We left some time in September, and steamed up to Nova Scotia, then across. We had a speedy ship, all right. Eight knots was the best she was known to make. Say, did it give you the jumps! It sure did! I could walk a heap faster than that old tug could steam at full speed. It seemed as though every raider and submarine in the Zone would line up in a row and take a shot or two at us--it was too easy to miss.
We had rough weather all the way. That and grease are about all that happened until we hit the Zone. There we met our convoy--a British flagship, a number of merchantmen, and a flock of torpedo-boats.
My pal was a fellow from Newark, New Jersey, Bill Willsie. He was out for excitement.
"I certainly hope something will break before we land," he'd say, "so that I can have a real yarn to spin for the folks back home."
He got his wish. It was the fourth day in the Zone, at five twenty-seven in the afternoon. I was on deck sniffing air that wasn't full of grease. Suddenly I saw the red flag go up to the mast. . . . Danger! . . . Gee, I sure did wish Bill hadn't wished for trouble out loud. I wondered which one of us would get it--the British flagship ahead of us, or the merchantmen behind.
It all happened in the fraction of a minute. I saw scudding across the water the black nose of a torpedo. You've heard of men having a premonition of death, but how about seeing it coming straight toward you at the rate of thirty miles an hour!
My God! I'll never forget it! I thought my heart had stopped beating. I gripped the railing and waited. She struck the flagship and sank her in seven and a half minutes. To this day I can see her going down--the explosion--the roar--the sudden list--the boats lowered, and, on the bridge, two figures pacing--pacing--the captain and the admiral.
Do you think they left their ship? Not they! Up and down--up and down--those two paced. Oh, I tell you the British are a great people, but I wished to God, as I stood there, that I had never had to see it proved to me that way.
Up and down they walked, talking together as though nothing out of the way were happening. I saw the ship settle for her last heave. No, they didn't leave her bridge. Why not? They were true British naval officers, that's the answer. They sank with her.