Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 21, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 February 1918 — SAILOR BOY HERO OF WRECKS [ARTICLE]

SAILOR BOY HERO OF WRECKS

MELVIN McCLURE, FORMER LOCAL YOUTH, IN THRILLING ADVENTURES. ► The Noth Sea seemed as far away as the moon to Melvin McClure, Hammond school boy. He dreamed of the War Lords of Norway and their voyages to the Land of the Midnight Sun. .He laughed at Pauinurus, pilot of Aeneas in Virgil’s Aeneid who fell asleep and tumbled into the sea off the coast of Lueania, and covered the adventures of Nunez de Balboa. Frank Chance was no more a hero to him than Palamon in Falconer’s Shipwreck, and the events in the National league lacked the interest of the Spanish Main. His Bible was “Seven Leagues Under the Sea.” Today, the dreamer is tasting the sweets of perils and heroism of the sea. He no longer builds fancies around “The Sailor Kink,” William the Fourth of England. He himself, has become a hero of the ocean.

As Hercules served Omphale, Queen of Lydia, he is serving his country— taking frequent plunges into icy waters and swimming about waiting for rescue, but thoroughly happy in it all—for the Hammond boy has the spirit of the true adventure. Danger to him is food. Melvin McClure, son of Mr. and Mrs. O. C. McClure, 495 150th street, prevented panic and saved many' lives when he laughed and joked following explosion of a torpedo which caused the sinking of Sassih, fifty-five miles off the coast of France, November 5, it became learned by his friends in Hammond. It was the second shipwreck in a month for the sailor. On November 4 McClure, the youngest soldier to enlist in Hamond, was on the Arkansas in the North Sea near Death Rock and transferred to the Rheoboth, a mine sweeper. - The latter sprang a leak and foundered. After swimming for several hours, McClure was rescued by a patrol boat, he tells his mother in a letter received by her the other day. The sinking of the Cassin occurred five minutes after the torpedo struck the boat. The crew manned the oars for thirty-six hours before being picked up. The men refused to be separated from McClure, telling the officers it was his coolness and joking that preserved order and enabled them to launch the boats. He tells other exciting experiences which the censor refuses to permit him to divulge. McClure is a gunner’s mate and once more back on the good ship Arkansas. He is ready for any submarines, to dodge icebergs, or anything which may transpire in the course of wininng the war. Jackie McClure’s father is a street car conductor in Hammond, and as he takes your nickles he of times envies his jackie who is far away from a humdrum life like this. —Hamond Times. o— ~o McClure lived in this city with his parents several years ago and is a grandson of Erastus Peacock, a former Rensselaer resident.