100 years ago in The Saratogian
Saturday, Oct. 20, 1917
As The Saratogian reports the first significant loss of American lives in the war with Germany, Saratoga Springs sailor Frank M. Annis is laid to rest this afternoon.
Annis’s funeral at Greenridge Cemetery shares this evening’s front page with news of the sinking by a German U-boat of the American transport ship Antilles. The ship was returning from Europe and carried no passengers, but 70 men out of a crew of 237 are missing and presumed drowned.
American officials downplay the strategic significance of the sinking while acknowledging its potential as a propaganda tool. United Press correspondent Carl D. Grant writes that “The fact that American military men lost their lives … may serve as an impetus to the war spirit here, according to the view of experts.
“The disaster to the Antilles shocked American officialdom. And, they said today that it would serve to awaken the American people to a realization of exactly what may be expected from the Germans, that only the utmost precaution and utmost force are sufficient to conquer such an enemy.”
A Saratogian reporter makes a similar point in blunter terms: “The torpedoed Antilles ought to sell a lot of Liberty bonds with its slaughtered wounded men.” Local subscriptions to the Second Liberty Loan of the war pass the $360,000 mark before the evening paper goes to press.
Last tribute
Annis, who was fatally injured in a Monday plane crash in Dayton OH, is interred after funeral services at First Presbyterian Church.
“The great bank of floral pieces which surrounded the casket and the large number of persons present at the services attested the popularity of the young sailor and the esteem in which he was held here,” a reporter writes.
Annis was visiting Dayton while on leave from the U.S. Naval Reserve. Considering a transfer to the Army Air Corps, he was the sole passenger in a two-seater flown by his cousin, Lt. Harold M. Sanford, who lost control while making “a very simple spiral manoeuvre.”
“While it probably can never be determined just what was wrong with the machine, owing to its complete destruction, it seems probable that the motor in some way became displaced, destroying the equilibrium of the plane and making it impossible to straighten it up again,” the reporter speculates.
As pilot, Sanford sat in the back of the nose-diving plane and suffered only minor injuries, while Annis suffered two broken legs and a fractured skull. Sanford tells the victim’s friends and family that Annis “did not lose his presence of mind nor show any fear” as the plane went down.