Page:Jack Heaton, Wireless Operator (Collins, 1919).djvu/234

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206
Jack Heaton

Then later on I got this and handed it to our commander:

“Believe she’s a German raider.”

Every man was at his post and ready and anxious to do his duty. When the raider, which was the Koln and one of the worst offenders of her kind, was within half-a-mile of the Henrietta she sent a shot over her bow and signaled her to stand by. This she did and then the Captain of the Koln signaled that he would send his officers to examine her papers and cargo—to get whatever gold she might have —and this he promptly did. At the same time he had her guns trained on the helpless Henrietta to prevent her from trying to steam away or putting on all speed and ramming her with her sharp bow.

Just as the officers of the Koln were being lowered in a launch the Captain of the Henrietta signaled our commander just two words and these were: “Torpedo her.”

We came to the surface about a thousand feet from and on the port side of the Koln and took her completely by surprise Her gunners began blazing away at us but they had evidently not been trained in the gentle art of