Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 236, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 October 1917 — Antilles, American Transport, Homeward Bound, Sunk. [ARTICLE]

Antilles, American Transport, Homeward Bound, Sunk.

The American army transport Antilles, hemeward bound under convoy, was torpedoed and sunk by a German submarine in the war zone Wednesday. About seventy men are missing and probably lost. All the army and navy officers aboard and the ship’s master were among the 167 survivors. The mtsa-' ing are members of the crew, three civilian engineers, some enlisted men of the navy sixteen of the thirty-three soldiers reutrning home from various reasons. Neither the submarine nor the torpedo was seen and the transport, hit squarely amidships, sank in five minutes. The tragedy of the sea, the first in which an American ship engaged in war duty has been lost, is the first of its magnitude to bring home to the people of the United States the rigors of the war in which they have engaged against Germany. It carries the largest casualty list oft the war, of American lives, and marks the first success of German submarine attack on American transports. That the loss of life was not greater is due to the safeguards with which the* navy has surroimded the transport service, and the quick rescue work of the convoying warships. Secretary Daniela announced the disaster in a statement based upon a brief dispatch from Vice Admiral Sims, which gave few particulars and did not state whether it was a*day or night attack. _ ‘ 2