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Title: The German pirate
        his methods and record

Author: Ajax

Release date: January 7, 2016 [eBook #50865]

Language: English

Credits: Produced by WebRover, Chris Curnow, Paul Clark and the
        Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GERMAN PIRATE ***




Produced by WebRover, Chris Curnow, Paul Clark and the
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(This file was produced from images generously made
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                                  THE
                             GERMAN PIRATE

                        His Methods and Record


                                By AJAX


    "_Ye shall love peace as a means to new wars--and the short peace
    more than the long._"

                                  Fr. Nietzsche's "_War and Warriors_."


    "_The German who loves his people, and believes in the greatness
    and the future of our home ... must not let himself be lazily sung
    to sleep by the peace-lullabies of the Utopians._"

                     The German Crown Prince in "_Germany under Arms_."


    "_Efforts to secure peace are extraordinarily detrimental to the
    national health so soon as they influence politics._"

                  General von Bernhardi's "_Germany and the Next War_."


                                LONDON:
                        C. ARTHUR PEARSON LTD.
                     18 Henrietta Street, W.C. 2.
                                 1918




FOREWORD

"_The German people is always right, because it is the German people,
and numbers 87 million souls._"[A]

                                                      O. R. TANNENBERG.


The sea is a stern mistress. She demands from her sons both vigilance
and skill in her service, and for the man who fails her the penalty is
death. From generation to generation men have faced and fought the same
dangers in every ocean. Going down to the sea in ships from a thousand
different ports, the mariners of the world have triumphed or died like
their fathers before them, in the face of dangers as old as the world
itself. And because they have braved the same perils, seamen of all
nations have been united in a splendid fellowship, which is called the
Brotherhood of the Sea. The mariner in danger who sent out a call for
help could count on assistance from his brother of the sea, regardless
of nationality; while with the advance of science and coming of
wireless telegraphy, the scope of such mutual assistance became more
and more extended. Without hesitation men turned their ships from their
intended course, on receiving the S.O.S. signal, and sped for miles to
the help of their unfortunate brothers.

It bound men together, this Brotherhood of the Sea, in a way never
fully to be comprehended by landsmen. It was a fine, manly freemasonry,
and demanded from its members those qualities of courage, honour, and
chivalry which are the true seaman's heritage. Not until the coming of
the German submarine commander was the Brotherhood of the Sea destroyed.

The following accounts of German submarine exploits have been compiled
from British Admiralty documents and the sworn statements of survivors.
Each story is a plain statement of fact. They are, of course, merely a
selection, but they show quite clearly the lines upon which the German
submarine campaign has been conducted from the beginning of the war up
to the latter part of 1917.

It is only right that the tale of these sinkings should be widely
known, because only by knowing what has actually taken place can a
true opinion be formed about the German submariner and his work. For
this reason, the following accounts have been set down as simply as
possible, without exaggeration or unfair comment.

The German submarine commanders were sent to sea in order to
sink ships, because Germany believed unrestricted U-boat warfare
a necessity; but they received orders, according to the Berlin
Government, that human life and the rights of neutrals were to be
respected. The way in which these orders were carried out is shown in
the following pages.




THE PIRATE AS THIEF.

_A Selection of Cases._


 Dutch s.s. GAMMA                               1st Feb., 1917.
 Russian s.v. GARNET HILL                       2nd Feb., 1917.
 British trawler ROMEO                          3rd Feb., 1917.
 British s.s. DAUNTLESS                         4th Feb., 1917.
 British trawler BENBOW                         9th Feb., 1917.
 British trawler ATHENIAN                       9th Feb., 1917.
 British trawler IRELAND                       10th Feb., 1917.
 British s.s. MARGARITA                        14th Feb., 1917.
 British s.v. INVERCAULD                       22nd Feb., 1917.
 Portuguese and Irish Fishing Vessels      March and May, 1917.
 British s.v. ALFRED                           12th June, 1917.
 Swedish s.s. SNETOPPEN                         4th July, 1917.




CHAPTER I.

THE PIRATE AS THIEF.

"_If Fate has selected us to assume the leadership in the Kultur-life
of the peoples, we will not shrink from this great and lofty
mission._"[B]--GUSTAV E. PAZANREK.


The Dutch steamer _Gamma_ was proceeding from New York to Amsterdam on
the 1st February, 1917, with a cargo of oilcake for the Netherlands
Government. At 2.30 p.m. a German submarine appeared on the port bow,
steering towards the ship. Without making any signal, the submarine
at once opened fire. She fired six shells, one of which struck the
windlass. The ship was stopped, boats were lowered, and the master
proceeded to the submarine, where he was questioned by the commander.
A German officer and two men boarded the _Gamma_, placed bombs in
her holds, and returned with a bag of flour, two hams, some butter,
and a few engine-room tools. The master asked for a tow, but this
was refused, and the submarine disappeared. Ten minutes later the
bombs exploded and the _Gamma_ went down. It was bitterly cold, but
fortunately the boats were picked up by the Dutch liner _Vondel_ at
about 6 o'clock that night.

The _Gamma_ was a neutral vessel laden with cargo for a neutral
Government, but the fact was totally disregarded by the Germans. Fire
was opened recklessly and without warning, and it was merely a matter
of chance that no lives were lost. Having looted the vessel in true
pirate style, the Germans refused the Dutchmen a tow. Once more it
was only through good fortune that their boat happened to be picked
up before any of the crew had died from exposure. The Germans showed
themselves to be arbitrary, discourteous, and robbers.

At 12.15 p.m. on the 2nd February, 1917, a U-boat suddenly appeared
alongside the Russian sailing vessel _Garnet Hill_ and ordered the crew
to abandon the ship at once. When this had been done, bombs were placed
in the vessel, which sank in about five minutes after the explosion.
The Germans took the master's chronometer and a lot of clothes. They
also took off one member of the crew who declared himself to be a
German. The boats were picked up 28 hours later.

This is a case that gives one an insight into German methods, and
suggests the possibilities of the seaman as spy. Obviously these
possibilities are very great, although we cannot say for certain to
what extent the services of the seaman-spy have been utilised by
Germany in her submarine campaign. Many a ship may have been betrayed
by Germans masquerading under some other nationality. The idea of the
sea-spy is so essentially Teutonic that it must have been exploited by
the Berlin Government. Thus, although the _Garnet Hill_ provides an
instance of the Pirate as Thief, it is perhaps more interesting as an
instance of the Pirate as Spy.

The British trawler _Romeo_ was sunk by a German submarine at 2
p.m. on the 3rd February, 1917. Before sinking her the Germans
ransacked the vessel and took away her ensign, ship's stores, clocks,
weather-glasses, the clothes of the crew, and the skipper's kit. The
crew were picked up by a patrol-boat at 5 p.m. the same day.

On the 4th February, 1917, at 6 p.m. the British steamship _Dauntless_
was struck on the funnel by a shot. The master at once gave the order
"Hard a-starboard," but before it could be executed a shell struck the
bridge, damaging the steering-gear and wounding the master and the
man at the wheel. Shells began to fly over the ship, the engines were
stopped, and both life-boats were lowered. One fireman was killed on
deck, but the rest of the crew reached the boats in safety, although
firing was continued all this time. When the starboard life-boat had
got a little way from the ship the submarine appeared alongside and
ordered all hands on board. The lifeboat was then manned by Germans,
who proceeded to the vessel, presently returning with various tinned
provisions, some turpentine, and enamel, which were taken on board the
submarine. They had also brought away the ship's jolly-boat.

At about 8.10 p.m. the sound of a muffled explosion was heard, and the
crew were then ordered into their boats, the submarine disappearing
in the darkness. The master and six men entered the jolly-boat, the
remaining nine men taking to the life-boat. Soon afterwards the two
boats became separated in the darkness.

They rowed the jolly-boat all through the night, and at 6 a.m. next
day the steward died from exposure. His body was thrown overboard at 6
o'clock that evening. Land was then visible, but a snow-storm came on,
and land was lost. They rowed all through the night, but on Tuesday
morning land was sighted again, and at 10 a.m. the boat touched the
beach and was overturned by breakers. The remaining six men managed to
get ashore, but soon after landing the second engineer and a fireman
died on the beach. The four survivors were taken to hospital, and on
12th February the mate and chief and second engineers were discharged.
The master was left behind, suffering from exposure and shell wounds.

At 12.50 p.m., in very thick weather, on the 9th February, the British
trawler _Benbow_ was fired upon by a German submarine. As the fog
lifted two shots were fired, followed by four more while the boat was
being got out. The crew were transferred to the submarine while a party
of Germans visited the trawler. They returned with 5 stone of flour, 3
tins of treacle, 4 stone of sugar, half-a-dozen boxes of Quaker oats, 3
barrels of meat, 10 lbs. of sausages, several tins of milk, 2 clocks,
and the kits of the skipper and chief engineer. When the submarine
was last seen the clothes were being divided amongst the Germans. The
trawler was sunk by a bomb; the submarine disappeared in the fog.

On the same day the British trawler _Athenian_ was attacked by a
U-boat, seven or eight shots being fired while her boat was being got
out. Everything portable was taken from the trawler by the Germans.
After she had been sunk, the German commander asked the skipper
whether he would like to go to Germany or remain in his open boat. The
skipper chose his boat. The men were picked up at 2 p.m. next day.

At 12.30 p.m. on the 10th February, 1917, the master of the British
trawler _Ireland_ was towing his trawl at a speed of 2½ miles an hour
when he sighted a German submarine 2½ miles away on the port side. The
submarine fired a shot which dropped 2 yards clear of the trawler's
stern. Her boat was at once got out, two more shots being fired, one of
which dropped just astern, while the other passed over the funnel. The
crew embarked in their boat without casualties, and the Germans then
looted the trawler, taking away the ship's papers, sextant, binoculars,
fisherman's almanack, and a basket of provisions. They sank the trawler
at about 1 p.m. The crew were picked up by a patrol-boat at 6 a.m. on
the 14th February, and landed at Scarborough at 8 o'clock that night,
when two of them were sent to hospital suffering from frost-bite.

The British steamer _Margarita_ was sunk by a U-boat in the evening
of the 14th February, 1917, after being looted by the Germans. They
took the clocks from the engine-room and cabin, the barometer, some
condensed milk, and some soap. The crew were picked up at 3.15 a.m.
next day and landed at Milford Haven.

The British sailing vessel _Invercauld_ was sunk on the 22nd February
by a German submarine, which opened fire on her without warning. After
firing a torpedo, which struck the ship on the port beam, blowing away
150 feet of her side, the Germans boarded her and searched for food.
However, the water was too high for this, so the commander contented
himself by taking the chronometer, binoculars, clocks, bell, ensign,
and other portable articles, for which he gave the master a receipt.
The master and his crew of 23 hands escaped without casualty.

On the 17th March, 1917, two German submarines attacked and sank four
Portuguese fishing vessels, the _Rita Segunda_, _Flor de Abril_,
_Senora del Rosario_, and _Restaurador_. One man of the _Restaurador_
was killed and three others injured, although the crews left their
vessels after the first shot. On the 19th March the following official
statement was issued in Lisbon:

"While four trawlers were fishing off the coast of Algarvo, the most
southerly province of Portugal, two German submarines made their
appearance, one from the north and the other from the south. They
immediately opened fire upon the fishing vessels. The crews were
ordered to leave their ships, which were then looted by the Germans of
the fish and clothing they had on board. The trawlers were then sunk.
One of the fishermen was killed and three were seriously wounded. The
remainder of the crews, to the number of about 100, have been safely
landed at Lisbon by patrol-boats of the Portuguese Naval Division."

On the 3rd May, 1917, nine or ten Irish fishing vessels were looted and
destroyed by German submarines at about 8 p.m. The skipper of one of
these vessels, the _Lucky Lass_, has described how the Germans took his
new foresail, fishing lines, clothes, oilskins, and his son's watch.
They then smashed up the _Lucky Lass_ with a large hatchet and a big
stone hammer. They were in a great hurry, and ordered the skipper and
his son to keep a sharp look-out for British patrol-boats during their
looting operations. Another boat, the _Sir Edward Birbeck_, was sunk by
bombs.

The British sailing ship _Alfred_ was sunk on the 12th June. The
Germans looted the vessel, carrying off the stores and all her
brass-work. The crew were taken on board the submarine and then
witnessed the sinking of another vessel. They saw dead bodies and
struggling men in the water, while the officers and crew of the
submarine sneered and laughed at them.

The Swedish steamer _Snetoppen_ was bound for New York on the 4th
July, 1917, when a submarine came to the surface on her starboard bow
and commenced to shell her. After half-a-dozen shots had been fired
the master decided that his position was hopeless, and gave orders to
abandon ship in two boats.

The Germans then proceeded to loot the steamer, taking the ship's
chronometer and barometer, two sextants, and three boat-loads of
provisions. The German sailors ransacked the state-rooms, while their
officers demanded whiskey, beer, and cognac, besides taking all the
clothes they could lay hands on. They sank the steamer with bombs, and
left the survivors in their boats. These were afterwards picked up by
an American destroyer.

With regard to these cases, it would probably be contended by the
Germans that the sufferings of the _Dauntless'_ survivors were
unavoidable. But what about the shelling of the vessel? This was
wholly unnecessary, and resulted in the death of one man. The Germans
could have committed their thefts of provisions, turpentine and enamel
without first shelling the ship. To the lesser crime of theft they
need not have added the greater crime of murder.

In the same way, the shelling of the British trawlers was totally
uncalled for; and since it is not to be supposed that the German fires
merely for the amusement of discharging his guns, another conclusion
is forced upon us. It will be noticed that shots were fired while the
boats were being lowered in the cases of the _Dauntless_, _Benbow_, and
_Ireland_. With what object, except to take life? Upon the occasions
under review the German missed his mark; but this does not always
happen, as the study of other cases will show.

Apart from the firing, the examples quoted show the German as thief,
although in the sinking of the _Invercauld_ the pirates defeated their
own ends, so far as food was concerned. The giving of a receipt for the
articles taken was in accordance with the German Prize Regulations,
which lay down that: "H.M. ships can, in case of need, replenish from
the cargo and from the non-consumable and consumable stores of captured
enemy ships (a receipt being given for anything taken) if the articles
are not proved beyond doubt to be neutral."

The incidents connected with the sinking of the _Alfred_ make one
speculate as to the standard by which German naval officers regulate
their conduct. It is inconceivable that any British commander would
allow his men to laugh and sneer at a number of hapless seamen
struggling in the water. This German officer, however, did not hesitate
to do so.

The looting of the Swedish steamer _Snetoppen_ is interesting in view
of the regulation above quoted in connection with the _Invercauld_.
It is a case of the Pirate as Thief amongst neutrals. The Germans
behaved like common housebreakers, and showed the same spirit which
their comrades of the German Army exhibited early in the war, when they
ransacked chateaux and private houses during their first advance.

It will be in place here to glance at other provisions contained in
the German Naval Prize Regulations. These should be borne in mind when
reading about the actual deeds of the German submarine officers here
collected. The Regulations were published in the _Reichs-Gesetzblatt_
at Berlin on the 3rd August, 1914. The first of the "General
Provisions" reads:--

"The commanding officers of H.M. warships have the right during a war,
in accordance with the following provisions, to stop enemy or neutral
merchant ships, to search and capture them as well as the enemy and
neutral goods in them, and in exceptional cases to destroy them."

