CHAPTER XXVI

BELGO-GERMAN OPERATIONS

For the most part the activity of the Belgian army in February, 1915,

consisted of a continuous succession of advanced-post encounters, in

which detachments of from thirty to forty soldiers fought with the

Germans on the narrow strips of land which remained inundated, while

the artillery of the contending forces bombarded the trenches and the

machine-gun forts. The intermittent artillery duel continued through

the forepart of February, 1915, and on February 14, 1915, the Germans

bombarded Nieuport, Bains and the Dune trenches, and continued the

bombardment on February 15, 1915, and again on February 20, 1915.

Near Dixmude on February 28, 1915, the Belgian artillery demolished

two of the German trenches, and their infantry occupied a farm on the

right bank of the Yser. One of their aviators dropped bombs on the

harbor station at Ostend.

By the beginning of March, 1915, strips of dry land began to be seen

in the flooded region; and, along these, the Belgians advanced at

Dixmude and the bend of the Yser. They won additional bridgeheads on

the northern bank of the river. By the middle of the month, March,

1915, the Belgians had obtained a strategical point by possessing

Oudstuyvenkerke on the Schoorbakke highway. From there they could

force the Germans back until they were in a position that would

prevent any German action against the Dixmude bridgehead.

On March 18, 1915, the Belgian army continued its progress on the

Yser, and on March 23, 1915, the artillery destroyed several German

observation points. A division of the Belgian army made some progress

on the right bank of the Yser on March 24, 1915; while another was

taking a German trench on the left bank. The almost continuous

artillery fighting was more active in the Nieuport region on March 26,

1915; and farther south a farm north of St. Georges in advance of the

allied lines was taken and held.

But the Belgian army was unable to take any decisive action against

the left wing of the German army during the spring and summer of 1915,

both on account of the wetness of the land and the activity of the

German artillery. Yet it harassed the Germans by so much activity that

the Teutons continued to add to their heavy howitzers and large

caliber naval guns. Nevertheless the Belgian strategy gained for its

little army many advantages of tactical importance. It seemed to be a

part of the plan of the Belgian generals to give their new troops,

which were filling up the previously thinned ranks, a training under

heavy bombardments without risking the lives or liberty of many of

their men. They held the old cobbled roads which remained about the

waters, using an almost innumerable number of trenches for that

purpose.

The Germans sought to obviate this check to their activities by

approaching on rafts on which were machine guns, from which attempts

were made to pour an enfilading fire on the trenches. Thereupon the

Belgian sharpshooters became especially active and exterminated the

machine-gun crews before the Germans could take advantage of the

position they had gained by using the rafts.

Finally the waters subsided and the mud which remained dried. As soon

as the ground became firm enough to support troops the Belgians became

so active that the Germans desired more men, but their soldiers were

also needed in many other sections of the western front, and for the

time being none could be sent against the Belgians. Hence King

Albert's troops continued to make progress.

The Germans made an attack between Nieuport and the sea on May 9,

1915, but were repulsed. To the north of Dixmude the Belgians were

violently attacked during the night of May 10, 1915, by three German

battalions. They were repulsed and suffered large losses.

On the night of May 16, 1915, the Germans threatened with complete

envelopment by the successful attacks of preceding days, evacuated the

positions which they had occupied to the west of the Yser Canal, and

they gained nothing on the eastern bank. The Germans left about two

thousand dead and many rifles when they were forced from the western

bank. On the following night, May 17, 1915, the positions on the

eastern bank were consolidated, and a German counterattack, which was

preceded by a bombardment, was repulsed. The Germans gained a footing

in the trenches to the east of the Yser Canal in an attack made on the

night of May 20, 1915, but they were driven out and lost some of the

ground they had held before making the attack.

The Germans made a violent attack on the edge of the Belgian front at

Nieuport in order to prevent the Belgians from aiding in the defense

of Ypres, but the Belgians defended Nieuport with one army corps and

made an advance on Dixmude with another corps, with the result that

they assisted the Zouaves in taking the German bridgeheads on the

western bank of the canal above Ypres. These bridgeheads were

protected by forts manned by machine guns, and the approaches were

commanded by heavy artillery fire, but defense was destroyed in the

middle of May, 1915.

