JOSEPH E. HEWELL

Click to go to the description of the sinking

I was called into the Army service by the Selective Service Act on July 6, 1918. I reported to Selective Service Board and was sent to Fort Screven, Georgia which was coast defense for training. I reached this place on Monday night July 8th and after being quartered in barracks with two blankets and canvas covered cots, began my army life.

After going through the necessary procedure, was after some 7 to 8 days assigned to the 5th Company CAC to which I remained assigned until sent overseas on September 19th. I was granted a leave of absence on September 7th and spent Sunday night of September 8th at home, although at this time I did not know I was going overseas so quick and consequently have not been home again. On reporting back to Camp, I learned that I was slated to go across very soon, so all the fellows from the various companies were brought together in two or three barracks. Two detachments A & B each consisting of about 280 to 290 men. I was in Detachment “B” so my address from then until I was permanently assigned in France was J. E. Hewell, Sept. Automatic Replacement Draft 1002-R, Fort Screven CAC. But on account of after events this address did me very little good.

After 8 or 10 days of drilling and rifle practice on the range our cars were placed and we entrained for Camp Merritt on Thursday afternoon, September 19th. We were on our way to Camp Merritt 3 nights and 2 days most of which time I was awake. We had day coaches with 3 men to every 2 seats so we made it very well during the daytime but when three try to sleep in the two seats when turned together and made into a kind of bed, it was somewhat difficult to sleep so for this reason, I slept very little. We stopped at Hamlet, NC for dinner Friday and supper at Raleigh. We passed Richmond during the night and arrived in Washington Saturday morning. We spent about 2 ½ to 3 hours at Washington but could not get off the train only to go to the Red Cross canteen to get some coffee. Had I known we were going to stay as long as we did would notified my sister so that she could have come down to the station to see me but thinking we would leave every minute, I did not see her. We stopped at Philadelphia when we reach there about 6 PM that night and had a walk uptown. After this little walking we started again on our way and arrived in Camp Merritt Sunday morning. Was from Sunday until Tuesday getting everything ready. On Monday we had our overseas equipment issued and Monday night we were called out in small detachments to go and have our hair clipped off. Some hair clipping that night as 6 men clipped about 570 heads. They had ordinary horse clippers and one fellow would turn the handle while the other would handle the clippers. I would only take about 2 or 2 ½ minutes per man.

On Tuesday morning we were lined up with full pack and after standing around some 1 or 2 hours we started on our hike to the Hudson River, “Alpine Landing” a distance of about 5 miles. A lot of the fellows fell out on the hike but I stuck to it and we reached the River about noon. We boarded the river boat and started down river to ship. As soon as arriving there we were treated to coffee and doughnuts by the Red Cross. Boarded a British ship “The Otranto” that afternoon but ship did not leave until about noon the next day. So on Wednesday, September 25th we left New York on the “Otranto”. There were 14 ships in the convoy and several aeorplanes accompanied us for quite a ways out to sea.

We were making very good time when on our 4th or 5th day out we ran into a French fishing vessel and damaged it to such an extent that it was considered unsafe so the crew was taken on our ship and then guns were turned on it. 25 shots were fired before the French vessel sank. This above incident happened about 9 PM and as well as I remember was on Sunday night. The convoy left us being and we were something over 12 hours in catching up. All went along smooth except some sickness until the next Sunday the 6th of October.

We had almost made the trip across and would have made Liverpool in another day but we ran into a storm soon after sun up and could make very little headway. We were just off the coast of the Isle of Islay, a small Scottish Island where this accident occurred.