Clause 4 of the General Provisions states:--"All measures are to be
carried out in a manner the observance of which--even towards the
enemy--is demanded by the honour of the German Empire, and with such
consideration for neutrals as is in accordance with international law
and German interests."

Clause 6 sets out the vessels that are exempt from capture. These
include: "Hospital ships, vessels employed exclusively in coast
fisheries, or small boats employed in local trade, so long as they do
not take any part whatever in hostilities."

There are two clauses dealing with ships which endeavour to escape. The
first states that: "A neutral ship is to be treated as an enemy ship
if she forcibly resists the exercise of the right of stoppage, search,
and capture; force may be used against the ship in question until she
ceases to resist; attempted flight alone does not count as forcible
resistance." On the other hand, Article 83 declares: "If the ship does
not stop when signalled, two rounds of blank are to be fired, one after
the other; and, if necessary, a live shell across her bows. If the
vessel does not then bring to, or offers resistance, the commander will
compel her to stop."

No excuse can be made for the German commanders, in view of these
regulations. Their Government ordered them to behave in the manner
demanded by the honour of the German Empire, and in accordance with
international law and German interests. Their conduct has shown the
world the meaning of the word "honour," as understood within the German
Empire. For international law, of course, they have never attempted
to show the slightest respect; but it is possible that they really
believed they were serving German interests by behaving as bloodthirsty
pirates. The mad doctrine of "frightfulness" which has been preached
to Young Germany from a thousand pulpits and in a thousand schools all
over the Central Empire, has killed all sense of morality in the modern
Teuton. The German thinks he can terrorise the world by acts of mere
savagery: this is the deadly error which has cut his country off from
the civilised nations of the globe.




THE PIRATE AS MURDERER.

_A Selection of Cases._


 s.s. AGUILA                                  27th March, 1915.
 s.s. FALABA                                  28th March, 1915.
 Trawler VICTORIA                               1st June, 1915.
 s.s. MEADOWFIELD                               9th July, 1915.
 s.s. GLENBY                                 17th August, 1915.
 s.s. CYMBELINE                                4th Sept., 1915.
 s.s. MIDDLETON                                30th Nov., 1915.
 s.s. CLAN MACLEOD                              1st Dec., 1915.
 s.s. COMMODORE                                 2nd Dec., 1915.
 s.s. ORTERIC                                   9th Dec., 1915.
 s.s. VAN STIRUM                               25th Dec., 1915.
 s.s. SUSSEX                                  24th March, 1916.
 s.s. SIMLA                                    2nd April, 1916.
 s.s. ZENT                                     6th April, 1916.
 s.s. WHITGIFT                                20th April, 1916.
 s.s. BRUSSELS                                 23rd June, 1916.
 s.s. CURAMALAN                               21st Sept., 1916.
 s.s. NORTH WALES                              20th Oct., 1916.
 s.s. CABOTIA                                  20th Oct., 1916.
 s.s. RAPPAHANNOCK                             26th Oct., 1916.
 s.s. ARABIA                                    6th Nov., 1916.
 s.s. MORESBY                                  28th Nov., 1916.
 Trawler TREVONE                               30th Jan., 1917.
 s.s. EAVESTONE                                 3rd Feb., 1917.
 Trawler VULCANA                                7th Feb., 1917.
 s.ss. ST. NINIAN and CORSICAN PRINCE           7th Feb., 1917.
 s.s. CALIFORNIA                                7th Feb., 1917.
 s.s. SALLAGH                                  10th Feb., 1917.
 s.s. AFRIC                                    12th Feb., 1917.
 s.s. VALDES                                   17th Feb., 1917.
 s.s. LACONIA                                  25th Feb., 1917.
 s.s. GALGORM CASTLE                           27th Feb., 1917.
 s.s. REDCAP                                   1st March, 1917.
 s.s. TASSO                                   17th March, 1917.
 s.s. JOSHUA NICHOLSON                        18th March, 1917.
 s.s. ALNWICK CASTLE                          19th March, 1917.
 s.s. DALEBY                                  29th April, 1917.
 s.ss. TYCHO and PORTHKERRY                     20th May, 1917.
 s.s. CLAN MURRAY                               29th May, 1917.
 Schooner JANE WILLIAMSON                     10th Sept., 1917.
 Schooner WILLIAM                             11th Sept., 1917.
 French Barquentine MIMOSA                    24th Sept., 1917.
 s.s. ELMSGARTH                               29th Sept., 1917.




CHAPTER II.

THE PIRATE AS MURDERER.

"_The German is a hero born, and believes that he can hack and hew his
way through life._"[C]

                                                HEINRICH V. TREITSCHKE.


In February, 1915, Germany declared a blockade of Great Britain and
Ireland. Her official declaration stated, amongst other things, that
from February 18th every hostile merchant ship found in the waters
around the British Isles would be destroyed, "even if it is not
always possible to avoid dangers which thereby threaten the crews and
passengers." Neutral ships were also warned that they would incur
danger in the "military area," because, according to Germany, the
British Government had issued orders as to the misuse of neutral flags
at sea. This accusation was false; no misuse of neutral flags has ever
been ordered by the British Government. Traffic northwards round the
Shetland Islands was graciously permitted by the Germans in their Note.

That Germany could enforce an effective blockade of the British Isles
was not to be expected, but the Berlin Press hailed the Imperial
Government's declaration with delight. The _Lokal-Anzeiger_, a
semi-official journal, exclaimed: "What do we care about the outcry
of others and the indignation of our enemies? We Germans have a
great lesson to learn from this war, namely, not to be fastidious
and not to listen to others." Both these lessons appear to have been
thoroughly mastered. In the _Kreuz-Zeitung_, the official organ of the
Conservative and Court parties, the following comment appeared: "It
appears that we shall now torpedo ships without previous warning. For
the first time we appear now to have decided on this relentless form of
warfare. We welcome with satisfaction the fact that our submarines will
wage the most ruthless and relentless war against all enemy shipping."

As the term "blockade" is liable to misinterpretation, we cannot do
better than quote the German definition of a blockade, as contained in
the German Naval Prize Regulations, Section V., Articles 58, 59, and 60.

"The blockade must be confined to the ports and coasts belonging to or
occupied by the enemy; the blockading forces must not bar access to
neutral ports or coasts.

"A blockade, in order to be valid, must be effective, applied
impartially, and declared and notified according to the rules concerned.

"A blockade is really effective when it is maintained by a force
sufficient to prevent access to the enemy coast. The question whether
a blockade is effective as to number and disposition of the blockading
forces under the existing geographical conditions must in every case be
examined by the Prize Court. Among other things, it will be denied if
maritime traffic could be maintained between one of the blockaded ports
and any port not blockaded."

The absurdity of the German declaration becomes clear in the light of
Germany's own official description of an effective blockade. It is now
over two years since she essayed to blockade the British Isles; but
never during the whole of that period has she been able to provide a
"force sufficient to prevent access to the enemy coast." Moreover,
during the same period maritime traffic has been "maintained between
blockaded and unblockaded ports." The whole affair quickly developed
into a series of piratical raids by submarines against the sea-borne
commerce of the world, carried out in a spirit of reckless brutality.

The German's utter disregard even for the rules laid down by his own
Admiralty horrified the world and destroyed the reputation and honour
of the German Navy. This can scarcely be considered surprising, when
we remember that the following are but a few examples of the German
submariner's methods.

On the 27th March, 1915, at about 5.30 p.m. the s.s. _Aguila_, when
signalled to stop by a submarine, put on full speed to escape. She was,
however, overhauled, the submarine approaching to within about 300
feet of her, and opening fire with shrapnel and solid shot. The chief
engineer was killed, and the master, third engineer, and a fireman
were wounded. At 6 p.m. the engines were stopped, and as way came off
the ship, the boats were lowered; but the submarine continued to fire,
killing the boatswain, donkeyman, stewardess, and a lady passenger,
and wounding others. One of the boats capsized, which brought the
total death-roll up to eight. The position was 33 miles from land. The
submarine offered no assistance, and went away after sinking the ship.

On the 28th March, 1915, the s.s. _Falaba_, of 4,806 tons, was
overhauled after a short chase by an enemy submarine about 60 miles
west of St. Ann's Head. The submarine hailed the ship through a
megaphone to "take to the boats, as they were going to sink the ship in
five minutes." This was at noon, and ten minutes later the submarine
fired a torpedo from a distance of about 100 yards. The _Falaba_ took a
list to starboard and sank in 8 minutes.

The steamer carried a crew of 95 and 147 passengers, including seven
women, a total of 242 persons; and it was quite impossible to transfer
this number of people to the boats in the twenty minutes that elapsed
between the submarine's warning and the sinking of the ship. While the
boats were being launched at top speed, the falls of one boat slipped,
the falls of another jammed, some boats were dashed against the side
of the ship, and one was seriously injured by the explosion of the
torpedo. The result was that 104 lives were lost, 138 being saved.

This heavy loss of life was quite unnecessary, and would never have
occurred if the German commander had allowed the master a reasonable
time in which to abandon ship. We are entitled to claim that the
sinking of the _Falaba_, carried out as it was, amounted to nothing
less than an act of murder. This is true, because the safety of the
U-boat did not depend upon the immediate sinking of the steamer, which
could have been destroyed just as effectually without the loss of a
single life.

On the 1st June, 1915, at about 4.30 p.m., the trawler _Victoria_
endeavoured to escape from a submarine; but after being badly damaged
and losing one of her crew by shell-fire, the vessel was hove to. The
submarine was only 200 yards away, but she continued to fire, killing
five men and wounding a sixth, although the trawler had surrendered.

The spirit of the German submariner is here illustrated. Because a
vessel, very naturally, tries to escape, she is submitted to shell-fire
after giving in, and unnecessary loss of life is inflicted. The German
commander apparently derived satisfaction from this shelling of an
unarmed craft while stationary, but to ordinary men his action will
seem inhuman and cruel.

At 2.15 p.m. on the 9th July, 1915, a shot was fired at the s.s.
_Meadowfield_ by a submarine. Immediately afterwards, while the master
was looking round to see from whence the shot had come, a second was
fired and the man at the wheel fell dead. The engines were stopped at
once, but the submarine kept on firing, hitting the vessel several
times. Amongst the passengers on board were two women and two children,
and when it was seen that the Germans were scrutinising the ship
through glasses, the children were held up so that they might be seen.
Meanwhile the boats were lowered, the mate and 14 hands getting into
the port boat, while the master, eight hands and the five passengers
entered the starboard boat. The position was 42 miles from land, and
the boats were picked up at 9.15 p.m. that night.

The fact that only one man was killed can hardly be attributed to the
humanity of the Germans, who continued to shell the ship after she was
hove to, and even when they knew that there were women and children on
board.

The s.s. _Glenby_ was overhauled by a submarine and told to abandon
ship at 4.15 p.m. on the 17th August, 1915. While the crew were
lowering their boats the submarine opened fire, seriously wounding one
man and slightly wounding another. The shots also damaged the port
life-boat, besides severing her falls. The crew in two boats were
picked up at 7.15 the same evening, when it was found that two men were
missing.

On the 4th September, 1915, at 12.30 a.m., the s.s. _Cymbeline_ came
under fire from a submarine, which torpedoed the steamer while her crew
of 37 hands were getting into their boats. The explosion destroyed one
boat, causing the loss of six men. The survivors were taken into the
other boat, which then contained 31 men, four of whom were seriously
wounded. They were afloat for 16 hours before they fell in with a
sailing vessel, which towed them to within three miles of the coast.
They did not reach land, however, until 11 o'clock next morning. The
position of the ship when torpedoed was 80 miles from land.

At 8.20 a.m. on the 30th November, 1915, the s.s. _Middleton_ was
shelled by a submarine while endeavouring to escape, one man being
killed and several dangerously wounded. The crew took to the boats.
The submarine ignored the boats, and returned no answer to an appeal
for bandages for the wounded. It was not until ten hours afterwards
that the boats were picked up, and in the meantime two of the wounded
men had died. Another man died on board the ship which picked them up.
There were three other wounded men, who survived.

On Wednesday, the 1st December, 1915, at 8.15 a.m., the s.s. _Clan
Macleod_ was shelled by a submarine while endeavouring to escape.
Soon after the ship was first hit the master stopped her, hoisted the
international code signal indicating that she surrendered, and blew
two blasts on his whistle. The submarine, however, again opened fire
at a range of about a quarter of a mile, first blowing the bridge
and captain's accommodation to bits, and then destroying the two
starboard boats. This fire killed eight of the crew. All hands were
now ordered into the port-side boats, the master taking charge of the
life-boat, with 50 on board, while the first mate took the cutter with
a crew of 20. After sinking the ship the submarine came alongside the
boat, and some of the Germans bound up the wounds of the master and
an apprentice. The position was 100 miles from land. The life-boat
was adrift until 5.30 p.m. on Thursday, the 2nd December, when she
was picked up by a steamer. The mate's boat was adrift until 2 a.m.
on Saturday, the 4th December, when she was picked up by a French
destroyer. In the meantime one of the wounded in this boat had died.

On the 2nd December, 1915, at 6.40 a.m., the s.s. _Commodore_ was
shelled by a submarine while endeavouring to escape. At 7 a.m. the
vessel was stopped, one man having been killed and another severely
wounded. While the crew were taking to the boats five more men were
wounded by shell fire, two of them severely. The submarine then came
alongside the boats and questioned the master. The Germans refused to
supply any lint for the wounded men, and told the boats to clear off.
The survivors were adrift for 28 hours before being picked up.

On the 9th December, 1915, at 4.20 p.m., the s.s. _Orteric_ sighted
a submarine and tried to escape. During the chase the fire of the
submarine destroyed the starboard life-boat, killed two men, and badly
wounded four others. The ship was then hit in the stern and would not
steer, so the master signalled that he was stopping. The submarine,
however, ignored his signal and continued firing. The crew got into
three boats, in charge of the first and second officers and chief
engineer, respectively. The master and two hands remained on board,
having the gig ready. The three boats were about half a mile astern
of the _Orteric_ when the submarine fired four shots at the chief
engineer's boat. All four shots missed the boat, but only by a narrow
margin. The survivors were picked up an hour and a half later.

At 1.35 p.m. on Christmas Day, 1915, the s.s. _Van Stirum_ was fired on
by two submarines and overhauled about an hour afterwards. At 2.32 p.m.
the vessel was stopped, most of the crew embarking in two life-boats.
The master, chief officer, chief engineer, and Marconi operator then
got into a boat on the port side, leaving the boatswain and a seaman
to lower away and follow them into the boat. One of the submarines was
on the port quarter 200 yards away, and as these two men were coming
down the falls, a torpedo was fired, which passed under the boat and
struck the ship's side. The explosion killed both men in the falls. The
position was 20 miles from land, and the survivors were picked up an
hour later by a trawler.

