The New York Times/1918/11/11/U-Boat's Prisoner Swam Across Rhine
U-BOAT'S PRISONER SWAM ACROSS RHINE
Lieut. Isaacs, U.S.N., Made His Escape from Prison Camp at Villenghen.
JUMPED FROM FAST TRAIN
Finally Got Away with Twelve Companions, But Only Four Managed to Reach Switzerland.
AN ATLANTIC PORT, Nov. 10.—Seven hundred passengers, of whom nearly 500 were Canadian women and children on their way home, arrived here today on a British liner after a fine passage across from England without incident of any kind. Among the officers on board was Lieutenant Eduard Isaacs, U.S.N., who was taken prisoner by the German submarine which sank the transport President Lincoln on May 31. He managed to escape from the prison camp at Villenghen on Oct. 6 and had a series of adventures, including the swimming of the Rhine.
The Lieutenant, who is 2 years old and comes from Cresa, Iowa, left at once for Washington. He could not give an interview to the reporters on his arrival, but a friend who was on the liner with him gave the following account, which he had received from Lieutenant Isaacs during the voyage:
After the crew and the troops left the President Lincoln in the lifeboats and on the rafts Lieutenant Isaacs, who had not taken off his insignia of rank from his jacket, was taken out of his boat by the German commandant and placed on the submarine, where he spent eleven days until the craft reached Kiel. During that time the submarine called at the Shetland Islands and sent two marines ashore with loaded rifles, and they came off with eight sheep. The German officers treated him well and were confident that their armies would crush the Allies before the end of July and the war would be over.
Put in a Prison Camp.
Four miles off the entrance to the Kiel Canal the U-boat was met by four other German undersea craft and two destroyers, which escorted her into the harbor. After a delay of a few hours the submarine passed through the canal to Wilhelmshaven, where Lieutenant Isaacs was kept three days on board. During that time he tried to escape, but found that the place was so well guarded day and night that it was impossible to get away. He was next taken by train to Karlsruhe and placed in a prison camp, where several British officers had been for some time.
The Lieutenant said that his room had a big chandelier in it, which he thought rather luxurious for a prison, until he removed a mirror hanging on the wall to put in a better light for him to shave. Then he read a message scratched on the wall: "Beware of the dictaphones attached to the chandelier."
The British officers and the American naval Lieutenant concocted a plan for escape, which was frustrated the night before it was to come off. In consequence of this all the officers except two British Generals and two other officers who shared his room were sent away from Karlsruhe. Lieutenant Isaacs and the other prisoners were taken before a court-martial, and told that they would be summarily dealt with if they attempted to escape again.
A few days later lIeutenant Isaacs was sent by train to Villenghen, in Baden, and tried to escape on the way. At the time the train was just arriving at the top of a small mountain he made a dive through the window as the guard in the compartment with him was looking the other way. The train was going about forty miles an hour, and he struck the rail with a violence that knocked him out for a few seconds. He was restored to his sense by the shouts of the guards, who had stopped the train and the rifle bullets which fell all around him. When one struck within six inches of his left ear he thought it was time to surrender. The guards put him back in the train, and finally he reached the next camp.
Got to Switzerland.
After a few days at Vellenghen Lieutenant Isaacs arranged a plan of escape with some British prisoners which was brought off successfully on the night of Oct. 6. Out of thirteen who started he heard that three besides himself had reached Switzerland in safety. By bribing the guards they procured wooden battens which were cut down and made into conduits to pass over the charged electric wires outside the cells. They also got another wire to throw across the electric wires in the building and cause a short circuit so that the guards should not see them when the alarm was given.
At 11 o'clock the signal was given and the thirteen prisoners got safely out of the building and crawled through a ditch twenty feet deep filled with barbed wire and across a parapet ten feet high, composed of the same kind of entanglement. By that time the alarm had been given, but the guards could not find their guns. The sentries fired into the darkness continually, but did not hit any of the escaping men.
For seven days the Lieutenant with a companion lived in the woods by day and fed on cabbage leaves and nuts and walked twenty miles every night until they reached the Rhine near the Swiss frontier. Before they could get to the river a series of brooks had to be crossed by stepping from stone to stone for nearly two miles. They both plunged into the swift moving river which carried away his companion, and Isaacs never saw him again.
Lieutenant Isaacs kept on for a quarter of an hour when he felt that his strength was going and that he would be whirled away by the current down towards the sea. Suddenly his feet touched a rock and then another rock. He realized that he had reached the other side of the Rhine. A short walk brought him to a Swiss sentry who welcomed him with open arms as an American, and gave him hot coffee and dry clothes. After a rest he was provided with money and reached Paris on Oct. 22.
Lieutenant Isaacs is an Annapolis cadet and his wife, who was the daughter of Major Gen. De Rosey C. Cabell, U.S.A., lives at Doublas, Ariz.