Of the many weapons in the German arsenal during the First World War amongst the most effective were the silent undersea craft of the Kreigsmarine. The U-Boats prowled the oceans looking for prey, after the Kaiser removed all restrictions on the U-Boat captains in 1916 they could sink indiscriminately. As the troops of the United States pored over the Atlantic after the declaration of War in 1917 the U-Boats beneath the waves would have fresh targets.
As the U.S.S. President Lincoln, a converted troop transport, returned to the United States, having set her cargo of soldiers on to French soil, she was suddenly torpedoed by the U-90. As the ship slowly sank a handful of her naval personnel were picked up by the submarine. Among them was Lieutenant Izac, who would earn the Congressional Medal of Honor for his successful escape from the clutches of his German captors.
Author Edouard Victor Michel Izac.
Text taken, whole and complete, from the edition published in Boston, Houghton, Mifflin company, 1919.