[Sidenote:  Courageous work of the gunners.]

The guns’ crews were held at their stations hoping for an opportunity to fire on the submarine should it appear before the ship sank, and orders were given to the guns’ crews to begin firing, hoping that this might prevent further attack.  All the ship’s company except the guns’ crews and necessary officers were at that time in the boats and on the rafts near the ship, and when the guns’ crews began firing the people in the boats set up a cheer to show that they were not downhearted.  The guns’ crews only left their guns when ordered by the commanding officer just before the ship sank.  The guns in the bow kept up firing until after the water was entirely over the main deck of the after half of the ship.

The state of discipline which existed and the coolness of the men is well illustrated by what occurred when the boats were being lowered and were about half way from their davits to the water.  At this particular time, there appeared some possibility of the ship not sinking immediately, and the commanding officer gave the order to stop lowering the boats.  This order could not be understood, however, owing to the noise caused by escaping steam from the safety valves of the boilers which had been lifted to prevent explosion, but by motion of the hand from the commanding officer the crews stopped lowering the boats and held them in mid-air for a few minutes until at a further motion of the hand the boats were dropped into the water.

[Sidenote:  Rafts tied together to prevent drifting.]

Immediately after the ship sank the boats pulled among the rafts and were loaded with men to their full capacity and the work of collecting the rafts and tying them together to prevent drifting apart and being lost was begun.

[Sidenote:  The submarine takes an officer prisoner.]

While this work was under way and about half an hour after the ship sank, a large German submarine emerged and came among the boats and rafts, searching for the commanding officer and some of the senior officers whom they desired to take prisoners.  The submarine commander was able to identify only one officer, Lieutenant E.V.M.  Isaacs, whom he took on board and carried away.  The submarine remained in the vicinity of the boats for about two hours and returned again in the afternoon, hoping apparently for an opportunity of attacking some of the other ships which had been in company with the President Lincoln but which had, in accordance with standard instructions, steamed as rapidly as possible from the scene of attack.

[Sidenote:  After dark signal lights.]

By dark the boats and rafts had been collected and secured together, there being about 500 men in the boats and about 200 on the rafts.  Lighted lanterns were hoisted in the boats and flare-up lights and Coston signal lights were burned every few minutes, the necessary detail of men being made to carry out this work during the night.