A statement by one of three survivors of the crew of 41 of a steamer torpedoed by a German submarine suggests a deliberate intention on the part of the U-boat commander to drown the whole of his victims. The three survivors were picked up by a patrol boat. The steamer was the Belgian Prince, and Thomas Bowman, the chief engineer, gave the following account of his experience: About 8 on Tuesday evening, while 200 miles from land, I saw from the after deck the wake of an approaching torpedo. I gave a lurch when the torpedo struck. I was thrown on the deck by a piece of debris. The vessel took a heavy list, and all took to the boats. The submarine ordered the boats to come alongside, and called for the skipper. Captain Hassan went aboard and was taken down into the submarine. The rest of us, 41, were mustered on the submarine deck. The Germans took the lifebelts from all of us except eight, and outside clothing from all of us. They then entered the submarine and closed the hatches, leaving us on deck. Before this, the German sailors had taken the oars, balers, and gratings from our lifeboats and smashed the boats with an axe. The submarine went about two miles. Suddenly I heard the rush of water and shouting, “Look out, she is sinking,” I jumped into the water. Many men went down with the submarine, others swam about. I had a lifebelt. Near me was an apprentice, aged 16, shouting for help. I held him up in the darkness till about midnight, when he became unconscious and eventually died from exposure. I took his lifebelt and waited for daylight. I then saw the Belgian Prince still afloat and made for her. My way lay through dead bodies, some in lifebelts, others not. As I neared the ship she blew up. I held on for another hour, when a rescue boat picked me up in the last stages of exhaustion, after 11 hours in the water. Another survivor, the second engineer, said he reached the doomed steamer before she was blown up and was actually on board when the Germans came and looted her. He watched them from a hiding place, and when they came near he jumped into the sea and, catching some wreckage, remained afloat till rescued. A third survivor, the second cook, is too ill in the infirmary to tell his story.
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AUGUST 4, 1917