CHRISTIAN SCIENCE IN THE WAR
to see to what extent it had accomplished its unholy purpose. It circled round about the lifeboats and rafts several times looking for our captain and not being able to find him, evidently decided to follow other plans. The officers motioned to the lifeboat in which I happened to be to come alongside and tie up to them, which order we obeyed. After making our officer in charge a prisoner and taking our pictures, they gave the order to shove off, which we did with alacrity. Then they calmly proceeded to load up their gun and make everything in readiness to fire. They took what appeared to be perfect aim at our lifeboat. It seemed the end. Complete silence reigned, and the boys, with white faces, waited for the shot which would end this phase of mortal existence. During this time it seemed to me that I could realize only short, incoherent snatches of truth, but in this grave moment the thought came to me: ‘Be not afraid, these Germans are, in truth, as much God's children, perfect ideas, as you Americans. All God's ideas, even now, are in perfect unity and God's ideas cannot work to destroy one another but work together to help each other in love.’ Afterwards I learned that at least one other of my comrades had been trying to realize the truth at that time. The shot was never fired, but instead the submarine soon submerged.
“It was getting late in the afternoon and there was no sign of anything, upon that mighty expanse of ocean. Hour after hour passed and toward dusk, our captain had all the lifeboats and rafts tied together to make things as safe as possible and there upon the broad bosom of the sea, beneath the stars we waited, not knowing what was in store for us, but knowing that the good God who had cared for us during all the day, would not leave us in the blackness of the night. About one o'clock the following morning, a light blinked near us. At first we thought it was another submarine, but it proved to be two American destroyers which had picked up the wireless S. O. S. from another ship in the convoy and had come to our rescue.
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