The Germans concentrated their efforts against the Belgians at one

point between Ypres and Dixmude. They bombarded the trenches, using

bombs filled with poisonous gas. When they believed the Belgians had

been overcome by the gas the German infantry charged. The Belgians,

however, had kept their faces close to the ground, thus escaping most

of the fumes from the shells. When the Germans arrived within easy

range they were greeted with machine-gun fire to such an extent that

the companies leading the charge were slain.

A battalion of Belgian troops on June 14, 1915, gained the east bank

of the Yser south of the Dixmude railroad bridge, and established

themselves there. The Belgians also destroyed a German blockhouse in

the vicinity of the Chateau of Dixmude. The Belgian troops, south of

St. Georges, captured a German trench, all the defenders of which were

killed or made prisoners on June 22, 1915.

After the canal line was won, and the Belgians were in position to

hold it, they could make little headway eastward. Their advance was

checked by a series of batteries which were concealed in the Forest of

Houthulst. These batteries, containing many guns of large caliber,

continued to shell the Belgian trenches to such an extent that it was

necessary for their inhabitants to keep close to the bomb-proof

chambers with which the trenches were liberally supplied. But the

Belgians kept so many of the German troops occupied that, in this way,

they gave great aid to their allies, and enabled the French and

British to regain much of the territory which was lost in the first

attack which the Germans made with poisonous gas. The remainder of the

summer was occupied with intermittent artillery duels and minor

engagements between the opposing trench lines. In the meantime the

Belgian army was adding to the number of its troops and gathering

munitions for an aggressive movement.

PART V--NAVAL OPERATIONS

CHAPTER XXVII

THE WAR ZONE

The war on the seas, with the long-expected battle between the fleets

of the great nations, developed during the second six months of the

war into a strange series of adventures. The fleets of the British and

the Germans stood like huge phantoms--the first enshrouded in mystery

somewhere in the Irish and North Seas; the second held in leash behind

the Kiel Canal, awaiting the opportune moment to make its escape.

These tense, waiting days were broken by sensational and spectacular

incidents--not so much through the sea fights of great modern warships

as through the adventures of the raiders on the seven seas, the

exploits of the submarines, and the daring attempt of the allied

fleets to batter down the mighty forts in the Dardanelles and bombard

their way toward Constantinople--the coveted stronghold of the Ottoman

Empire. The several phases of these naval operations are described in

special chapters in this volume, therefore We will now confine

ourselves to the general naval developments.

In the spring of 1915 the threat made by Admiral von Tirpitz that

Germany would carry on war against British and allied shipping by

sinking their vessels with submarines, was made effective. The

submersible craft began to appear on all the coasts of the British

Isles. It infested the Irish Sea to such an extent that shipping

between England and Ireland was seriously menaced.

A particularly daring raid took place on the night of February 1,

1915, when a number of submarines tried to scuttle ships lying at

Dover. The attack failed, but drew fire from the guns of the fort

here.[1]

[Footnote 1: See chapter on "Exploits of the Submarines."]

On the 5th of February, 1915, the German Naval Staff announced that

beginning February 18, 1915, the waters around Great Britain would be

considered a "war zone." This was in retaliation for the blockade

maintained against Germany by the British navy. The proclamation read

as follows:

"The waters round Great Britain and Ireland, including the whole of

the English Channel, are herewith proclaimed a war region.

"On and after February 18, 1915, every enemy merchant vessel found in

this war region will be destroyed without its always being possible to

warn the crew or passengers of the dangers threatening.

"Neutral ships will also incur danger in the war region, where, in

view of the misuse of the neutral flags ordered by the British

Government and incidents inevitable in sea warfare, attacks intended

for hostile ships may affect neutral ships also.

"The sea passage to the north of the Shetland Islands and the eastern

region of the North Sea in a zone of at least thirty miles along the

Netherlands coast is not menaced by any danger.

(Signed) Berlin, February 4, 1915, Chief of Naval Staff,

VON POHL."

[Illustration: The German Submarine War Zone.]

The effect of this proclamation, which was in truth nothing more than

official sanction for the work that the submarines had been doing for

some weeks, and which they continued to do, was to bring Germany into

diplomatic controversy with neutral countries, particularly the United

States; such controversy is taken up in a different chapter of this

history. In connection with the naval history of the Great War it

suffices to say that such a proclamation constituted a precedent in

naval history. The submarine had heretofore been an untried form of

war craft. The rule had formerly been that a merchantman stopped by an

enemy's warship was subject to search and seizure, and, if it offered

no resistance, was taken to one of the enemy's ports as a prize. If

it offered resistance it might be summarily sunk. But it was

impossible for submarines to take ships into port on account of the

patrols of allied warships; and the limited quarters of submarines

made it impossible to take aboard them the crews of ships which they

sank.

