_1st Division, 2nd Machine-Gun Battalion, Company “A”_
On July 22, 1918, near Soissons, with great daring Sergeant Lewis
killed an entire machine-gun crew and captured their guns. He
voluntarily organized a machine-gun crew, with which in the hottest
shell fire he advanced and gave battle to the enemy.]
“The Captain picks up his lifebelt and leaves the cabin at once, giving
loud orders in German that all should leave the ship. We follow him up
on deck, where he repeats the order—obeyed, scatteringly, by all. I ask
the Captain to permit Dr. Paolucci and myself to leave the ship. He
consents, and we go down the ladder at the right and swim off toward
the ship’s stern with the current, but impeded by the great weight of
our clothing. Numbers of swimming sailors pass us, as well as boats
loaded with members of the crew. Searchlight signals are flashed to the
nearest ship, _Tegethoff_, which sends boats to our assistance.
“About 6.20 a boat picks us up and takes us back to the ladder on the
right of the _Viribus Unitis_, where a large boat is waiting for the
remainder of the crew. When we reach the deck we are received with
threats, though the men are not especially violent. I lose sight of
Dr. Paolucci in the crowd. It seems that they no longer believe in our
warning or in the danger. A sailor begins to rip up my waterproof suit
with his knife; others go through my pockets.
“There is a short, smothered thunderclap; the ship shivers violently,
while a crest of foam is thrown up all along her starboard side.
External damage is very slight, but the ship heels over to the right,
at first very rapidly, then more slowly, but steadily. Most of the
crowd has left us; a few, however, now close in, threatening to shut
us up on board. The Captain, who stands a few meters off, shows no
interest in our fate. I appeal to him, reminding him that we are
prisoners of war; that what we have done, as belligerents, gives us
the right to have our persons respected; that the threatened treatment
is contrary to rules of war. The Captain acknowledges the justice of
my protest, again gives permission for us to leave, and gives orders
in German for a boat within hailing distance on the left of the stern
to return and take us off the ship. I succeed meanwhile, with the help
of Dr. Paolucci, in ridding myself of my waterproof suit, which had
hampered me in swimming and which the sailors had ripped open.
“Dr. Paolucci and I let ourselves down into the water on the port side
of the stern. We are both pulled into the boat and can watch the end
of the _Viribus Unitis_. She is still settling on the right. When the
water almost reaches the deck—although the ship is still high out of
the water—she suddenly heels over with remarkable rapidity. In a few
seconds nothing is visible save the flat bottom of the keel and the
four screws—encircled by smoke, flames, and fragments of shattered
wood—while the sea all around is lashed up into frothy waves. One
sailor in our boat gives vent to his grief in a most touching manner;
all the others appear indifferent. If my calculations are correct not
ten minutes elapsed between the explosion and the end.
“I have learned with sincere grief that Captain Ianko Vukovic de
Podkapelski of the _Viribus Unitis_ was wounded by a fragment of the
sunken ship while swimming to a place of safety. He was picked up
and carried to the hospital in Pola but died a few hours afterward.
Throughout, he was most chivalrous, and treated us with all the
consideration that one could expect from an honorable enemy.