I Watched the Torpedo Hit.

"I was on watch on the starboard wing of the bridge.  At about 9:10 (pm), I spotted wake in the water, about four hundred to four hundred and fifty yards away from the ship.  I reported wake to the bridge over phone.  Missing man (Cloyd) was on the phone at bridge.

Torpedo hit ship, knocking me some fifteen feet away and water and oil came down all over me.  General Quarters was sounded.

Lieutenant Yates came up and told me to help man the number #6 gun.  I proceeded to the number #6 gun, and there sighted explosion just astern of ship.  It looked like another torpedo.  Ship began to break in two.  Abandon ship signal sounded on the whistle.  I proceeded to boat deck, port side, where a raft had been tripped.  I jumped over and got on to the raft.
 

We drifted around the stern of the ship.  Ship was now in two separate sections.  We paddled away from the bow of the ship.  We saw an object about three hundred feet away from us.  We signaled object thinking it was another raft and it returned the signal.  It came to the surface and turned out to be the submarine, and it started coming toward us.

About one hundred and fifty feet from us, submarine machine-gunned us.  I could see tracers going over our heads.  We jumped into water.  Submarine passed by about one hundred and fifty feet.  We swam back and got on the raft.  Submarine circled and came back at us again.

We dove into the water again.  This time submarine hit the raft, and as it passed by they fired again with machine gun, tracers hitting water near me.  Submarine was from three hundred to four hundred feet long., with stepped up conning tower and clipper type bow. Five American flags were painted on port side of the bow.  Men on the submarine were yelling 'Bonzi' and cursing at us.  Submarine had two guns one forward and one aft.  First shot fired after ramming was a single shot by pistol.  I saw one machine gun aft of coning tower on bridge, and saw man at gun.  There were approximately fifteen men on the bridge.  Submarine passed on and made a circle about one half mile from us.  It came at us again and passed about two hundred feet, but did not bother us.

After submarine left we saw one boat; tried to get to it, but didn't make it.  About one half hour later, submarine shelled both portions of ship.  Both sections caught fire.  Two or three hours after ship caught fire, forward portion of ship blew up.  About fifteen minutes before the explosion occurred, we sighted first plane.  After explosion, there were two planes.  We signaled one of the planes, and plane answered.  Planes came over occasionally.  At dawn we could still see the glow of the burning ship.  At daylight we signaled number #3 boat, which came alongside and tied up to our raft."