Reference made to the use of neutral flags quoted in the German

proclamation had been induced by the fact that certain of the British

merchant ships, after Germany had begun to send them to the bottom

whenever one of its submarines caught up with them had gone through

the waters where the submarines operated flying the flag of the United

States and other neutral powers in order to deceive the commanders of

the submarines. The latter had little time to do more than take a

brief observation of merchantmen which they sank, and one of the first

things they sought was the nationality of the flag that the intended

victims carried; unless they could be sure of the identity of a ship

through familiarity with the lines of her hull, they ran the risk, in

attacking a ship flying a neutral flag, of sinking a vessel belonging

to a neutral power.

Here was another matter that opened up diplomatic exchanges between

Germany and the United States, and between the United States and

England. It suffices here to give not only the controversy or the

points involved, but the record of events. The first use of the flag

of a neutral country by a ship belonging to one of the belligerents in

the Great War occurred on January 31, 1915, when the Cunard liner

_Orduna_ carried the American flag at her forepeak in journeying from

Liverpool to Queenstown. She again did so on February 1, 1915, when

she left the latter port for New York. And another notable instance

was on February 11, 1915, when the _Lusitania_, another Cunard liner,

arrived at Liverpool flying the American flag in obedience to orders

issued by the British admiralty. It was only the prominence of these

vessels which gave them notoriety in this regard; the same practice

was indulged in by many smaller ships.

"What will happen after the 18th?" was the one important question

asked during February, 1915, by the public of the neutral as well as

belligerent countries.

February 18, 1915, arrived and saw Von Pohl's proclamation go into

effect, and from that date onward the toll of ships sunk, both of

neutral and belligerent countries, grew longer daily.

But before the German submarines could begin the new campaign, those

of the British navy became active, and it was admitted in Berlin on

February 15, 1915, that British submarines had made their way into the

Baltic, through the sound between Sweden and Denmark, where they

attacked the German cruiser _Gazelle_ unsuccessfully.

Nor was the British navy inactive in other ways, though it had been

greatly discredited by the fact that the German submarines were

playing havoc with British shipping right at England's door. A fleet

of two battleships and several cruisers drew up off Westende and

bombarded the German trenches on the 4th of February, 1915.

Only one day after the war-zone proclamation went into effect the

Allies brought out their trump card for the spring of 1915.

CHAPTER XXVIII

ATTACK ON THE DARDANELLES

By the middle of February, 1915, the Allies completed the arrangement

for the naval attack on the Dardanelles. The military part of the

campaign in these regions is treated in the chapter on the "Campaign

in the Dardanelles"; hence we must confine ourselves at present to the

general naval affairs. The naval operations began with the

concentration in the adjacent waters of a powerful fleet consisting of

both French and British ships.

The ships engaged were the _Queen Elizabeth_, with her main battery of

15-inch guns, the _Inflexible_, veteran of the fight off the Falkland

Islands, the _Agamemnon_, _Cornwallis_, _Triumph_, and _Vengeance_. In

addition to these British ships there were the French battleships

_Suffren_, _Gaulois_, and _Bouvet_, and a fleet of destroyers. The

senior British officer was Vice Admiral Sackville Carden, and the

French commander was Admiral Guepratte. A new "mother ship" for a

squadron of seaplanes was also part of the naval force; this was the

ship _Ark Royal_. At eight in the morning on February 19, 1915, this

powerful fleet started "The Great Attempt."

After bombarding the Turkish forts till three in the afternoon without

receiving a single reply from the guns of the forts, the warships

ceased firing and went in closer to the shore, the allied commanders

believing that the forts had not replied because they all had been put

out of action. The fallacy of this belief was discovered when, at the

shortened range, shells began to fall about the ships. None was hit;

when dusk came on they retired.

Stormy weather prevented further action on the part of the warships

for almost a week, but on February 25, 1915, they resumed their

bombardment. The _Irresistible_ and _Albion_ had by then joined the

other British ships, and the _Charlemagne_ had augmented the French

force.

