Truly an
extraordinary showing.
CHAPTER VIII
Perils and Triumphs of Submarine-Hunting--The Loss of our First
War-Ship, The Converted Gunboat "Alcedo"--Bravery of Crew--"Cassin"
Struck by Torpedo, But Remains in the Fight--Loss of the "Jacob
Jones"--Sinking of the "San Diego"--Destroyers "Nicholson" and "Fanning"
Capture a Submarine, Which Sinks--Crew of Germans Brought Into Port--The
Policy of Silence in Regard to Submarine-Sinkings
But as in the pursuit of dangerous game there is always liable to be two
angles to any experience--or say, rather, a reverse angle, such as the
hunted turning hunter--so in the matter of our fight against the
submarine there are instances--not many, happily--where the U-boat has
been able to deal its deadly blow first.
The first of our war-ships to be sunk by a submarine was the naval
patrol gun-boat _Alcedo_, which was torpedoed shortly before 2 o'clock
on the morning of November 5, 1917, almost exactly seven months after we
entered the war. She was formerly G. W. Childs Drexel's yacht _Alcedo_,
and Anthony J. Drexel Paul, an officer in the Naval Reserve, was on her
at the time. The vessel was the flag-ship of one of the
patrol-flotillas, and for months had performed splendid service in the
North Sea.
The torpedo that sunk the vessel came without warning, and so true was
the aim that the war-ship went down in four minutes, carrying with her
one officer and twenty of the crew. Commander William T. Conn, U.
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