The sinking of these seven vessels was accompanied by unnecessary
loss of life. In the case of the _Glenby_ there was no reason for the
Germans to open fire before the crew had abandoned ship. Three men were
wounded and two lost, simply because the Germans would not allow them
time to enter their boats. No excuse can be advanced for the Germans.
Again, with regard to the _Cymbeline_, lives were lost because she
was torpedoed while her crew were taking to their boats. To destroy a
life-boat and kill six men was an act of wanton murder. The destruction
of the _Middleton_ provides a clearer example of German methods. When
asked for bandages, the submarine held to her course and ignored the
appeal. Three of the wounded men died, probably as a result of the
Germans' refusal to aid them.

Eight of the _Clan Macleod's_ crew were killed by German gun-fire
after the ship had been hove to. This loss of life was, of course,
unnecessary, and was deliberately caused by the Germans after the
signal of surrender had been run up. It is true that the submarine crew
bound up the wounds of the master and an apprentice; but why were the
wounds ever inflicted? Very similar was the fate of the _Commodore_,
which involved another cowardly attack upon men who were taking to
their boats. On this occasion the Germans deliberately refused lint for
the wounded, although the submarine came alongside the boats.

Even worse was the conduct of the submariners who attacked the
_Orteric_. They waited until her boats were half a mile astern of the
steamer, and then deliberately fired at the boat of the chief engineer.
It is idle for anyone to pretend that these shots were intended for the
ship; they were aimed at an open boat, and each one of the four shots
very nearly hit her. Only bad shooting prevented the murder of this
boat-load of defenceless seamen.

Finally, we have the sinking of the _Van Stirum_ on Christmas Day,
attended by the deliberate murder of two men. A torpedo was fired
under one of the ship's boats while two men were coming down the falls,
and the explosion killed them both. In a few more minutes these men
would have been safe, and those on board the submarine, which was
only 200 yards away, must have known this perfectly well. They would
not wait a couple of minutes, but preferred to murder the men in cold
blood. Here, as in other cases, the utter uselessness of the deed must
strike any unprejudiced mind. The U-boats' mission is to sink this or
that ship, but the U-boat commander appears to delight in adding murder
to his daily programme.

The French Channel packet _Sussex_ carried over 380 passengers,
including about 270 women and children and 20 Americans, when, at 4.35
p.m. on the 24th March, 1916, she was torpedoed without warning. There
were 50 casualties; but, although her bows were blown to pieces, the
vessel was towed inside Boulogne breakwater and beached.

The Germans tried to evade the responsibility for this outrage by
suggesting that the _Sussex_ had been sunk by a British mine. They
admitted sinking a ship at the time, and in the position where the
_Sussex_ was sunk, but declared that it was a war vessel which they
had torpedoed. That the German contentions were false was eventually
proved beyond doubt, as the following evidence will show.

The American Consul at Boulogne sent this message to the Secretary
of State, Washington: "_Sussex_ torpedoed by German submarine
incontestably proved by piece of torpedo found on board _Sussex_ by
Balincourt, French Commandant, le front de Mere, Boulogne."

On the 25th March, 1916, the Divisional Naval Transport officer at
Boulogne writes: "I personally inspected the _Sussex_ this morning,
and was shown by the French authorities pieces of the torpedo which
had been found in the ship, thus establishing the fact that she was
torpedoed."

The reckless and unscrupulous methods of the German were well
illustrated in the sinking of the _Sussex_. The U-boat commander
obviously took no pains to discover what kind of vessel he was going
to attack. He simply fired a torpedo and disappeared. Afterwards he
tried to shuffle off the responsibility for his deed by a number of
falsehoods. While admitting that he had destroyed a certain vessel at
a certain time, he declared that he believed her to have been a war
vessel of the _Arabis_ class. Stories founded on his statements were
freely circulated by the German Government; but they were effectively
answered by a British official reply in the following terms:--

    1. There is no resemblance whatever between a vessel of the
    _Arabis_ class and the _Sussex_, and it is quite impossible to
    mistake one vessel for the other.

    2. The Germans are condemned out of their own mouths by their
    statement that the commander of the German submarine fired on some
    vessel at a certain moment. Now that certain moment was precisely
    the time at which the _Sussex_ was attacked.

    3. The German submarine commander admitted that he had destroyed
    the fore part of the vessel he attacked. No other ship but the
    _Sussex_ suffered in this way.

It was unfortunate for the Germans that the _Sussex_, although so
badly damaged, could be towed in and beached. Had she sunk, the German
contention that her fate was due to a mine would have been more
difficult to refute. When, however, pieces of a torpedo were discovered
on board, the method of her destruction was proved beyond all doubt.

Meanwhile, on the 18th April, 1916, the United States sent a Note
to the German Imperial Government. The Note pointed out that--"The
_Sussex_ was never armed; she was a ship which, as is well known,
was regularly employed only for the transport of passengers across
the English Channel. She did not follow the route pursued by troop
transports or munition ships. About 80 passengers, non-combatants of
every age and both sexes, including citizens of the United States, were
killed or wounded." The outrageous methods of German submarine warfare
are so admirably exposed by the American Government in this official
communication that we cannot do better than reproduce certain of the
passages here.

"If the sinking of the _Sussex_ had been an isolated case," says
the Note, "that would enable the Government of the United States to
hope that the officer responsible for the deed arbitrarily exceeded
his instructions, or in criminal negligence failed to observe the
prescribed measures of precaution, and that satisfaction might be done
to justice by his appropriate punishment, associated with a formal
disavowal of his conduct and the payment of appropriate compensation by
the Imperial Government. But although the attack on the _Sussex_ was
evidently indefensible and caused so tragic a loss of human life that
it appears as one of the most terrible examples of the inhumanity of
the submarine warfare as waged by the commanders of German vessels, it
unhappily stands not alone."

After recalling former protests by the American Government and
Germany's unlawful attempt to close a part of the high seas, the Note
continues:--

"The international law, which here applies and upon which the United
States Government based its protest, is not of recent origin or based
on purely arbitrary principles established by agreement. On the
contrary, it rests on obvious principles of humanity, and has long been
in force, with the approval and the express assent of all civilised
nations. The Imperial Government insisted, notwithstanding, on
prosecuting the policy announced, while it expressed the hope that the
existing dangers, at least for neutral ships, would be restricted to a
minimum by instructions given to the commanders of its submarines, and
assured the United States Government that it would apply every possible
precaution to respect the rights of neutrals and protect the lives of
non-combatants.

"In pursuit of this policy of submarine warfare against its enemy's
trade, so announced and begun despite the solemn protest of the United
States Government, the Imperial Government's submarine commanders have
practised a procedure of such reckless destruction as made it more
and more clear during recent months that the Imperial Government has
found no way to impose upon them such restrictions as it had hoped and
promised. The Imperial Government has repeatedly and solemnly assured
the United States Government that passenger ships, at least, would
not be thus treated, and yet it has repeatedly allowed its submarine
commanders to disregard these assurances with impunity. Even in
February of this year it announced that it regarded armed merchantmen
in enemy possession as part of the armed naval forces of its
adversaries, and would treat them as warships, while it bound itself,
at least implicitly, to warn unarmed vessels and guarantee the lives of
their passengers and crews; but their submarine commanders have freely
disregarded even this restriction.

"Neutral ships, even neutral ships _en route_ from neutral port to
neutral port, have been destroyed, just as hostile ships, in steadily
increasing number. Attacked merchantmen have sometimes been warned and
challenged to surrender before being fired on or torpedoed, sometimes
the most scanty security has been granted to their passengers and
crews of being allowed to enter boats before the ship was sunk; but
repeatedly no warning has been given, and not even refuge in boats was
granted to passengers on board. Great ships like the _Lusitania_ and
the _Arabic_, and purely passenger ships like the _Sussex_, have been
attacked without any warning, often before they were aware they were in
the presence of an armed enemy ship, and the life of non-combatants,
passengers, and crews was indiscriminately destroyed in a manner which
the Government of the United States could only regard as wanton and
lacking every justification. Indeed, no sort of limit was set to the
further indiscriminate destruction of merchantmen of every kind and
nationality outside the waters which the Imperial Government has been
pleased to indicate as within the war zone. The list of Americans
who lost their lives on the vessels thus attacked and destroyed has
increased month by month, until the terrible number of the victims has
risen to hundreds."

The German reply to America was dated 4th May, 1916, and one or
two extracts will indicate its tone. After vigorously denying any
"deliberate method of indiscriminate destruction of vessels of all
sorts," the German Government states "that it has as far as possible
instituted a far-reaching restraint upon the use of the submarine
weapon solely in consideration of neutrals' interests, in spite of the
fact that these restrictions were necessarily of advantage to Germany's
enemies. No such consideration has ever been shown to neutrals by Great
Britain and her Allies."

This last sentence is very typical of the hardy impertinence of Berlin.
Later on in the Note, the German Government "notifies the Government of
the United States that the German Naval Forces receive the following
orders for submarine warfare in accordance with the general principles
of visit, search, and destruction of merchant vessels recognised by
international law. Such vessels, both within and without the area
declared as a naval war zone, shall not be sunk without warning, and
without saving human lives, unless the ship attempts to escape or offer
resistance."

On the 2nd April, 1916, the British s.s. _Simla_, while making 11
knots, was torpedoed without warning in the Mediterranean. The
explosion made a hole in her port side 30 feet by 8 feet in size, and
the engines stopped of themselves. This took place at 1 p.m. Boats
were lowered, and 150 of the crew embarked, the remaining 10, who were
Asiatic firemen, having been killed by the explosion. After the ship
had been abandoned a submarine appeared and fired seven shells into
her, sinking her at 2.30 p.m. The survivors were picked up by a French
patrol-boat at 5 p.m. on the same day.

The steamer _Zent_ was in ballast off the Fastnet when at 10.20 p.m. on
the 6th April, 1916, she was attacked by a submarine. She was struck
by a torpedo in the engine-room and immediately afterwards by another
in No. 3 hatch on the starboard side. She had been proceeding at 13½
knots, and sank in two minutes. Three boats were lowered but, owing to
the way on the ship, they capsized, and those who could clung to the
bottom of an upturned boat. Forty-nine men were drowned; eleven men and
two corpses were picked up 2½ hours later, two of the rescued being
slightly injured and taken to hospital.

The loss of life was due to the vessel being torpedoed without any
warning. If the Germans had allowed even a short period of grace, it is
probable that there would have been no casualties. To sink a ship while
proceeding at full speed is equivalent to murder, and, as in other
similar cases, this was unnecessary murder.

The British steamer _Whitgift_ was torpedoed and sunk on the 20th
April, 1916, but there are no details about the occurrence, as the
whole of her crew, except one Japanese, were drowned. This survivor was
taken prisoner by the Germans. The only particulars about the sinking
of the ship are contained in a letter which he wrote:--

    "I am now in Lager Holzminden Barrack 4. On the 20 April our schip
    has been torpedoed by a German U-boot and only I have been saved by
    the German U-boot and now I am prisoner."

The Great Eastern Railway Company's steamer _Brussels_, while on voyage
from the Hook of Holland to Tilbury, was captured by the Germans in the
early morning of the 23rd of June and taken into Zeebrugge. The master
of the vessel was Captain Charles Fryatt. On the 29th of July the text
of a German official announcement appeared in the _Times_:--

    "On Thursday, at Bruges, before the Court-Martial of the Marine
    Corps, the trial took place of Captain Charles Fryatt, of the
    British steamer _Brussels_, which was brought in as a prize.

    "The accused was condemned to death because, although he was not a
    member of a combatant force, he made an attempt on the afternoon of
    28th March, 1915, to ram the German submarine U33 near the Maas
    Lightship. The accused, as well as the first officer and the chief
    engineer of the steamer, received at the time from the British
    Admiralty a gold watch, as a reward for his brave conduct on that
    occasion, and his action was mentioned with praise in the House of
    Commons.

    "On the occasion in question, disregarding the U-boat's signal to
    stop and show his national flag he turned at a critical moment at
    high speed on the submarine, which escaped the steamer by a few
    metres only, by immediately diving. He confessed that in so doing
    he had acted in accordance with the instructions of the Admiralty.
    The sentence was confirmed yesterday (Thursday) afternoon and
    carried out by shooting.

    "One of the many nefarious _franc-tireur_ proceedings of the
    British merchant marine against our war vessels has thus found a
    belated, but merited, expiation."

Even in face of the German official announcement quoted, the British
Government were unwilling to believe that the murder of Captain
Fryatt had indeed taken place. The Foreign Office communicated with
the American Ambassador at Berlin, asking that the facts of the case
might be ascertained. This communication stated that "His Majesty's
Government find it difficult to believe that a master of a merchant
vessel who, after German submarines adopted the practice of sinking
merchant vessels without warning and without regard for the lives
of passengers or crew, took a step which appeared to afford the only
chance of saving not only his vessel, but the lives of all on board,
can have been deliberately shot in cold blood for this action. If the
German Government have in fact perpetrated such a crime in the case
of a British subject held prisoner by them, it is evident that a most
serious condition of affairs has arisen."

The murder was referred to in the House of Commons and reported in the
_Times_ of the 1st August, 1916. In reply to a question by Sir Edward
Carson, Mr. Asquith made the following reply:--

    "I deeply regret to say that it appears to be true that Captain
    Fryatt has been murdered by the Germans. His Majesty's Government
    have heard with the utmost indignation of this atrocious crime
    against the law of nations and the usages of war. Coming as it does
    contemporaneously with the lawless cruelties to the population of
    Lille and other occupied districts of France, it shows that the
    German High Command have, under the stress of military defeat,
    renewed their policy of terrorism.

    "It is impossible to guess to what further atrocities they may
    proceed. His Majesty's Government, therefore, desire to repeat
    emphatically that they are resolved that such crimes shall not, if
    they can help it, go unpunished. When the time arrives they are
    determined to bring to justice the criminals, whoever they may
    be, and whatever their station. In such cases as this the man who
    authorises the system under which such crimes are committed may
    well be the most guilty of all."

The circumstances connected with Captain Fryatt's death are not
disputed by either side; everyone can, therefore, form his own opinion
about the case. It is as well to remember, however, that Germany
declared a blockade of the British Isles in February, 1915, a month
before Captain Fryatt encountered the U33, and that the U-boat pirates
were employing methods of "frightfulness" in March, 1915.

The captain was perfectly justified in believing that the U33 would
sink his ship without giving those aboard her time to enter their
boats. He acted as any man of spirit would have acted in similar
circumstances, and the German defence of his murder breaks down when
we recall the conduct of the U-boat commanders at that time. On the
very day when Captain Fryatt met the U33 another German submarine was
sinking the s.s. _Falaba_, without giving the passengers or crew time
to abandon ship. The _Falaba_, it will be remembered, sank in eight
minutes, with a loss of 104 lives. Was not Captain Fryatt justified in
saving his crew from the chances of a similar fate?

On the 21st September the s.s. _Curamalan_ proceeded to sea. She
had been in the service of the Argentine Republic for twenty years,
and could not, therefore, be classed as a ship transferred for use
during the war. Her owners were subjects of the Republic, and she was
chartered by the Argentine Whaling Company to carry coal from Newport
(Wales) to South Georgia. Such vessels are in the habit of speaking St.
Vincent, Cape Verde, _en route_, but the _Curamalan_ did not do so. She
has been missing "without trace" since the date of her sailing, and
it has been presumed by the authorities that she was sunk in European
waters.