At ten o'clock in the morning of February 25, 1915, the _Queen

Elizabeth_, _Gaulois_, _Irresistible_, and _Agamemnon_ began to fire

on the forts Sedd-el-Bahr, Orkanieh, Kum Kale, and Cape Hellas--the

outer forts--at long range, and drew replies from the Turkish guns. It

was out of all compliance with naval tradition for warships to stand

and engage land fortifications, for lessons learned by naval

authorities from the Spanish-American and Russo-Japanese wars had

established precedents which prohibited it. But here the larger

warships were carrying heavier guns than those in the forts. Whereas

the _Queen Elizabeth_ carried 15-inch guns, the largest of the Turkish

guns measured only 10.2 inches.

At 11.30 o'clock in the morning of February 25, 1915, the _Agamemnon_

was hit with a shell which had traveled six miles, but it did not

damage her beyond repair. Meanwhile the _Queen Elizabeth_ had silenced

Cape Hellas, firing from a distance far beyond the range of the forts'

guns. And then, just before noon, and after the larger ship had

silenced the main battery at Cape Hellas, the ships _Vengeance_ and

_Cornwallis_ dashed in at shorter range and destroyed the minor

batteries there. The _Suffren_ and _Charlemagne_ also took part in

this phase of the engagement, and later, in the afternoon, the

_Triumph_ and _Albion_ concentrated fire on Sedd-el-Bahr, silencing

its last guns by five o'clock in the evening.

The larger ships needed the respite during the night of February 25,

1915, while trawlers, which had been brought down from the North Sea

for the purpose, began to sweep the entrance to the forts for mines,

and cleared enough of them out by the morning of the 26th to enable

the _Majestic_--which had by then joined the fleet--and the _Albion_

and _Vengeance_ to steam in between the flanking shores and fire at

the forts on the Asiatic side. It was known by the allied commanders

that they might expect return fire from Fort Dardanos, but this they

did not fear, for they knew that its heaviest gun measured but 5.9

inches. But they had a surprise when concealed batteries near by, the

presence of which had not been suspected, suddenly began to fire.

Believing now that the Turks were abandoning the forts at the

entrance, the allied ships covered the landing of parties of marines.

Long-range firing had by the end of February 26, 1915, enabled the

allied fleets to silence the outer forts and to clear their way to the

straits. They now had to take up the task of destroying the real

defenses of the Dardanelles--the forts at the Narrows, and this was a

harder task, for long-range firing was no longer possible. The guns of

the forts and those of the ships would be meeting on a more equal

basis.

But this was not to be essayed at once, for more rough weather kept

the fleets from using their guns effectively, their trawlers continued

to sweep the waters for mines near the Narrows. By March 3, 1915,

however, the commanders were ready to resume operations. The _Lord

Nelson_ and the _Ocean_ had by then also arrived on the scene, and in

the subsequent operations were hit a number of times by the Turkish

guns; and the _Canopus_, _Swiftsure_, _Prince George_, and _Sapphire_,

though they did not report being hit, were also known to have been

present.

The new "eyes" of the fleets located new and concealed batteries

placed in position by the Turks, and at two o'clock in the afternoon

of February 3, 1915, they ascended to direct the fire of the ships'

guns by signal. The bombardment was kept up till darkness fell, but it

was resumed on the next day.

On March 4, 1915, the _Queen Elizabeth_, so great was the range of her

guns, was able to reach the forts Hamadieh I, Tabia, and Hamadieh II,

firing across the Gallipoli Peninsula. Three times she was hit by

shells from field pieces lying between her and her target, but no

great damage was done to her. While her guns roared out, the

_Suffren_, _Albion_, _Prince George_, _Vengeance_, and _Majestic_ went

inside the straits and had attacked the forts at Soundere, Mount

Dardanos, and Rumili Medjidieh Tabia, and were fired upon by Turkish

guns from the forts and from concealed batteries which struck these

ships, but not a man was killed or a ship put out of action.

March 7, 1915, the _Agamemnon_ and _Lord Nelson_ attacked the forts at

the Narrows, their bombardment being covered by the four French

battleships. All of the ships were struck, but again none of them was

put out of action. After heavy shelling forts Rumili Medjidieh Tabia

and Hamadieh I were silenced.