The Sinking
All of the fellows were down in the hole as we had just about finished up with our breakfast and hardly anybody knew that we were in a storm, although the ship was rocking from side to side so much that nothing would stay on the tables. All of a sudden there was a terrific jar and the ship trembled all over, so everybody who had been very quiet and who had shown no uneasiness now gave a big rush to go up on deck, but all of us were told to be quiet as there was nothing the matter so everybody sat down again and in about 15 to 20 minutes word came down to us to get up on deck immediately. Everybody went up leaving behind all their equipment and personal belongings. When we came out on deck the wind was blowing at the rate of 70 to 75 miles an hour, probably more or less, but a fellow would have to hold to ropes or something to keep from being blown overboard. Nobody I think knew what condition the ship was in for if they had known I am sure there would have been more excitement or panic among the men. The ship had been struck by another ship of the convoy, “The Kasmir”, which during the storm had heavy fog collided with us. I heard afterward the storm broke the rudder and control of the Kasmir was lost by the Captain and it came direct to us hitting the “Otranto” between amidship and bow on port side or left hand side ripping a terrible hole in the side and at the same time killing several of the fellows who were sick and in the hospital. The rush of the water into the boat threw the ship over partly on the side. The water flooded the engine room putting the electric generators out of commission and the lights went out. Some of the engine room crew came up the funnel to the top as other means of escape were cut off when the lights went out and was about the time we were ordered up on the deck and I made my way up the “B” deck. This deck was the main hospital deck and they were bringing up the fellows from the hospital decks below. I was sitting on a bench near the door and saw some of the fellows lose their footing on the wet floor and slide 2/3 way across the ship. As I was sitting there I noticed out to the rear of the ship a small boat coming around. Sometimes it would be almost covered up by the water. Paid very little attention to it until next time I noticed it when it was along side the large ship. The sea was so rough that the little boat was tossed about like a feather. One wave would take it some 15 to 20 feet or probably more away and then another would bring it back with a slam against the large ship. I then began to notice men jumping onto it, some landing safe and others miss timing their jump and went down between to be crushed when the ships would crash together again. I stood there watching the fellows jump when a fellow (H. E. Delaney from Nashville, GA) who was sitting there by me said, “Lets go and jump too” So we both started to the railing, got on top of the railing and at the proper time jumped to the little Destroyer. He made his jump first and that was the last I saw of him until we landed in Belfast, Ireland.

In a few seconds after he jumped, I jumped landing safe on the deck and immediately caught hold of a gun that was mounted on the bow of the Destroyer. I was clinging on to this when a large wave washed over the deck and changed ends of the gun but I still held on. We had now left the other ship which was grounded or at least anchored where she beat to pieces on the rocks. We left about 450 to 500 soldiers and 200 sailors on board out of which only 18 managed to reach the shore alive. One of these 18 was a fellow out of the same company as I and he said that everybody stuck to the ship as long as they could and then they began jumping overboard and try to make it ashore which was only a 1 ½ to 2 miles off. He said that the last he saw of the ship was when she broke in tow in the middle, half going one way and half going the other. As there were numerous pieces of wreckage floating about and everybody who could was trying to grasp something that would help him, this fellow said that he saw something white not very far from him and he made for it. ON reaching it he clasped his arms around it and it happened to be a tub of lard which was floating around. The tub had been bursted off and when he caught on to it his arms mashed right into the lard and he said he was nothing but grease from head to foot. After some 1 ½ or 2 hours of struggling he finally made it ashore frozen and in a semi conscious condition.

As there were people on shore watching all of the fellows who reached the shore were taken and cared for. As for myself, I still hung onto the gun but as the sea was rolling in waves 30 to 40 feet high and the destroyer was headed right in the direction, one of the waves came over the bow and tore me loose from the gun and when I found myself and got to my feet again, I was 50 or 60 feet from the gun. Came very near going overboard, but stopped right on the edge of the boat. I made cover as soon as I could and was soon down in the hole with several other fellows, mostly sailors. It was about eleven o’clock when we left the Otranto and we arrived in Belfast, Ireland at nine o’clock that night. When we landed I started out walking but hadn’t gone very far when I had to stop. Stopped in at some kind guard station or police. Anyway there were several others and we all waited for a way to ride the balance of the way. Soon some automobiles came and after several trips we were all takes up toe the Victoria Barracks, where we were all supplied with dry clothing and something hot to eat. which was furnished by the Red Cross. The Red Cross there, I afterwards heard, they knew nothing of the conditions we were in until a few hours before we arrived, so they sure made some haste in supplying dry clothing to 300 men. The doctors came through the crowds to see if anyone needed hospital attention and a good many went to the hospital. When they came to me I had not thought of going to the hospital but as my heel was getting so I couldn’t walk on it, I decided to go and am sure it was a good thing I did go for I contracted a severe cold, caused, I suppose from being wet so long and was in bed for 7 or 8 days before I was allowed to get up. During the time I was in bed I completely lost my voice and all of the cold I had seemed to settle in my left eye, and I was some sight. I had shaved the day before the wreck and had lost my shaving articles in the wreck so I had gone some 5 or 6 days without shaving and the hair on my face was about as long as it was on my head, it being clipped just before we came over so anyone can imagine, I was some sight. After I got where I could sit up I shaved and I presented a little better appearance. Was in the hospital, The Ulster Volunteer Force Hospital and was known as U.V.F. For about 3 weeks and aft er we got up and all of us well again we started out on our trip to England and France. We came from Belfast down to Dublin, thence across the Irish Sea to Liverpool and southeast across England where we arrived around midnight. We did not spend much time in London due to it being so foggy but caught a train for South Hampton and stopped off at the English “Rest Camp” in Winchester where we stayed for several days. While there, the Armistice was signed on November 11, 1918.