t
4. Taxes are already h
to meet our outstan
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the banks or to the p
7. If they are placed wi
commerce, your bus
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FarmerS & Mi
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at intervals until the I
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)untry and mine?owes || :
0,000,000 in unpaid war |i
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it be sold. w |
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business and my busi- H
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Loan Committib J
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