It will be remembered that while Argentina was in controversy with the
German Government about the destruction of her ships by submarines,
Count Luxburg, the German _Chargé d'Affaires_ in Buenos Ayres, was
sending home, by way of the Swedish Foreign Office, recommendations
that certain vessels should be sunk "without a trace." That was in
July, 1917, but the total loss of the _Curamalan_ and her crew of 29
suggests the suspicion that this policy of sinking "without a trace"
dates a good deal further back.

The British steamship _North Wales_ left Hull bound for Canada on
the 20th October 1916, and on the 10th November the Canadian naval
authorities reported her as overdue. On the 9th November the German
Wireless Press gave the name of this vessel in their list of torpedoed
ships, so that, although details are lacking, her fate is fairly
certain. She was sunk almost without trace. One piece of varnished wood
marked "_North Wales_" was washed ashore in Sennen Cove, and one or two
bodies reached the Cornish coast. That is all. If her crew had time to
take to their boats, after being torpedoed, they were probably drowned,
as violent gales were raging at the time.

The British s.s. _Cabotia_ carried a crew of 74. She was on voyage from
Montreal to Liverpool, and had encountered bad weather most of the way.
On the morning of the 20th October there was a strong gale blowing
from the S.W. and a heavy sea running. At about 12.20 p.m. a German
submarine was sighted on the starboard bow and at once opened fire with
her forward gun. Her first shot struck the steamer about amidships on
the starboard side, but the master turned her stern to the submarine
and put on full speed. The U-boat continued firing at the rate of a
shot every five minutes, and out of seven shots she obtained four hits.

The steamer's boats were now swung out, though all hands realised that
probably they would not live long in such a sea. The submarine kept
trying to get on the _Cabotia's_ quarter, but she was kept well astern.
However, she continued to gain on the steamship, and by 2 p.m. was
close astern. The engines were stopped, four boats were lowered, manned
and got clear of the steamer without mishap. Of these boats, Nos. 1 and
2 were in charge of the master and third officer, respectively, while
the second officer took No. 3 boat and the chief officer No. 4.

The submarine, after again shelling the _Cabotia_, went alongside
another steamer which now approached. The boats proceeded in the same
direction, hoping to be picked up; but the steamer, after communicating
with the U-boat, blew two blasts on her whistle, apparently saluting
the submarine, and steamed away. The third and fourth boats, carrying
42 men altogether, were picked up by a patrol boat; but the other two
boats were never seen again, 32 lives being lost.

It goes without saying that the submarine commander could have saved
every one of these lives, had he told the steamer whom he closed to
pick up the _Cabotia's_ boats. Apart from this, it is the opinion of
the survivors that those on board the strange steamer saw their signals
of distress, shirts hoisted on oars, but deliberately ignored them.

About the fate of the British s.s. _Rappahannock_ there was some doubt
at the time of her disappearance, but it has since been established
that she was sunk on the 26th October, 1916. In November the Admiralty
received a message from the owners of the vessel to the effect that
information had been received by them from Captain Cuvellier, of the
Belgian Marine Department, that an inquest had been held at Porranporth
on a body washed ashore on the 8th November. This was the body of a
donkeyman named Theakins, one of the crew of the _Rappahannock_. Then
came news from the s.s. _Corinthian_, who reported that on the 9th
November she found a quantity of deals, wood pulp, and barrels of
apples afloat 60 miles west from the Scilly Islands. These articles
formed part of the _Rappahannock's_ cargo.

On the 27th January, 1917, Berlin published the following
announcement:--

"The English steamer _Rappahannock_ was forced to stop by a German
submarine on 26th October, 1916, following a pursuit of some length,
and sunk after the crew had been given ample time to leave the vessel.
The distance from the point of sinking to the Scillies was about
70 nautical miles, wind and sea were W.S.W. of the third strength.
The safety of the crew, who had entered the boats, appeared to the
commander of the submarine to be guaranteed, inasmuch as the life-boats
were in good condition and well equipped with sails and provisions, and
were able to reach land quickly and safely in view of the favourable
sailing wind, which pointed towards land, and the slight sea."

If the weather conditions had, indeed, been all that the German
commander here claims, it is fairly certain that most of the crew would
have reached land. As a matter of fact, not a single member of the
steamer's crew was ever seen alive again. The inevitable conclusion
is that the weather must have been unfavourable, and that the German
commander must have known what the fate of the crew would be.

On the 6th November, 1916, the British passenger steamship _Arabia_
was torpedoed in the Mediterranean without warning. She carried 437
passengers, of whom many were women and children, and a crew of 304.
The torpedo struck her in the engine-room at 11.22 a.m., the explosion
killing 11 men. The engines stopped at once, and the wireless was
rendered useless. There was no confusion on board, the last boat
leaving the ship at 11.37 a.m., and the only casualties were those
caused by the explosion.

The following message, addressed to Wolff's Telegraph Bureau,
Berlin, from a German in New York, was afterwards intercepted by the
Admiralty:--

    "In Washington deep impression was made by German Admiralty's
    announcement that German submarine sunk _Arabia_. There was even
    surprise expressed that attack on _Arabia_ was semi-officially
    admitted. Admiralty's explanation is considered as incomprehensible
    because _Arabia_, according to information received here, was
    ordinary passenger liner with many passengers on board, not
    carrying troops nor being under British Government charter."

Only the splendid efficiency of officers and crew and the coolness of
the passengers on board the _Arabia_ prevented a terrible tragedy. To
abandon ship successfully in fifteen minutes was a fine feat which
averted a big disaster. The Germans who torpedoed this passenger ship
without warning cannot, however, be allowed any credit for the small
loss of life. It is quite obvious that they did not care whether the
women and children perished or not.

The British steamship _Moresby_ was torpedoed without warning on the
28th November, 1916. The ship at once settled down by the stern, and as
she disappeared in 1½ minutes there was no possibility of getting any
of the boats out or doing anything to save life. The submarine was not
seen. The chief officer, his wife, one A.B. and 29 Chinamen were lost.
The master, second mate, second and third engineers, one A.B. and seven
Chinamen were saved.

James Rose, second hand, was on the deck of the British sailing trawler
_Trevone_ at half-past three in the afternoon of 30th January, 1917,
when a German submarine suddenly appeared on the surface and opened
fire. Her second shot hit the peak halyards, and the master and crew
immediately took to their boat. They were ordered alongside the
submarine and told to board her. In attempting to obey, the master and
cook were both washed overboard. These two men could easily have been
rescued, but the Germans took not the slightest notice of them. The
master was seen hanging on to the submarine's side, aft, for over ten
minutes, but finally disappeared.

The remaining three hands were searched and relieved of their knives
and money. They then had to write their names and ages upon a piece of
paper, and were afterwards taken before the commanding officer, who
examined them through a junior officer who spoke English.

The men noticed several chocolate-coloured bags hanging in the
submarine, marked U55. They were given tea, and at 5 p.m. the U-boat
submerged, and appeared to be stationary until 10 p.m., although the
engines were kept running. She then came to the surface and remained
there all night. The men were given hammocks to sleep in, but could not
sleep, so talked to the submarine's crew, who said they had sunk seven
sailing vessels that day. At 9 a.m. next morning they had breakfast; at
10.45 they were ordered on deck, and received their knives back. The
German officers kept eight shillings of their money. Finally they were
sent off in the boat of a French schooner, and were fortunate enough to
be picked up five hours later.

The worst feature of this case is the callous disregard shown by the
Germans when the master and cook fell into the sea. These two men were
allowed to drown right under the eyes of the Germans. After all, the
poor fellows were only trying to carry out the U-boat commander's
order when they fell overboard, and the dictates of common decency
would have caused any ordinary civilised man to have made at least
some sort of effort to rescue them. No great effort would have been
necessary; their own comrades could have picked up both men, if the
Germans had allowed this.

Instead, the commander preferred to leave the master clinging to the
side of the submarine until the icy winter water and his failing
strength obliged the wretched man to relax his hold and sink to
his death. It is a disgusting incident, which fills the mind with
indignation against the man who could permit such a thing to happen.

Unfortunately, we cannot put these Germans down as exceptional types.
From what happened afterwards, they appear to have been just ordinary
members of the U-boat service. They did not, for example, ill-treat
their prisoners while on board the submarine; and beyond the theft
of a few shillings by the German officers, the trawler's crew had no
ground for complaint. But the whole incident shows the low standard of
morality prevailing among German submariners. Two men allowed to drown;
eight shillings stolen from the survivors. That is all, and apparently
such trifling incidents are taken as a matter of course in the German
submarine service. What can be said for such men? How can normal people
understand their motives?

The British steamer _Eavestone_ left Barry Docks on the 1st February,
1917, for Gibraltar. On the 3rd February, she was 100 miles W. by S.W.
of the Fastnets when she sighted a submarine. The German opened fire at
3,000 yards and soon found the range. Firing at the rate of a shot a
minute, she struck the steamer repeatedly, and continued firing while
the crew took to their boats. As soon as the boats had dropped astern
of their ship, the submarine turned her gun upon them at short range,
firing three shrapnel shells and striking both boats. The third shell
killed the master, the steward, and a donkeyman, wounded two able
seamen, and severely wounded the second officer in the right arm.

The submarine now called the first mate on board and questioned him,
but no enquiries were made as to the _Eavestone's_ losses, and no
help was suggested. The boats were picked up that same night by the
Norwegian barque _Regna_.

Here is a typical case of the pirate as murderer. Having done his best
to kill the steamer's crew, while they were taking to their boats, he
deliberately turns his gun against the open boats as soon as they are
manned and clear of the vessel. Without any shadow of pretext, the
pirate kills three men and wounds three others in this way. The number
of men killed was of no interest to the German. He did not even enquire
as to the result of his shrapnel fire, and of course it never occurred
to him to offer the survivors any help.

On the 7th February, 1917, at 11.30 a.m., in squally weather the
_Vulcana_ sighted a German submarine on her starboard boom, about 1
mile distant. The U-boat at once opened fire. She found the range after
firing half-a-dozen shots.

The skipper gave orders for the boat to be lowered, and while the
tackle was being carried forward, he stood close by the engine-room
door on the starboard side of the deck. The second hand was standing
about 2 feet away from him at the time. Just afterwards a shell
exploded close by. One piece struck the second hand's boot and another
cut his hand slightly. The skipper was struck on the top of the head;
his head was smashed in and part of his face was blown away. The second
hand heard him say: "Dear me," and he fell to the deck, dead.

George King, the second hand, now took charge. Shells continued to
burst about the deck; one passed through the galley and struck the
trimmer, wounding him severely in the back. After the boat had been
got out she capsized, and had to be righted before the crew could get
in. The skipper being dead, they left him where he had fallen, and he
went down with his ship. George King followed the crew into their boat,
and soon after she had got clear the ship went down, about noon. The
submarine then submerged and disappeared. The survivors were picked up
by a patrol-boat at noon on the following day. The trimmer was taken to
hospital, where he afterwards died.

The _Vulcana_ was a British trawler, although, from the savageness of
the German attack, it might have been thought that she was a warship.
The lives of the skipper and trimmer were sacrificed to German blood
lust. The trawler could have been sunk without any loss of life.

On the morning of the 7th February, 1917, the British steamers _St.
Ninian_ and _Corsican Prince_ were within a quarter of a mile of one
another. A U-boat torpedoed the _Corsican Prince_, striking No. 3
hold and bursting her engine-room bulkhead. The _St. Ninian_ was then
sunk. She went down in five minutes. Both ships were torpedoed without
warning, the casualties being 15 in the case of the _St. Ninian_ and
one in the _Corsican Prince_.

The British steamship _California_ carried 32 passengers and a crew of
171 hands; she was bound from New York to Glasgow. On the morning of
the 7th February, 1917, the weather was fine and clear, the wind was
N.E., and there was a heavy swell running. At 9.30 a.m., the master and
two junior officers being on the bridge, a periscope was sighted about
250 yards away on the port quarter. The master at once ordered the helm
hard aport and an S.O.S. signal to be sent out, but before the vessel
had paid off 3 points a torpedo struck her on the port quarter, about
No. 4 hatch, and the submarine was not seen again.

The engine-room was flooded. Boats were lowered on both sides to the
level of the bridge deck to embark the passengers; but the ship was
settling down quickly by the stern, and before the boats could be
lowered they were afloat. A number of passengers were in the boats when
they took the water, and one on the starboard side was overturned, the
passengers being thrown into the water. Another boat, which had to be
cut loose, threw three people into the water. Ten boats got clear of
the ship, which sank at 9.30 a.m., the master remaining on the bridge.
He was picked up half-an-hour later by one of the boats. A patrol-boat
had taken in the S.O.S. signal and arrived on the scene in time to
rescue 160 survivors.

Forty-three lives were lost by drowning and injuries, and there were
thirty cot cases among the survivors. A few facts reveal the tragic
side of the occurrence. Seven women and four children were killed;
three young children were saved, their mother being lost; one small boy
was saved, while the bodies of his mother, brother, and sister were
afterwards washed ashore.

The facts speak for themselves and make comment almost superfluous. The
passengers and crew never got a fair chance of saving themselves, as
the vessel was torpedoed without any kind of warning.

At 7 a.m. on the 10th February, 1917, a shot was fired at the British
steamship _Sallagh_ by a submarine on her starboard quarter. The
submarine then hoisted the signal "abandon ship," and while the boat
was being got ready, fired again, killing the chief engineer and
seriously wounding two other men. The Germans afterwards placed bombs
in the vessel, and fired two shots into her. The second caused an
explosion and the ship sank. Having provided bandages for the wounded
men, the Germans rigged their craft like a smack and lay off about 5
miles in wait for another victim. The ship's boat was picked up at 4.30
p.m. on the same day.

The British steamship _Afric_ was 12 miles S.S.W. of the Eddystone
Lighthouse at about 5.15 a.m. on the 12th February, 1917. Suddenly
a torpedo struck her on the starboard side about abreast of the
engine-room, causing a terrific explosion, which stopped the engines,
put out all lights, broke the telegraphs, and brought the aerial down.
The engineers and greasers on watch at the time were killed. The
rest of the crew left the ship and stood by in eight boats, leaving
the master, first officer and steward on board. At 6 a.m. a second
explosion occurred on the port side abreast of No. 1 hold. The ship
was finally abandoned after this, and at about 6.20 a.m. a submarine
appeared, questioned the master, and then shelled the ship, which sank
at 7.45 a.m. The boats were picked up about 5 hours later. Five men
were killed, probably by the first explosion.

The steamer _Sallagh_ appears to have been shelled as a matter of
course while her boats were being got out. Otherwise there would have
been no loss of life and no wounded on board. As the submarine took the
trouble to hoist the signal "abandon ship," which was at once obeyed,
she had no excuse for the subsequent shelling. The case is one of
wholly unnecessary murder, although the Germans were not so callous as
on some occasions.

At 11.15 p.m. on the 17th February, the British steamer _Valdes_ was
torpedoed without warning. It was a pitch-dark night, and nothing was
seen before the explosion of the torpedo. The master and seven of the
crew were thrown into the water as the ship went down; three men went
down with her. The port life-boat was successfully launched, and 20
members of the crew embarked. The starboard life-boat was blown to
pieces. A trawler picked up the 20 survivors, but two of them died from
exposure. Eleven men lost their lives.

