June I, 1916 
LAND & WATER 
17 
A "U'' Boat^s Victim 
By Georgina Pennant 
[Miss Pennant was a passenger on board a Japanese 
steamer which was sunk by an enemy submarine in 
the Mediterranean Sea. She gives in this article 
a graphic description of her exceptional experiences.'^^ 
TWO to three o'clock on a warm sunny afternoon 
is a drowsy hour on bioard ship. There is no 
breeze, and a big Japanese hner shdes steadily 
through the blue waters pf the Eastern Medi- 
terranean, on which yellow gleams of sunlight play. 
Most of the passengers are dozing, some on deck, some in 
their cabins, for the previous night for the first time 
during the voyage there had been a certain amount of 
anxiety which had kept us a.wake. All day a small 
white steamer had hung about, not half a mile away ; to 
the unsuspecting passengers she was an object of interest, 
the only one in the waste of waters ; but her innocence 
was only skin-deep — it began and ended with her white 
paint. She was a Dutch boat (so called), and had been 
sending off German wireless messages in a code, which 
aroused our Captain's suspicions, for this'is an approved 
method of communicating with submarines. 
On hearing this, most of us had sat up rather late, and 
had slept uneasily, for though darkness is a close time 
for submarines if a ship shows no light, yet night was 
hardly night just then with the full moon of southern 
skies shining down upon us. However, nothing had 
happened, and in six hours we should be at Port Said. 
All an.xiety was at an end, as the Captain had himself 
assured me that morning, when bringing an Italian 
wireless message for me to translate for him. It referred, 
so he said, to a remote danger which did not concern us at 
all, being a warning that there was an enemy submarine 
in the " Cirelian Canale " — there was an interrogation 
mark after the former of these two words, and we could 
not make out what it liieaiTt ; but thought it should have 
been " Sicilian '.' ; I heard afterwards that the operator 
had tak n it down incorrectly. 
A Tremendous Explosion 
It was getting on for three o'clock— my siesta was over, 
and I was standing up in my-cabin finishing my packing. 
Suddenly there was the report of a tremendous explosion, 
a sort of reverberating, roaring boom, which shook the 
ship from stem to stern ; she stood still and quivered, 
and I fell over the berth. It made me think of a bird on 
the wing being shot. 
Then overhead on the deck I heard the confusion of 
many sounds. The slap of running feet on the boards 
comes back to me distinctly, and voices calling in different 
languages, most noticeable being those of the Japanese 
crying "to-marine, to-marine." Or so it sounded. 
My fur coat hung on a peg near the door ; quick 
as thought I snatched it up and raced down the passage 
and up the stairs, collecting a lifebelt from an empty 
cabin on my way. We had had no boat drills or warnings 
how to act in an emergency, but I knew which boat to 
make for. No. i starboard, nearest the bridge. In rough 
weather in the Bay of Biscay the boats had all been swung 
out and lowered to the promenade deck, but at Gibraltar 
they had been hauled up to the top deck, which was 
reached by a steep flight of steps. I heard a voice say 
in husky, unnatural tones, " Torpedoed through the 
bows." 
Men were already perched on the davits, swinging out 
the boats, and passengers and crew were fast assembling, 
some tying on ship's lifebelts, others struggling into 
Gieve waistcoats, and puffing and blowing into the 
tubes which inflated them till they slowly assumed the 
proportions of a motor tyre round their chests. There 
was no panic, nothing like a scene — no one uttered a 
shriek or a cry. One had to correct one's estimate of one's 
fellow passengers in a crisis hkc this. A strong, deter- 
mined-looking man going out to take up a post of im- 
portance, who I had thought looked equal to any 
emergency, was one of the very few who seemed abso- 
lutely terrified, while a Spanish Jew, who ate- and ate 
till he swelled visibly and the whites of his eyes turned 
yellow, was of the greatest use in launching the boats, 
even stopping an Englishman from stepping in by saying 
" The women must go first." Perliaps the most helpful 
of all was a young man, who some people had thought 
wa.s a German spy at the outset of the vc^yage. One 
middle-aged couple were a marvel of calmness, as -'icy 
stood on the deck he said to her, " 'What about a hat ? " 
She answered, " Plenty of time to run down to the cabin 
and fetch one." And off he went, returning with a new 
solar-topee and his dressing-gown, which the lady was 
very glad to wear later on. 
Getting into the Boats 
As soon as the boat was at the level of the deck, we began 
climbing in, which was not very difficult though you had 
to get over the oars as well as the gunwale. There was no 
confusion, though my boat being nearest the gangway 
was very much over-crowded, as people came tearing up 
the stairs and got into the first one thev saw. I begged 
several of them to go on to the other boats ; there were 
four more on this side, some of which I saw being lowered 
comparatively empty. Even as we were going down half 
a dozen or more stokers and engineers, who had been busy 
in the engine-room up to the last moment came pelting 
up on deck and hurled themselves over the rail among us. 
So far as we could then see, the ship looked as usual, and 
I remember thinking, " It is all very well to get into the 
boats, but we shall be getting out again directly." Then 
I caught sight of the Captain, who stood near us on the 
bridge ; he was a very brown Japanese, not yellow at 
all, but his face was deathly w^hite and streaming with 
perspiration, and I knew tJie ship was doomed. But 
his composure and presence of mind were marvellous. 
While directing all the launching operations he was also 
dictating the log to an officer who stood beside ' him, 
which was brought and thrown into our boat before we 
reached the water. 
Being lowered in the boats seemed a most dangerous pro- 
ceeding, though mercifully most of us did not know then 
how dangerous. Recent wrecks where the ship has listed or 
could not be stopped have shown this. We only dreaded 
being stove in by banging against the ship's side in going 
down or when we reached the water, or being upset by 
the two ends not being lowered evenly. This very nearly 
happened in our case ; at one of our davits was the chief 
steward, whom I had nicknamed " Too muchee trouble," 
as he always said it when asked to do anything special. 
He lowered his end much too fast, and at one time we 
were at a very perilous angle but the Captain shouted out 
directions and we were promptly straightened. 
Getting out the oars was very inconvenient owing to 
the crowd, and I had a blow in the face from the blade of 
one, luckily only a cut and a bruise, but it might have 
knocked my teeth out. 
Some Impressions 
It is very difficult to be natural at a moment like this. 
You feel as if you are acting a subordinate part in some 
great drama where you can do nothing except not hinder 
the main actors. The actual lowering cannot have lasted 
more than two minutes, but it seemed endless. I know 
I had time to count the people in our boat — 63 — to think 
as we passed the port-holes of my cabin how all my 
possessions there would soon be floating about, to notice 
that all the other boats from the starboard side were afloat, 
and rowing hard and already some little distance from 
the ship ; and worst of all to be seized with a fear that 
we with our big load might not be far enough aw-ay to 
avoid being sucked in when the ship sank. That was the 
time when I felt most frightened. I never thought I 
should be drowned. And all the time the Japanese 
talked without ceasing, and even laughed ; it was dis- 
concerting not to understand anything they said, but I 
am sure their light-hearted indifference to death and 
danger created an atmosphere which made it easier for 
all of us. 
Somehow the oars wore got out, and the boat warded 
off the ship's side at the perilous moment of reaching the 
