MYSTERY V.C.

Evening Post, Volume XCVI, Issue 21, 24 July 1918, Page 7

MYSTERY V.C.

HOW DECORATION WAS WON

CAPTAIN'S; rASTONIS±NG STORY.

: Another version-of how the naval- offi-' cer known, as -the "Mystery. V.C" won his decoration is given in. the. astonishing story of the captain. of a ship recently in British -waters. - .

"Tlie detaite of the deed for. which,the V.C. was given hare not been disclosed."—Press cable. •

An American paper a month or two ago lifted the veil of mystery and 1 told a romantic story, strikingly similar in its details, to one of the experiences of Michael Lanyard, Louis J. Vance's Lone Wolf, of how the mystery V.C, torpedoed. in. tko North Sea, swam round until he was lifted' \rp on to, the deck of a submarine, and! how then ;he .stood at the conning tower and with his waterproof pistol shot the captain and held the remainder of the crew at bay until the arrival of a British destroyer settled all the hopes of the Huns to" escape. As wonderful as that story is—and if it were true it would be as strange as fiction—it is less thrilling and' less wonderful than .the story told to Sydney Sun last week by a captain of the mercantile marine, fresh from the scene of naval activity, a story which, he says, is popularly accepted as the feats performed by the man whose grand' work will not be chronicled until the war is over, if then. , , ■ - .

The stage of the drama was an old barque, and the oast was small—the captain, an officer or two, a small crew, and the captain's wife and 1 child. They cruised round aimlessly, inviting attack. WHAT OF THE WOMAN? Suddenly in the distance the surface; of the water was broken by the periscope of an enemy submarine, and in a few moments the U-bbat was alongside, and the captain of the sailing boat was ordered to stop and the crew to take to tho boats. ' ■ . ;; . • ; The drama then developed. The English captain pleaded with the German. "But," he said, "would you ■cast my poor wife and child adrift in an open boat in this weather?" The captain's, wife—an "exceedingly comely-]ooking woman—clasped her child to her breast and moved towards her husband. "SHE'LL HAVE TO GO." I The U-boat captain insolently stared at her. "But my child will die," the cagtain pleaded. » , "There is nothing for it." "Can't you take her on board with you?" the captain of the barque asked, hesitatingly, as if the idea, pained him.' The U-boat captain started. Such a. solution of the difficulty had not appealed to him. She-was a.surprisingly fine-looking woman to travel on a barque' in 6uch dangerous -quarters,'and 'something more than chivalry prompted his eager acceptance of the proposal. . The crew thereupon lowered a boat, the captain's wife was carefully helpedinto it, the captain and the .crew followed, and the men rowed to the.U-boat.

With unusual care the woman was helped by the captain to the deck of the submarine, and, to the conning' tcwor, then to the trap-door, and she'was even told to he careful of the'step. ..■ ■ THE DRAMA'S CLTMAX. Then the climax of the drama occurred. The captain's wife, who was painfullynervous, stumbled. She,-shrieked,-and the baby fell from, her amis through the hatch of the U-boat to the bottom of the ladder. ■■■■„

Simultaneously the woman showed rcmarkabje athletic powers. Pushing the captain aside, she leapt overboard, and even as she cleared the deck of the boat, before the startled Hun could appreciate what had occurred, there was a terrific explosion, th^bottom was blown out of the enemy's, Waft, and the boat sank rapidly. ■ ' '

The captain's wife was rescued by her friends, who were breathlessly awaiting the explosion, and they were back in the barque a few minutes after' the U-boat had disappeared. MASTERY OF MAKE-UP. The captain's wife was the mystery V.C.—a handsome young man. of 28, who made up into a feminine of so striking beauty that the head of the U-boat captain was turned. The baby was a most powerful bomb, lovingly and carefully clothed in a thick shawl. The party sailed the sea until nightfall —apparently an. easy victim to the torpedoes of the enemy. Three more U.boats hailed them. Three times the dialogue about the woman and the child was repeated, and three times the ruse succeeded. Three babies fell down three moreVhatchways, and three. .U-boats went, with, all'hands, to the bottom of the North Sea. IDEA OP AN ACTOR. The originating brain of this remarkable plan to defeat the cruellest foe any navy wasealled upon to face was a wellknown. London actor, brother of the mystery Y.C. The V.C. had made a name for himself amongst a limited circle of friends as an amateur actor, but this 1 magnificent series of heroic actions, played in a great drama of death, transcended all his other efforts.

No.V.C. was ever more nobly,'earned