The British steamship _Laconia_ was sunk on the 25th February. She
carried a crew of 217 and 77 passengers. When about 140 miles from the
S.W. of Ireland, at 10.53 at night, she was torpedoed without warning
and began to list to starboard. The boats were quickly lowered; all the
passengers and most of the crew embarked before a second torpedo struck
the ship. Those left on board then abandoned her, and the submarine
soon afterwards came to the surface, wished the boats' companies "good
night," and disappeared. The _Laconia_ went down at about 11.48 p.m.

Although her boats had been lowered, the task had not been accomplished
without mishap. Life-boat No. 8 had bumped several times against the
steamer's side, owing to the jambing of ropes and the ship's big list.
The boat took the water bow first, and when her stern was released,
she plunged, shipping a lot of water. She was considerably damaged
before getting clear, with the result that she was awash, except for
the raised portion of her bow and stern, when she did eventually get
clear. Every wave washed over the boat's company, whose sufferings were
deplorable.

About two hours after leaving the ship, a first-class passenger
named Mr. Robinson, who was in delicate health, died from exposure,
and his body was washed overboard. A lady was the next to die, but
her daughter, not realising what had happened, continued to support
her mother's body. An hour later the daughter herself passed away.
A coloured sailor was the next to succumb. Then a fireman, who was
sitting on one of the thwarts, allowed his head to sink into the water
and so was drowned. A gentleman passenger was now seen to be dead, and
a lady, who was his friend, became hysterical. To soothe her, it was
pretended that the man had only fainted, and his body was kept in the
boat. Fifteen minutes afterwards a fireman lurched overboard and was
drowned. At 9 o'clock next morning the boat was picked up. All the
other boats had been picked up before daylight. Twelve lives were lost.

The British sailing vessel _Galgorm Castle_ carried a crew of 24. At
5.30 p.m. on the 27th February, 1917, the ship was sunk by the Germans
with bombs. The crew left in two boats, but became separated in the
darkness. One boat capsized, drowning four men; the remaining eight
clung to her, but seven of them died from exposure. The twelfth man, a
Russian, was picked up on the 7th March. The second boat, with her 12
survivors, was picked up.

At 6.50 a.m. on the 1st March, 1917, while the British trawler _Redcap_
was hauling in her trawl, a U-boat appeared and fired several shells
at her. One deck-hand was killed, the mate had his leg blown off, and
two other hands were injured. The survivors got away in their boat, and
were picked up at 12.30 p.m. The trawler was sunk by the Germans.

At 2.30 a.m. on the 17th March, the British steamer _Tasso_ was
torpedoed by a U-boat at sight, without any kind of warning. The
vessel went down head-first, and the inrush of water against the
forecastle and cabin doors prevented these from being opened. In this
way many of the crew perished. The master and eighteen of the crew were
drowned, six men being saved; two of these were slightly injured in the
head. They were picked up by a French patrol steamer.

The British steamer _Joshua Nicholson_ was torpedoed by a German
submarine without warning at 6.30 a.m. on the 18th March, 1917. She
began to settle down very rapidly, with a heavy list to starboard.
While the port life-boat was being lowered she capsized, and three men
were drowned. Another man was blown into the water by an explosion.
After the ship had gone down, six men came to the surface and clung to
pieces of wreckage. Of these, three sank during the next five hours,
the remaining three being picked up at about 5 p.m., exhausted but
alive.

The _Joshua Nicholson_ and _Galgorm Castle_ are two ordinary instances
of German sinkings. The survivors in both cases underwent considerable
sufferings, which were in no way mitigated by the Germans. No tow was
offered and no assistance of any kind rendered to the crews.

The British steamship _Alnwick Castle_ was in the Atlantic, 320 miles
from land, on the 19th March. She carried a crew of 100, together
with 14 passengers; she also had on board the master and 24 survivors
of the s.s. _Trevose_, whom she had rescued on the previous day from
their boats. She had, therefore, 138 souls on board, when at 6 a.m.
she was torpedoed without warning by a submerged German submarine. The
boats were lowered as quickly as possible, and in about 10 minutes the
steamer plunged under water, bow first. Her whistle gave one blast; the
main topmast broke off; there was a smothered roar, a cloud of dust,
and she had disappeared.

The submarine had come to the surface and trained her gun on the
steamer, but no shots were necessary to complete the sinking, and
she steamed away without even speaking the boats. One of these was
in charge of the chief officer, and contained 31 people, including
two women and a four-months old baby. There was a considerable swell
running, with a moderate wind, so all sail was hoisted, and the boats
proceeded to the N.E. in single file, keeping in touch with one another
for the remainder of the day.

During the night both wind and sea increased considerably, and the
chief officer's boat had lost touch with the others by the following
morning, which was Tuesday. At 10 a.m. the weather compelled them to
take in all sail, and they lay-to, keeping her head-on to the enormous
seas with the help of a sea-anchor and the occasional use of the oars.
They proceeded in this way throughout the day and during Tuesday night,
which was very dark. They were thankful to see day break on Wednesday.
They had lost their sea-anchor in the night, so lashed a couple of
oars together, which served as a fairly good substitute. The weather
improved during the morning, so they hoisted sail again and proceeded
east.

During Tuesday night the _chef_ had gone mad, and on Wednesday he died.
Being accustomed to the warmth of a galley fire, he could not stand the
cold. Meanwhile, the chief officer had taken control of the provisions
and water. He served out the water in the morning and evening at the
rate of half a dipper-full to each person. During Wednesday night the
storekeeper went mad and had to be lashed down. He died about noon on
Thursday, and a third-class passenger also expired on the same day.

That night there were heavy squalls, so they had to take in sail and
put out their improvised sea-anchor. On Friday morning the weather
moderated, and they were able to set full sail again. An A.B. died
during the day, and everyone had now begun to endure agonies of thirst.
They continued to sail all Friday night, but exposure and exhaustion
were reducing them to a state of callousness, and at times they
suffered from light-headedness. These attacks were worse in the night
than by daylight. On Saturday morning a fireman was found dead in the
bottom of the boat, and during the day a third-class pantry-boy died.

There was little doubt in the chief officer's mind that the secret
drinking of salt water was hastening the death of many. He did his best
to prevent it, but he was working watch and watch at the tiller, and
there are limits to what one man can accomplish. They drifted with sail
down all through the night of Saturday, there being no stars to steer
by; but sail was re-hoisted at daybreak on Sunday. A cattleman, who
had been behaving in a peculiar way for two days, made three attempts
to jump overboard, and at last succeeded. The enfeebled state of his
shipmates rendered his rescue impossible, although they turned the boat
round and sailed about in the position where he had disappeared.

To-day their last tot of water was served out--a mouthful apiece--and
they tried to collect rain water from the occasional showers that
swept past them. Everything was saturated with salt, however, so that
the little they caught was undrinkable. Then they took to licking the
oars, the tiller, the seats and the woodwork of the boat, in their
frantic efforts to gather up the rain-drops; but the salt spray came
flying in-board continually and frustrated their hopes. At last a happy
thought occurred to them; they broke up the empty water-breaker and
licked the inside, which they found to be saturated with moisture and
delicious to their parched tongues. That night the deck-boy, who had
been quietly sinking all day, passed away.

They sighted land at 3 p.m. on Monday, and made what haste they
could to approach it. This they accomplished late in the evening,
but darkness had set in and there was a heavy northerly swell, which
rendered any attempt at landing too dangerous. They lay-to, therefore,
awaiting daylight. Their mast was carried away at the heel during a
squall, but it acted as a sea-anchor, and in the morning they pulled in
towards the shore until their strength gave out. Then two fishing-boats
were observed coming out from the harbour, and they towed the survivors
into Carino.

The villagers, headed by the priest, came to the assistance of the
boat's company, most of whom were unable to walk. The linen-keeper
died as he was being lifted ashore; two of the crew, who had gone mad,
refused to leave the boat, and had to be dragged out. The villagers
were very kind, and carried the survivors to their cottages, while
their wives paid special attention to the two women and the baby. This
morsel of humanity seemed well enough at Carino, but died six days
after being admitted to hospital at Ferrol. A trimmer died of gangrene
in the same hospital two weeks later. The chief officer bears testimony
to the splendid behaviour of the boat's crew during the eight days of
hardship and exposure which they endured. Forty lives were lost through
the sinking of the _Alnwick Castle_.

When about 150 miles S.E. of Cape Clear, at 3 o'clock in the afternoon
of 29th April, the British steamer _Daleby_ was torpedoed without
warning. She was struck twice, the second torpedo blowing up all the
life-boats and causing her to sink immediately. The last man to leave
the ship dived off as she was sinking. The submarine then came to the
surface and circled round him, but no attempt was made to pick him up.
Afterwards he noticed the ship's dinghy floating a little way off, and
swam towards it. The wind, however, was behind him, and kept blowing
the boat away, so that he did not reach her for two hours.

Having baled her out, he returned to the scene of the disaster, where
he managed to pick up a fireman, who had been wounded in the head and
was unconscious. He revived this man, and together they started rowing
for land, although the fireman was not able to do much work. They
were at sea in the dinghy for 24 hours, when they were picked up by a
steamer, having rowed 30 miles. Through the sinking of the _Daleby_ 26
men perished.

When about 8 miles south of Beachy Head on the 20th May, the British
steamer _Tycho_ was torpedoed without warning and began to go down by
the head. The order to abandon ship was given at 5.10 p.m., ten minutes
after the ship had been struck, and was carried out without casualties.
The vessel went down at 5.20. The crew then pulled towards the
steamship _Porthkerry_, which had seen the explosion and was standing
by about 200 yards away on the port beam.

As the _Tycho's_ boats came alongside her, another torpedo was
discharged by the submarine. This blew up one of the boats, killing
the master and 14 men, and capsized the other boat. The _Porthkerry_
was abandoned, with eight casualties, the vessel going down in three
minutes after being struck by the torpedo. The survivors from both
ships were picked up at 7 o'clock that night by a small coasting
steamer and landed at Newhaven at midnight on the 21st May.

The British steamer _Clan Murray_ was about 30 miles south of the
Fastnets on the 29th May when she was torpedoed without warning, being
struck amidships on the starboard side. The boiler and engine-rooms
were immediately filled with water, the vessel listed heavily to
starboard and foundered within five minutes. The submarine then
appeared and circled round the wreckage, taking the third officer and
one other man prisoners. She then made off in a westerly direction. The
survivors clung to floating wreckage for six hours before being picked
up. Sixty-four men lost their lives; 12 were saved; two were taken
prisoners.

The sinking of the _Tycho_ and _Porthkerry_ is a conspicuous instance
of German callousness. The U-boat commander waited until the _Tycho's_
boats were alongside the _Porthkerry_ before discharging his second
torpedo, and thereby killed 15 men without the slightest excuse or
necessity. He could have torpedoed the _Porthkerry_ before those
life-boats were alongside her, but apparently he preferred that her
sinking should be accompanied by loss of life. There seems to be no
other explanation of his conduct.

The schooner _Jane Williamson_, of Arklow, met with a small German
submarine off the coast of Cornwall at 4 o'clock in the afternoon of
the 10th September, 1917. The submarine opened fire at 150 yards range.
Her first shot smashed one of the boats, the second killed a man. There
were five men left, who got into their second boat, when a shell struck
her, killing one man outright and mortally wounding the skipper and
another man. The Germans beckoned the boat to them, in order to laugh
at the survivors. The U-boat then submerged.

The skipper lived long enough to be landed and taken to hospital, where
he died. The two dead seamen were buried at Penzance. An inquest was
held upon their bodies, and the coroner described the Germans' conduct
as diabolical, the jury returning a unanimous verdict of "wilful and
diabolical murder."

On the 11th September, 1917, the schooner _William_, of Dublin, was
attacked by a U-boat, which, after sinking her, fired on her crew with
shrapnel, wounding one man.

The sinking of the _Jane Williamson_ has been included under the
heading of "Murder," but it might as appropriately have been labelled
"Barbarity." The Germans displayed a callous disregard for human life,
and after killing two men, signalled the boat alongside, in order that
they might mock the dying. Plain men will agree with the jury's verdict
of wilful and diabolical murder. The Germans' behaviour was that of
savages.

The crew of the schooner _William_ were lucky enough to escape with one
man wounded, but the Germans' intention was again murder.

The French sailing barquentine _Mimosa_ had a crew of 31. On the 24th
September, 1917, when 23 miles S.W. of the Scilly Islands, with a
cargo of salt fish, she was attacked by a German submarine. It was 6
p.m., the weather was clear, the sea calm, and the visibility good.
A submarine appeared and at 6.15 p.m. opened fire on the Frenchman.
When 23 shots had been fired the ship was abandoned by all except the
master, who refused to leave his vessel and was killed at the wheel by
shrapnel. The submarine, which appeared to be an old one, dirty-grey
in colour, and showing no number, closed the _Mimosa_ to 150 yards on
the surface. One German officer was seen, a thin, clean-shaven man,
with dark hair and sunken cheeks. He ordered six men from one of the
boats to board the submarine, and lined them up on deck forward of his
gun. Soon afterwards the hatches of the submarine were closed, and she
submerged, throwing the men into the sea without any means of saving
themselves. The men were lucky enough to be able to reach their boats,
however. Two boats, carrying 15 men altogether, were picked up by a
British destroyer, and three boats, carrying the other 15 men, rowed
to the Scilly Islands. The master was buried at sea by the crew of the
destroyer.

The German appears to have had in mind his fellow-countryman's exploit
with the crew of the _Belgian Prince_. But he had not studied the case
carefully enough, and so his victims were able to escape. To line up
half-a-dozen men on the deck of the submarine and then to submerge was
obviously an attempt to commit deliberate murder, and for this reason
the case of the _Mimosa_ has been included in this chapter.

The s.s. _Elmsgarth_ was torpedoed without warning at 7.15 p.m. on the
29th September, and abandoned a quarter of an hour afterwards. A U-boat
then appeared and fired a shell between the life-boats. The master's
boat was then hailed alongside the submarine in order that he might
be questioned by the commander. The master pointed out that his boat
was half full of water, and asked for a baler, but this the commander
refused to supply, adding that his duty was not to save life, but to
destroy it.

Before the boat shoved off from the submarine, a Mexican fireman,
Daniel Vaca by name, jumped on board the U-boat and claimed protection
as a neutral. The Germans' response to this appeal was to deprive the
man of his passport and order him back into the life-boat. Good fortune
favoured the boats, which made for the Irish coast in safety.




THE PIRATE AS BARBARIAN.

_A Selection of Cases._


 s.s. AMIRAL GANTEAUME                         26th Oct., 1914.
 Relief-ship HARPALYCE                        10th April, 1915.
 s.s. LUSITANIA                                  7th May, 1915.
 s.s. ARABIC                                   19th Aug., 1915.
 Relief-ship ASHMORE                           12th Sep., 1915.
 s.s. PERSIA                                   30th Dec., 1915.
 Relief-ship EUPHRATES                         22nd Jan., 1917.
 Relief-ship LARS KRUSE                         3rd Feb., 1917.
 s.s. THRACIA                                 27th March, 1917.
 Hospital-ship LANFRANC and s.s. DONEGAL      17th April, 1917.
 s.s. ADDAH                                     1st June, 1917.
 s.s. MARISTON                                 15th July, 1917.
 s.s. VANLAND                                  23rd July, 1917.
 s.s. BELGIAN PRINCE                           31st July, 1917.




CHAPTER III.

THE PIRATE AS BARBARIAN.

"_We Germans represent the latest and highest achievement of European
Kultur._"[D]--PROFESSOR A. LASSON.


On the 25th November, 1914, the British Admiralty announced that on
26th October, 1914, the French passenger steamer _Amiral Ganteaume_,
while on passage from Calais to Havre with upwards of 2,000 unarmed
refugees, including a very large proportion of women and children on
board, was torpedoed. By pure chance and the greatest good fortune, the
British steamship _Queen_ was within a short distance of the _Amiral
Ganteaume_, and succeeded in rescuing most of the passengers, only
about 40 being killed. Subsequent examination of one of the vessel's
damaged life-boats led to the discovery of a fragment of a German
torpedo. The Admiralty announcement concluded:--

"This action of destroying with aim and deliberation in broad daylight
a defenceless passenger ship, full of refugees, is on the whole the
best specimen of German methods yet recorded."

On the 10th April, 1915, at 9.55 a.m., the Belgian relief-ship
_Harpalyce_ was torpedoed without warning 26 miles from land. At
the time of the attack the vessel was flying the Belgian Relief
Commission's flag and displaying screens on both sides, marked:
"Commission Belgian Relief, Rotterdam," in letters 2½ feet high. The
ship had also been granted a safe conduct by the German consul at the
Hague. After being struck she went down by the stern and sank in five
minutes. Seventeen of the crew, including the master, were lost. As the
ship sank, the third officer saw the periscope of a submarine going
away to the northward.

The liner _Lusitania_ was 30,395 tons gross register; she carried
1,257 passengers, and a crew of 702, making a total of 1,959 persons
on board. Of the passengers 688 were men, 440 women, and 129 children.
When 11 miles from land on the 17th May, 1915, at 2.15 p.m., the
ship was struck on the starboard side, almost simultaneously, by two
torpedoes, while a third, which missed the ship, was fired at her port
side shortly afterwards.

On being struck, the vessel took a heavy list to starboard. This made
it impossible to launch the port side boats properly, and rendered
it very difficult for the passengers to get into the starboard boats,
which were thrown too far outboard. The port boats, of course, came
inboard, and some of them, catching on the rail, were capsized.

Those which did reach the water were seriously damaged and leaking. The
ship sank in less than twenty minutes after being struck, and 1,198
men, women, and children were consequently drowned.

Perhaps the most effective comment upon the destruction of the
_Lusitania_ may be found in the German Naval Prize Regulations. This is
Article 116:--

"Before the destruction of a vessel, all persons on board are to be
placed in safety, with their goods and chattels, if possible, and all
ship's papers and other relevant documents which, in the opinion of the
parties interested, are of value for the decision of the Prize Court
are to be taken over by the commander."

The American protest against the sinking of the _Lusitania_ was
answered by the German Note of 8th July, 1915, extracts from which are
here given:--

"The Imperial Government learned with satisfaction how earnestly the
Government of the United States is concerned in seeing that the
principles of humanity are realised in the present war. This appeal
also finds a ready echo in Germany, and the Imperial Government is
quite willing to permit its statements and decisions in the present
case to be governed by the principles of humanity, just as it has
always done.... Germany has always been tenacious of the principle that
war should be conducted against the armed and organised forces of an
enemy country but that the enemy civilian population must be spared
as far as possible from the measures of war.... If the commander of
the submarine which destroyed the _Lusitania_ had caused the crew and
passengers to take to the boats before firing a torpedo this would
have meant the certain destruction of his own vessel.... It was to be
expected that a mighty ship like the _Lusitania_ would remain above
water long enough, even after the torpedoing of the vessel, to permit
the passengers to enter the ship's boats. Circumstances of a very
peculiar kind, especially the presence on board of large quantities of
highly-explosive materials, defeated this expectation. In addition, it
may be pointed out that if the _Lusitania_ had been spared thousands
of cases of ammunition would have been sent to Germany's enemies, and
thereby thousands of German mothers and children would have been robbed
of their bread-winners.... The Imperial Government will always be ready
to do all it can in the present war to prevent the jeopardising of
the lives of American citizens. The Imperial Government, therefore,
repeats its assurances that American ships will not be hindered in the
prosecution of legitimate shipping, and that the lives of American
citizens on neutral vessels shall not be placed in jeopardy."

On the 1st September, 1915, Count Bernstorff handed the following
written communication to Mr. Lansing:--

"MY DEAR SECRETARY,

"In reference to our conversation of this day, I beg to inform you that
my instructions concerning our answer to your last _Lusitania_ Note
contain the following passage: 'Liners will not be sunk by submarines
without warning, and without ensuring the safety of the lives of
non-combatants, provided that the liners do not try to escape or offer
resistance.'"

The passenger steamer _Arabic_, a vessel of 15,801 tons gross register,
was outward bound to America on the 19th August, 1915, when at 9.30
a.m. she was torpedoed without warning, being then 45 miles from land.
She carried 176 passengers and 261 crew, 437 in all. The submarine
appears to have been hiding behind a steamer, which had been stopped
and was then sinking. While hidden thus, the U-boat submerged and
headed for the _Arabic_, which she torpedoed before anyone on board had
become aware of her presence. The force of the explosion blew one of
the boats into the air and disabled the wireless telegraphy apparatus.
The ship sank in about 10 minutes. Thanks to the good seamanship and
courage of her officers and crew, 390 persons were embarked in the
boats before the vessel went down, only 47 lives being lost. As soon
as the torpedo had been discharged the periscope of the submarine
disappeared.

With regard to the sinking of the _Arabic_, Count Bernstorff sent the
following communication to Mr. Lansing:--

"Prompted by the desire to reach a satisfactory agreement with regard
to the _Arabic_ incident, my Government has given me the following
instructions:--

    "The orders issued by His Imperial Majesty to the commanders of
    German submarines, of which I have notified you on a previous
    occasion, have been made so stringent that a recurrence of
    incidents similar to that of the _Arabic_ case is considered out
    of the question. According to the report of Commander Schneider
    of the submarine which sank the _Arabic_, Commander Schneider is
    convinced that the _Arabic_ intended to ram his submarine. On the
    other hand, the Imperial Government does not doubt the good faith
    of the affidavit of the British officers in the _Arabic_, according
    to which the _Arabic_ did not intend to ram the submarine.

    "The attack of the submarine was undertaken against the
    instructions issued to the commander. The Imperial Government
    regrets and disavows this act, and has notified Commander Schneider
    accordingly.

    "In these circumstances my Government is prepared to pay an
    indemnity for the American lives which, to its deep regret, have
    been lost in the _Arabic_. I am authorised to negotiate with you
    about the amount of this indemnity."

The statement of Commander Schneider that he thought the _Arabic_ would
ram him cannot be accepted. If it were true, the ship would have been
struck in her fore part. This, as Colonel Concannon, of the White Star
Line, has pointed out, was not the case. The _Arabic_ was struck aft.
No effort was made to ram the submarine, for it was not seen, and no
attempt was made to escape for the same reason. No guns were mounted on
the _Arabic_.

The _Ashmore_ was a Belgian Relief ship. She had a crew of 28 hands
and was carrying a cargo of maize from Rosario to the Belgian Relief
Commission, Rotterdam. In accordance with the regulations agreed upon
between the German Government and the Relief Commission, the _Ashmore_
was flying flags, had two very large balls hoisted, and the words:
"Commission for Relief in Belgium" painted in very large letters on her
sides.

On the 12th September at 8.30 a.m. the weather was fine and clear and
the sea smooth, the ship then being about 3½ miles E. by N. from the
Kentish Knock. Most of the crew were at breakfast, while the boatswain
and chief engineer were patrolling the after-deck. Both men were in
the act of turning round, the boatswain to starboard and the engineer
to port, when the former saw a streak in the water at close quarters
to amidships. Before the boatswain could give the alarm a terrible
explosion took place. A volume of smoke, coal dust and water was
driven up through the engine-room skylight and the starboard side of
the vessel, which immediately began to heel over to starboard. The two
boats were launched and manned, but the second engineer, donkeyman, and
two firemen were never seen again, and must have been killed by the
explosion. The _Ashmore_ sank at about 9 a.m.

The two boats were picked up about the same time, and the survivors
were landed at Chatham. In connection with this sinking, the following
message was sent by the American Ambassador in London to the Secretary
of State at Washington:--

    "The Admiralty has confirmed to the Commission for the Relief of
    Belgium the sinking of the Relief-ship _Ashmore_ yesterday. Four
    of the crew are missing. The ship had a cargo of maize which the
    Commission had bought afloat. The captain now in London informs the
    Commission that the ship was torpedoed, that he saw no submarine,
    but plainly saw the torpedo coming towards the ship, and that
    the Commission's signals had been put up. This is, of course, in
    violation of the German Government's agreement with the Commission."

At 1.10 p.m. on the 30th December, 1915, the s.s. _Persia_ was
torpedoed without warning when 40 miles from land. The second officer,
in charge on the bridge, saw the wake of an approaching torpedo on the
port bow, and a moment later there was a violent explosion. This was
followed by a second explosion, which, in the opinion of the chief and
second officers, was caused by the bursting of a boiler. The vessel
at once listed over to the port side and went down in five minutes.
No boats on the starboard side could be launched owing to the list,
and several on the port side were swamped, torn away, or capsized,
owing to the way which was still on the ship. One port-side boat
had been smashed by the explosion, another was pressed under water
by the davits, as the ship rolled over to port. Only five boats got
away, 213 of the crew and 120 passengers losing their lives, through
the explosion or by drowning. Four over-loaded boats were adrift for
30 hours before being picked up by a mine-sweeper. The fifth boat,
which had been damaged, capsized several times, and contained only 11
survivors when picked up at 8 p.m. on the 31st by another steamer.

The upshot of the _Persia_ affair was that Count Bernstorff submitted
an official memorandum to the United States Government, stating that
Germany proposed to conduct her submarine campaign according to the
rules of international law. The Germans admitted that it was possible
that a German submarine sank the _Persia_, and promised that, if this
were so, the guilty captain would be punished.

The _Euphrates_ was a Belgium Relief ship which left Rotterdam in
January, 1917, bound for Sandy Hook in ballast. She was provided
with a German safe conduct at Rotterdam to cover her voyage back to
the States. She flew the Belgian flag aft, and exhibited the Relief
Commission's signals by day and night. In daylight these consisted of
a white square flag, bearing in the centre the words "Belgian Relief
Commission" in red letters, a white pennant with the same words in the
centre, also in red letters, and a ball painted with red and white
vertical stripes above distinguishing flags, all at the foremast.
At night the words "Belgian s.s. _Euphrates_, Relief Commission,
Rotterdam," brilliantly illuminated in large letters, extended from
about amidships, on both sides, to the stern.

At 8 o'clock in the morning of 22nd January, 1917, the weather was
clear, with a smooth sea and hardly any wind. A man named Somers was on
deck at the time, and swears that the ship was displaying the daylight
signals already described. At 8.30 a violent explosion occurred, and
the ship began to sink rapidly by the stern. The crew were ordered on
deck, but a second explosion threw them all into the sea. One boat was
smashed to pieces while afloat, the others went down with the ship.

Somers and some others clung to the smashed boat but afterwards Somers
and the boatswain swam after some hatches and managed to climb on one.
At about 3 p.m. Somers lost sight of the boatswain. At about 9.30 p.m.
Somers was picked up by a boat from the British steamer _Trevean_,
which had been sunk soon after the _Euphrates_. Some of the men in
the boat told Somers that they had seen the Relief ship sunk, but the
Germans prevented them from rendering any assistance. Somers was the
sole survivor out of a crew of 33.

At the end of January, 1917, the German Government issued its Note on
the subject of unrestricted submarine warfare. This document pointed
out that the attempt of the Central Powers to bring about peace had
failed "on account of the lust of conquest of their adversaries." For
this reason "the Imperial Government must now continue the war for
existence once more forced upon it by using its weapons. The Imperial
Government is, therefore, forced to do away with the restrictions
hitherto imposed upon the use of its fighting forces at sea."

Neutral ships plying within the new barred zones were informed that
they would do so at their own risk, although precautions would be
taken to protect neutral ships which sailed thither prior to the 1st
February. In a Note to the United States, Germany declared that she
must abandon the limitations which had hitherto governed the employment
of her weapons at sea, and added: "Neutral ships which are lying in
harbours in the barred zones can with security still leave the barred
zones if they depart before 5th February, and take the shortest route
to a free zone."

In the middle of February, 1917, Berlin issued an official telegram
explaining that the period of grace for neutral steamers whom news
of the blockade could not reach in time elapsed on the night of the
12th February as regards the zone in the Atlantic and English Channel.
For the North Sea the period of grace expired on the night of the 6th
February, and for the Mediterranean on the night of the 10th. This
telegram concluded: "It is expressly stated that all the news spread
from the enemy side regarding torpedoing without previous warning of
neutral ships before the dates mentioned for the various blockaded
zones is incorrect. The periods of grace mentioned were also in force
for enemy passenger vessels, because it was possible that on them
were neutral passengers who were perhaps without knowledge of the sea
blockade."

The Danish vessel _Lars Kruse_ was a Belgian Relief steamer, which
in February, 1917, was carrying a cargo of grain from Buenos Ayres
to Rotterdam for the Belgian Relief Commission. She bore the neutral
Commission's flags and markings, as described in the case of the
_Euphrates_; and it must also be remembered that the German authorities
in the United States had stated specifically that they did not mean
to interfere with Relief ships. Nevertheless, at 10 p.m. on the 3rd
February, when 16 miles off Ushant, the _Lars Kruse_ was torpedoed
without warning, her crew of 18 being all drowned, except the chief
engineer.

On the 27th March, 1917, the British steamer _Thracia_ was 10 miles
N.N.E. of Belle Isle, travelling at a speed of 7 knots, the time being
8.15 p.m. She was suddenly torpedoed without warning by a German
submarine, being struck forward of the stokehold. The explosion
burst her boilers, killing an engineer, a greaser, and two firemen.
Immediately after the explosion the steamer went down by the head to
starboard before any attempt could be made to lower the boats. Her
crew of 38 all perished, except two men, one of whom, Douglas V. Duff,
acting fourth officer, has described his experiences.

Duff went down with the ship, and on coming to the surface, swam to an
upturned boat--the starboard life-boat, which had had her stern blown
off. Seven other men clambered on to her, two of whom had been severely
wounded. Both these men were soon washed off the boat. Three of the
remaining six slipped back into the sea, in order to swim to a steamer
which was visible about a mile away; but a few minutes afterwards the
steamer went away. The three men did not return. There were now two
other men on the boat besides Duff, and although he did not actually
see them go, there is no doubt that they were both washed away by the
sea.

At about 11 p.m. a black object came into view, and Duff was hailed
in English by the German commander, who asked what ship he had sunk,
where she was from, and what was her destination. Duff answered all
the questions. The commander then said, "I am going to shoot you."
Duff told him to shoot away; but the commander replied that he would
not waste powder on a pig of an Englishman, and added, "Drown, you
swine! Drown!" The submarine then disappeared. At 10.30 next morning
Duff was picked up by a French fishing-boat, and afterwards transferred
to a French torpedo-boat. The only other survivor was picked up by a
Norwegian steamer, the _Nordborg_, and landed at Barry.

In the evening of the 17th April the hospital ship _Lanfranc_ and
s.s. _Donegal_ were transporting wounded across the Channel. The
_Lanfranc_ carried 234 wounded British officers and men, 167 wounded
German prisoners, a medical personnel of 52, and a crew of 123. The
s.s. _Donegal_ carried a number of slightly wounded, all of whom were
British. Between 7 and 8 p.m. both ships were torpedoed without warning.

The Germans on board the _Lanfranc_ at once made a rush for the boats.
They managed to launch one, but it was overloaded and swamped. The
British soldiers stood to attention and behaved with great coolness,
as also did the medical staff and crew. As a result of the outrage two
wounded British officers and 11 other ranks were drowned, as well as
one of the R.A.M.C. and five of the crew. Of the Germans, two wounded
officers and 13 other ranks were drowned. The casualties in the
_Donegal_ amounted to 41.

This outrageous German crime was the sequel to a series of accusations
by the Berlin Government to the effect that Great Britain was misusing
her hospital ships. The evidence produced by the Germans in support of
their assertions proved to be of a flimsy and wholly untrustworthy
character, as the following examples taken from the British Government
White Paper, Miscellaneous, No. 16 (1917), will show.

A man named Alexander Buttler, of Hamburg, swore that he had sailed
in the s.s. _Escaut_ from Brooklyn to La Rochelle, where he arrived
about the middle of July, 1915. There he saw a British hospital ship
being loaded with munitions from the _Escaut_, which carried no cargo
but munitions of war: The reply of the British Government was as
follows:--"No British hospital ship was at La Rochelle during July,
1915. All British hospital ships have their names painted distinctly on
them in the usual place, and all fly the Red Cross flag and the British
defaced Blue Ensign worn by transports. The credibility of the witness
may be judged from the fact that the log of the steamship _Escaut_, on
which he claims to have been serving, shows that that vessel called
neither at La Rochelle nor at La Pallice in June, July or August,
1915, and that she was fitted at the time for the transport of horses.
He cannot have been in a position to know that the ship on which he
served, if his story is not entirely fabricated, carried no cargo but
munitions of war."

Another witness is thus described by the German Government:--"...
merchant, a Dutch subject, living at Rotterdam," ... declared that he
was at Cardiff on business from the beginning of December to the end of
January, 1916. About the middle of December the hospital ship _Formosa_
arrived, was docked and took in coal and a number of cases. On the 29th
December about 300 infantrymen in marching order were taken on board,
besides about 50 naval officers who went on board on the 1st January,
the date of departure. He adds: "I can confidently assert that the
soldiers and the 50 naval officers sailed with her."

To this the British Government replied:--"The witness's statement
that the _Formosa_ arrived at Cardiff about the middle of December
is incorrect. She was at Belfast from the 16th November to the 30th
December, 1915, and did not arrive at Cardiff till the 2nd January,
1916. His statement that she left Cardiff in the night of the 1st and
2nd January is therefore also incorrect. It is, moreover, contradicted
by the witness cited by the German Government in Annex 14, who states
that the _Formosa_ was still at Cardiff on the 7th January. She
actually left Cardiff for the Mediterranean on the 13th January with no
passengers on board."

It was on the strength of such trumped-up evidence as this that Germany
decided to commit the crowning inhumanity of sinking hospital ships.
In all probability, she was judging others by her own standards, and,
knowing that in Britain's position she would not have hesitated to
misuse hospital ships, she came to the conclusion that the British
Government was doing so. Her unfounded charges were denied. In a
despatch dated 5th October, 1917, Mr. Balfour stated:--"His Majesty's
Government have already issued the most categorical denial of the
assertions of the German Government that British hospital ships have
ever been used except in accordance with the provisions of the Hague
Convention."

However, Germany was not to be deterred from her new path of atrocious
crime, and so we find 75 men murdered through the sinking of the
_Donegal_ and the hospital ship _Lanfranc_, 15 of the victims being
Germans.

The s.s. _Addah_ left America, homeward bound, on the 1st June, 1917.
All went well until the 15th June, when a loud explosion was heard
on the port side, and the ship began to settle down very quickly.
The wireless was put out of action, and the master gave the order to
abandon ship, which was carried out with the two boats. Ten minutes
later the chief officer saw the periscope of a submarine, and then
her hull, about a point on the starboard bow. From this position the
submarine fired several shots, hitting the vessel seven times. She then
came alongside the chief officer's boat, which was entered by five
Germans. They boarded the steamer and returned with some stores and the
ensign. After they had been rowed back to the submarine, the Germans
told the chief officer's boat to shove off.

Meanwhile the master's boat, which had been badly smashed by a shell,
was about 350 yards away. The submarine now opened fire with common
shrapnel, taking the stern of the master's boat right off and killing
eight men. Having sunk the boat in this way, the submarine shelled her
crew as they were swimming about in the water, still with shrapnel.
Apparently under the impression that he had wiped out the unfortunate
men, the submarine commander next opened fire on the chief officer's
boat. He fired eight shrapnel shells, and succeeded in holing the boat,
breaking the oars, and slightly wounding several men. Fortunately,
no one was killed this time. The submarine then proceeded in a
northwesterly direction on the surface. The master and the survivors
from his boat were taken on board the chief officer's boat, which was
eventually picked up by a French patrol steamer on the 16th June.

On the morning of the 15th July, 1917, at about 3 o'clock the steamer
_Mariston_ was struck by a torpedo. Just afterwards there was a second
explosion, which destroyed all the midship cabins, and the vessel began
to sink rapidly. When she had gone down, a large black submarine came
to the surface; an officer opened a trap-door in her conning-tower and
watched the survivors struggling in the water. The unfortunate men
called to him for help, but he ignored their appeals, although there
were no other ships in sight at the time and he could have rescued them
without any danger to himself.

There were about 18 men struggling in the water, and while the U-boat
commander watched, he saw them dragged down one after another. A shoal
of sharks had attacked them, and every man except the cook suffered
this terrible death. Meanwhile the German had submerged, leaving them
to their fate.

The cook, who escaped, remained in the water for 15 hours, being picked
up by a British merchantman at about 6.30 p.m. that day.

The master of the Swedish steamer _Vanland_ reports that he was
attacked by a German submarine at 6.45 p.m. on the 23rd July, 1917.
He was 4 miles from the shore at that time, and at once made for land
on a zig-zag course. The U-boat chased him, firing continually. Seven
shells hit the hull of his vessel, and 20 hit the deck cargo aft, while
the port life-boat was carried away and the davits of the starboard
life-boat were broken.

Directly the steamer took the ground her master and crew embarked
in the starboard life-boat; but when 100 yards from their ship, the
Germans opened fire on them with a machine-gun and wounded the second
mate. The submarine then torpedoed the _Vanland_ and submerged.
Altogether 46 shells were fired by the Germans, in addition to the
machine-gun fire directed against the life-boat.

At about 7.50 p.m. on Thursday, 31st July, 1917, the steamer _Belgian
Prince_ was travelling at 10 knots an hour, when the wake of a torpedo
was seen upon the port beam. Her helm was at once put hard over, but
she was struck between the after part of the engine-room and No. 5
hold. Her main engines and also her dynamo were disabled, so that the
wireless became useless and no S.O.S. signal could be sent out. The
ship took a very heavy list to port, and the crew proceeded to get into
their life-boats. Two of these and one small boat were launched, and
all hands were safely embarked in them.

When the boats were clear of the ship a German submarine came to the
surface, and, approaching the boats, ordered them alongside. All the
officers and crew were transferred to the submarine, the master being
taken below. The Germans were very abusive, and, after searching their
prisoners, ordered them to take off their life-belts. These were placed
on the deck of the submarine, and one of the German officers proceeded
to throw most of them into the sea.

Five German sailors now entered the small boat and rowed her back to
the _Belgian Prince_. Other Germans entered the two life-boats, threw
the oars, balers, and gratings overboard; took out the provisions and
compasses, and then smashed the boats with an axe.

The Germans who had boarded the _Belgian Prince_ now signalled to
their comrades with a flash lamp; the submarine cast off the broken
life-boats and steered away to the eastward. It was about 9 p.m., and
the crew of the _Belgian Prince_ were still standing on the deck of
the submarine, most of them without their life-belts. The submarine
stopped. Slowly she began to sink. Then, quite suddenly, she submerged.

W. Snell, second cook of the _Belgian Prince_, was standing with his
shipmates, but he was more fortunate than most of them, because he had
managed to pick up his life-belt and put it on under his rain-coat
without being observed by the Germans. When he felt the water rising
over his feet as the submarine went down, he jumped into the sea; and
he says that his companions did the same. Snell remained in the water
all night, and was picked up at about 7.30 a.m. next day in a very
exhausted condition.

Thomas Bowman, chief engineer, was also in the water all night. He
struck out in the direction of the _Belgian Prince_ and at daylight
next morning he sighted her still afloat. At about 5.30 a.m. he saw
her explode and go down. An hour later he was picked up by a British
patrol-boat.

George Silessi, A.B., was the only other survivor out of a crew of 42.

Such are the circumstances that accompanied the sinking of the _Belgian
Prince_, and one looks in vain for any fact that can excuse the conduct
of the Germans. They appear to have carried out their work with the
sole object of taking as many lives as possible. To understand the
out-look of such men is impossible. What was at the back of their minds
when they dismantled and destroyed the life-boats? What satisfaction
could they derive from the fact that their prisoners had no life-belts?
These belts, it will be noticed, were thrown overboard by a German
_officer_. What is to be said of the submarine commander who allowed
such conduct? Here was a responsible officer who ordered his craft to
submerge, when he knew perfectly well that most of the 38 men outside
on deck were without any means of saving their lives. Imagination
boggles at the cold-blooded cruelty of the deed.




THE PIRATE AND NEUTRALS.

_A Selection of Cases._


 Portuguese s.s. DOURO                         3rd April, 1915.
 Swedish s.s. FOLKE                           14th April, 1915.
 Dutch s.s. KATWIJK                           15th April, 1915.
 American Oiler GULFLIGHT                        2nd May, 1915.
 American s.s. NEBRASKAN                        25th May, 1915.
 Danish schooner BETTY                          25th May, 1915.
 Norwegian s.s. SVEIN JARL                      9th June, 1915.
 Norwegian s.s. RYM                            14th July, 1915.
 Norwegian schooner MAGDA                    18th August, 1915.
 Dutch s.s. TUBANTIA                          16th March, 1916.
 Norwegian s.v. TAMARA                          3rd Feb., 1917.
 Norwegian s.s. SOLBAKKEN                       4th Feb., 1917.
 Peruvian barque LORTON                         5th Feb., 1917.
 Swedish s.s. VARING                            7th Feb., 1917.
 Greek s.s. AGHIOS SPYRIDON                    12th Feb., 1917.
 Norwegian s.s. FALLS OF AFTON                 20th Feb., 1917.
 Norwegian s.v. MABELLA                        1st March, 1917.
 Norwegian s.s. GURRE                          1st March, 1917.
 Danish s.s. ROSBORG                           3rd March, 1917.
 Norwegian s.v. SILAS                          8th March, 1917.
 Norwegian s.s. EINAR JARL                    12th March, 1917.
 Norwegian s.v. COLLINGWOOD                   12th March, 1917.
 Danish s.s DANA                                9th June, 1917.
 Norwegian s.s. HELMA                          12th June, 1917.




CHAPTER IV.

THE PIRATE AND NEUTRALS.

"_The German soul is God's soul: it shall and will rule over
mankind._"[E]--PASTOR W. LEHMANN.


The German Naval Prize Regulations naturally contain instructions for
the guidance of German naval officers whose duty brings them into
contact with neutral shipping. Thus, Article 81 directs that--"In
stopping and searching a vessel under a neutral flag the commander
must avoid, as far as possible, diverting her from her route. He will
in general endeavour to cause the vessel as little inconvenience as
possible. Especially in no circumstances may he require the master to
come on board the warship or to send a boat, members of the crew, the
ship's papers, &c."

Here is Article 82:--"If the commander wishes to stop a ship he must
summon her to stop by signal and by sounding the siren. At the latest,
ensign and pendant are to be shown simultaneously with this signal;
by night the ensign is to be illuminated. During the chase it is not
necessary to show the war flag, any mercantile flag may be flown."

Article 113 states that--"A commander is only justified in destroying
a neutral ship ... for carrying contraband ... for breach of blockade,
or for unneutral service" if bringing her into port "might expose the
warship to danger or imperil the success of the operations in which she
is engaged at the time."

Germany's outrageous conduct with regard to neutral shipping dates
back to 1915. Indeed, a book could be filled entirely with instances
similar to the small selection here collected. German regulations,
international law, and the dictates of common humanity have been freely
disregarded by the German submarine service almost from the beginning
of the war. There can be no doubt that the Imperial German Government
speaks with one voice to the world and with another voice to its
submariners, whose deeds show what kind of orders they receive from
Berlin.

The Portuguese steamship _Douro_ was bound for Oporto on the 3rd April,
1915, when at 3 p.m. she was torpedoed without warning. She began to
sink rapidly, and at 4.30 p.m. the master and crew left the ship in
their life-boat. Half-an-hour later the _Douro_ went down. At 9 a.m.
next day the life-boat reached Helwick Lightship, and at 4 p.m. that
day the master and crew were taken off by the steamer _Tudwall_ and
brought to Swansea.

On the 14th April, 1915, the Swedish steamer _Folke_ was 52 miles
from Peterhead at 10 p.m., _en route_ to Farne Island from Stavanger.
Suddenly there was a big explosion under the stern of the ship; the
propeller was blown off; and wooden pit-props in the cargo were sent
flying through the air in all directions. The crew took to the boats,
and after leaving the ship, the master, Captain Ohlssen, heard the
noise of a submarine's motor twice, first on one side of his boat,
then on the other. He recognised the sound, having on several previous
occasions seen submarines under way. The _Folke_ remained afloat for
about 2½ hours. There were no casualties.

On the 15th April, 1915, the Dutch steamer _Katwijk_, while on voyage
from Baltimore to Rotterdam, was torpedoed by a German submarine. She
carried a cargo of grain for the Dutch Government, and was lying at
anchor 7 miles west of the North Hinder at the time of the outrage. A
fire broke out soon after the explosion of the torpedo, and the vessel
sank in 20 minutes. There were no casualties.

On the 19th April, our Minister at the Hague sent the following
message to the British Foreign Office: "Minister for Foreign Affairs
told French Minister to-day that German Foreign Office admitted to
Netherlands Minister at Berlin that it was a German submarine which
sank the _Katwijk_, and added that it was an unfortunate accident."
On the 20th April the German Government informed the Netherlands
Minister that they would make enquiries, and, if proved that it was a
German submarine, they would express their regret and indemnify the
Netherlands Government for their loss. On the very same day, 20th
April, the following was included in the German official wireless news:
"The special Rotterdam correspondent of the _Deutsche Tageszeitung_
reports that the description of the boat which torpedoed the _Katwijk_,
and the behaviour of the crew, lead one to believe that the vessel was
of English nationality." On the 10th May our Minister at the Hague
communicated this message to the British Foreign Office: "Netherlands
Minister for Foreign Affairs tells me that he has just heard from
Berlin that German Government acknowledge that _Katwijk_ was torpedoed
by a German submarine. German Government fully apologise for the
mistake and promise an ample indemnity."

It seems probable that the German Government had a shrewd suspicion
that it was one of their own submarines which sank the _Katwijk_, even
as early as the 19th April. However, this did not prevent them from
sending out broadcast in their official wireless news on the 20th a
strong suggestion that a British submarine was responsible--a little
illustration of German official methods.

The American oil-tank steamer _Gulflight_ was torpedoed without warning
off the Scilly Islands at 12.50 p.m. on the 2nd May, 1915. One seaman
and the wireless operator were drowned, while the master died soon
afterwards from shock. The remaining 35 members of the crew were
saved. The submarine remained on the surface for three minutes after
discharging the first torpedo; then submerged, and 25 minutes later
struck the vessel with a second torpedo.

On the 25th May, 1915, the American steamer _Nebraskan_ was 50 miles
W.S.W. from the Fastnet Rock. The sea was smooth and the weather calm,
but at about 9 p.m. she was torpedoed without warning by a German
submarine. The crew took to their boats and, after standing by the ship
for an hour, returned on board, and at 10.30 started for Liverpool.
At about 1.25 a.m. they met with two vessels sent by the British
Admiralty in answer to a wireless call, and Liverpool was reached in
safety.

The _Betty_ was a Danish schooner, carrying a cargo of coal and coke to
Copenhagen. At noon on the 25th May, 1915, in fine weather, when 132
miles from the Farne Islands, a torpedo was seen rapidly approaching
the ship. She was struck between No. 3 hold and the engine-room on
the port side, after which no further sign of the submarine was seen.
The _Betty_ listed heavily to port; both life-boats were swung out
and manned. While the boats were standing by, a Swedish vessel, the
_Waldemar_, of Stockholm, appeared on the scene and picked up the crew.

The _Svein Jarl_ was a Norwegian steamship, which on the 9th June,
1915, was on a voyage from Warkworth to a port in East Finmark.
Suddenly a submarine bearing no flag or sign of nationality was seen
approaching at full speed. The submarine turned sharply, and a few
moments later the steamer was struck by a torpedo. The force of the
explosion threw the crew into the sea, their ship going down within 30
seconds. A Dutch fishing-boat picked up the master and three men and
landed them five days later at Scheveningen; but 12 of the crew were
lost.

The Norwegian steamer _Rym_ was torpedoed without warning by a German
submarine at 7.26 p.m. on the 14th July, 1915, the weather being fine
and clear, with a choppy sea. The master had just gone below when an
explosion occurred which knocked him senseless for several moments. The
second engineer was killed in the engine-room, and the ship sank in
three minutes. The mate saw the periscope of a submarine immediately
after the explosion.

On the 18th August, 1915, the Norwegian schooner _Magda_ was torpedoed
by a German submarine without warning. It was 11.35 p.m., the weather
being fine. The ship had the Norwegian flag painted on her sides,
which were brilliantly illuminated. A torpedo was suddenly seen coming
towards the ship, which was struck just afterwards on the starboard
side. After the explosion the _Magda_ began to go down by the head, and
the crew took to their boats. They were lucky enough to be picked up 20
minutes afterwards without casualty.

The Dutch steamer _Tubantia_ was 4 miles west of the North Hinder on
the evening of the 16th March, 1916. The ship was brilliantly lighted;
two arc lamps projected beyond her sides, illuminating her name,
which was painted on her side in large letters. Two more lamps threw
their light over the name on the stern of the vessel; while between
her funnels an illuminated nameboard was suspended. There could be no
possible doubt as to the identity and nationality of the _Tubantia_;
but, all the same, she was torpedoed that night by a German submarine.

The Germans attempted to evade responsibility for the deed. On the 17th
March Berlin sent this message to the German Embassy at Washington:
"English mines, on account of their construction, frequently get
loose and float, and, that being so, _Tubantia_ most certainly struck
and destroyed by English mine." Unfortunately for Berlin, pieces
of metal were found in two of the steamer's boats, and these, the
German Government were bound to admit, belonged to a German torpedo.
A new official story was accordingly concocted by Berlin. In June the
_North German Gazette_ published the result of the German official
investigation into the sinking of the _Tubantia_. The gist of the
finding was that the _Tubantia_ had been sunk by a floating German
torpedo, which had been fired at and missed a British destroyer 10 days
before.

To make this yarn more plausible, it was stated that the British
destroyer had three funnels, that she was in company with two
other destroyers, and that there was a British submarine in the
neighbourhood. To explain away the illegal use of torpedoes which float
for 10 days after being discharged, it was pointed out that this might
happen through some flaw in construction. Out of this cock-and-bull
story one fact at least emerged clearly enough, namely, that the Dutch
steamer had been destroyed by a German torpedo.

A Court of Enquiry was held in Holland, at which the evidence was
carefully sifted. At this court both the fourth mate and the man in
the crow's nest swore to having seen the track of a torpedo coming
towards the ship before she was struck. The court's verdict was: "The
evidence given by the said witnesses and experts, considered in all
its bearings, proves that the explosion was caused by a torpedo, which
at some distance, under an angle of six points, was launched by a
torpedo-boat or a submarine, without any previous warning. This torpedo
appears to have been a bronze Schwarzkopf torpedo, and was aimed at the
_Tubantia_, there being no other ship near."

The fact that the wake of a torpedo approaching the ship was seen by
two men in the steamer proves that the German explanation about a
floating torpedo was false. A floating torpedo would, of course, make
no track in the water. The whole case is a further exposure of German
methods.

On the 3rd February the Norwegian sailing vessel _Tamara_ fell in with
a German submarine at 9.30 a.m. Although flying the Norwegian colours
and bearing the name of the ship and her country painted on her side,
this vessel was sunk by the U-boat. Before sinking her, the Germans
searched the ship and carried away everything portable, including the
clothes of the crew. The boats were picked up at 10 p.m. by a patrol
vessel.

The Norwegian steamer _Solbakken_ was sunk by a German submarine off
Finisterre on the 4th February, 1917. One man was drowned and one died
of the cold. Thirteen survivors were landed at Gijon.

A German submarine sighted the Peruvian barque _Lorton_ on the 5th
February, 1917, and at once opened fire at 3,000 yards. The Peruvian
colours were hoisted, the ship was hove to, and the master proceeded
in his boat to the submarine. He was questioned by a young officer who
spoke very good English, and who seemed to know all about the _Lorton_.
This officer told the master to return to his ship and bring back a
German who was on board. Five of the submarine's crew went back with
him, and they found the German mate of the _Lorton_ with his things
all packed ready to be taken off. The Germans took the master's watch,
refused to return his papers, and sank his ship. The master is of
opinion that his German mate had given certain information about the
movements of the ship. The man sent a letter off from Colon.

On the 7th February the Swedish steamship _Varing_, bound from Savannah
to Helsingborg, met with a German submarine. Although the steamer
was hove to and hoisted the Swedish flag, the submarine continued
firing for 20 minutes, her master counting 20 shells in that period.
Her crew were allowed no time to save their personal belongings or
to furnish the life-boats with provisions. The master made a strong
protest against the methods of the submarine commander when he reached
Helsingborg.

In fine weather and a calm sea the Greek steamship _Aghios Spyridon_
was sunk without warning by a submerged U-boat at 1.5 a.m. on the 12th
February, 1917. The vessel sank in a few seconds after being torpedoed,
and the crew had but little chance of escape. Out of 21 men, 16 were
lost, one Chilian and one Spaniard being amongst the killed. The
survivors, who clung to floating wreckage, were eventually picked up
by a patrol-boat and landed at Penzance.

The Norwegian vessel _Falls of Afton_ was at sea on the 20th February,
1917, with the Norwegian colours painted on her side. At nine o'clock
in the morning, in hazy weather, a German submarine rose to the surface
right ahead of the ship, waited till the vessel approached, then
steered to starboard and lay about 4 cables distant. No other vessel
was in sight. The Norwegian colours were hoisted, but the submarine
fired three shots, one of which went through a sail. The ship was hove
to and was abandoned by her crew, the Germans sinking her with bombs.
No lives were lost, but a member of the crew, who had signed on as
a Russian Finn, declared himself a German and was taken away in the
submarine.

The Norwegian sailing vessel _Mabella_ was sunk by a U-boat on the
1st March, 1917, although the Norwegian colours and ship's name were
hoisted directly the submarine was sighted. The vessel was sunk by
gun-fire and two bombs. The Germans took the master's chronometer,
sextant, new oilskin coat, and three bags of stores.

On the same date the Norwegian steamer _Gurre_ was torpedoed without
warning, and sank in 30 seconds. Only three men were saved, and among
the drowned were two British ladies from Christiania.

The Danish steamer _Rosborg_ was bound for Esbjerg from Baltimore with
a cargo of 2,600 tons of maize for Eriksen and Christiensen. She was a
neutral ship, flying neutral colours, but on the 3rd March, 1917, she
was sunk by a German submarine.

The Norwegian sailing vessel _Silas_ was sunk by a German submarine at
11.30 a.m. on the 8th March. The crew were given half-an-hour to get
the boats clear, and there were no casualties.

At noon on the 12th March the Norwegian steamer _Einar Jarl_ came under
fire from a German submarine. A shell went through her coal-bunker and
exploded, and while the boats were lowered the fire was continued.
While the master was getting into the starboard boat a shell exploded,
striking him in the shoulder, severely wounding two men, and putting 17
holes through his boat. About 20 shells were fired altogether, five of
which hit the ship or boats. The crew were eventually picked up by a
drifter.

The Norwegian sailing vessel _Collingwood_ was sunk on the same day,
and in the opinion of her skipper the submarine commander and part
of his crew were drunk. It is probable that they obtained champagne
and cognac from the French ship _Jules Gommes_, which they had sunk
about two hours before. At any rate, they refused to examine the
_Collingwood's_ papers, although the skipper protested strongly,
explaining that his ship was bound for Christiania. The vessel was sunk
by bombs, and the crew were in their boats from 2.30 p.m. on the 12th
March until 3 p.m. on the 15th March, when they were picked up and
brought into Penzance.

On the 9th June, 1917, the Danish steamer _Dana_ was sunk by a U-boat.
She was abandoned at 3.30 p.m., four men being lost.

The master of the Norwegian steamer _Helma_, of Bergen, took his vessel
to sea on the 12th June, 1917, and proceeded without misadventure until
the 24th June, when a submarine opened fire on him. Boats were lowered,
and the master rowed alongside the submarine. The Germans boarded this
boat, threw her sails and gear overboard, and then proceeded to the
_Helma_, returning with the ship's provisions and papers. The _Helma_
was sunk by bombs, and the Norwegians were turned adrift with hardly
any provisions and no sails or gear. They remained at sea for three
days before reaching safety.




CHAPTER V.

WHAT IS THE VERDICT?

"_The German Government attaches no less importance to the sacred
principles of humanity than the Government of the United States._"[F]


Can anything be said in extenuation of the German submariner?

Germany declares that she is fighting for her existence, and that
unrestricted U-boat warfare is a necessity. Adopting for a moment the
enemy's point of view, we are still entitled to ask two questions,
which can be answered by anyone who knows what has taken place.

In the first place, even if the necessity of unrestricted submarine
warfare should be admitted, must it be attended by acts of savagery?
Secondly, when a nation fights for its existence, is there any standard
by which it can be judged, or does it stand outside all law, whether
human or divine?

The exploits described in this book provide Germany's answer to both
these questions. That is why she stands condemned before the eyes of
the world.

The German submarine commanders have proved by their deeds that they
commit excesses from sheer love of cruelty, and not from any national
necessity. Over and over again they have shelled defenceless seamen
while abandoning ship, disregarded drowning men when rescue would have
been easy, sunk ships at sight when a few minutes' grace would have
meant the saving of many lives. The security of Germany demanded none
of these deeds. It is possible to carry out submarine warfare without
barbarity; but the German submarine service appears deliberately to
have chosen the methods of the barbarian.

Another damning point in the evidence here collected is that it stamps
the whole German submarine service. The excesses described are not mere
exceptions to the general rule of German submarine methods. They could
be multiplied almost indefinitely; they cover every ocean in which the
German U-boats have appeared; and they are not recent developments of
sea-frightfulness, for they date back almost to the beginning of the
war.

We have attempted to judge Germany by her own standards as far as
possible, but the difficulty is to fix any standard upon which she
orders her actions. The conclusion is irresistible. The German
submarine commander stands convicted upon evidence unassailable as
a thief, a murderer, and a barbarian. If it could be argued that by
committing these acts he was performing his work more efficiently,
criticism would be to some extent disarmed; but no single ship went to
the bottom more completely on account of the outrages of the U-boat
commander who was responsible for her sinking. The acts of these men
were mere asides, something in the nature of recreation to relieve the
monotony of the submariner's life. The impartial mind cannot escape
from this conclusion.

Meanwhile, behind the sinister figure of the U-boat commander rises
up the grim outline of the faithless Imperial German Government. This
is the Government that declared she would not molest Belgian Relief
ships, and then sent the _Harpalyce_, _Ashmore_, and _Euphrates_ to the
bottom without warning. This is the Government which has often declared
that she respected the rights of neutrals, but has behaved to neutral
shipping as a pirate denying all rights to others.

Finally, what of the possibilities opened up by the system under which
the German _Chargé d'Affaires_ at Buenos Ayres communicated with the
Foreign Office in Berlin, sending cypher telegrams which passed as
Swedish official messages? "I beg that the small steamers _Oran_ and
_Guazo_, now nearing Bordeaux, may be spared, or else sunk without
a trace being left," he telegraphed on the 19th May, 1917. Precise
information as to the position, cargo, and destination of a vessel
often reaches the U-boat commander, and more than one very suggestive
instance of this appears in these pages. On such an occasion, after
the submarine has appeared, a certain member of the steamer's crew
announces that he is a German, and the U-boat commander takes the spy
away with him. These sailor-spies sign on under the cloak of some
neutral nationality.

Surely the members of the German Submarine Service stand convicted
by their own deeds as unscrupulous pirates, with whom even savages
might well hesitate to claim any fellowship. The verdict of civilised
humanity has been pronounced against these men who have destroyed the
Brotherhood of the Sea and horrified Civilisation.


 Printed in Great Britain by Messrs. ALABASTER, PASSMORE & SONS, Ltd.,
                         London and Maidstone.


FOOTNOTES:

[A] _Great Germany_, 1911 (page 231).

[B] _Patriotism, Art, and Art-Handicraft_ (p. 23).

[C] _Politics_, 1916 (p. 230).

[D] _German Speeches in Difficult Days_, 1914 (p. 13).

[E] _Hurrah and Hallelujah_, by J. P. Bang, 1916 (p. 83).

[F] _German Note to America, 4th May, 1916._




    Transcriber's Note:

    Every effort has been made to replicate this text as faithfully as
    possible, including inconsistent hyphenation. Some minor corrections
    of punctuation and spelling have been made. Misspellings in the
    letter from the Japanese prisoner on page 42 have been retained.

    Italic text has been marked with _underscores_.







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