While these operations were going on, another British fleet,

consisting of battleships and cruisers, on March 5, 1915, began an

attack on Smyrna. For two hours, and in fine, clear weather, Fort Yeni

Kale was damaged after being subjected to heavy bombardment, but it

was not silenced when dusk interrupted the attack.

Little was accomplished for some days afterward. Some of the forts

which had been reported silenced were getting ready to resume firing;

their silence had been due to the fact that the defenders often had to

leave their guns while the gases generated by the firing cleared off,

and they had also thought it wiser to conserve ammunition rather than

fire ineffective shots. Sedd-el-Bahr and Kum Kale were able to resume

firing in a few days, for though the shells of the allied fleets had

damaged the structural parts of these defenses, they had not landed

troops out to occupy them, with the result that the Turks were

enabled to intrench near the ruins and there reset their guns.

On the morning of March 15, 1915, the small British cruiser _Amethyst_

made a dash into the Narrows, which when reported led the British and

French public to believe that the defense had been forced, but, as a

matter of fact, this exploit was a bit of stratagem, being only

designed to draw the fire of concealed batteries.

On March 18, 1915, "The Great Effort" was made to force the defenses

with naval operations, all previous work having been preliminary. The

battleships _Agamemnon_, _Prince George_, _Queen Elizabeth_, _Lord

Nelson_, _Triumph_, and _Inflexible_ steamed right up to the Narrows.

Four of them bombarded Chanak and a battery which lay opposite it, and

the forts at Saghandere, Kephez Point, and Dardanos were kept busy by

the _Triumph_ and the _Prince George_. After the fleet had been at it

for an hour and a half they received the support of the four French

ships which steamed in close and attacked the forts at a shorter

range. When the forts ceased firing the six battleships _Ocean_,

_Swiftsure_, _Majestic_, _Albion_, _Irresistible_, and _Vengeance_

came in and tried to carry the attack further. While the French

squadron maneuvered to allow freedom of action for this newer British

squadron the Turkish guns resumed fire. Then came the first of a

series of disasters. Three shells struck the _Bouvet_, and she soon

began to keel over. When the underwater part of her hull came into

view it was seen that she had been hit underneath, probably by one of

the mines which the Turks had floated toward the crowded ships. She

sank almost immediately, carrying the greater part of her crew down

with her. Only two hours later another mine did damage to the

_Irresistible_, and she left the line, listing heavily. While she

floated and while she was under heavy fire from Turkish guns a

destroyer took off her crew. She sank just before six o'clock. Not

fifteen minutes later the _Ocean_ became the third victim of a

floating mine, and she also went to the bottom. Destroyers rescued

many of her crew from the water. The guns from the forts were also

able to do damage; the _Gaulois_ had been hit again and again, with

the result that she had a hole in her hull and her upper works were

damaged badly. Fire had broken out on the _Inflexible_, and a number

of her officers and crew had been either killed or wounded. The day

ended with the forts still able to return a lively fire to all

attacks, and "The Great Attempt" on the part of the allied fleets had

failed.

On the other end of the passage there had also been some naval

operations, when, on March 28, 1915, the Black Sea Fleet of the

Russian navy had bombarded the forts on the Bosphorous. Smyrna was

again attacked on April 6, 1915. The operations of allied submarines

were the next phases of the attack on the Dardanelles to be reported.

The _E-5_ grounded near Kephez Point on April 17, 1915, but before she

could be captured by the Turks picket boats from the allied fleet

rescued her crew and then destroyed her. It was just two months now

since the naval operations had begun at the Dardanelles; it was seen

then that all attempts to take them by naval operations alone must

fail as did the attack of March 18, 1915.

CHAPTER XXIX

GERMAN RAIDERS AND SUBMARINES

The next important event in the naval history of the war occurred in

far-distant waters. On March 10, 1915, there ended the wonderful

career of the German auxiliary cruiser _Prinz Eitel Friedrich_,

Captain Thierichens, which on that date put in at the American port of

Newport News, Va., for repairs, after making the harbor in spite of

the watch kept on it by British cruisers. She brought with her more

than 500 persons, 200 of them being her own crew, and the remainder

being passengers and crews of French, British, Russian, and American

ships that had been her victims in her roving over 30,000 miles of the

Atlantic and Pacific oceans since leaving Tsing-tau seven months

before.

She had sent eight merchant ships to the bottom, one of them being the

_William P. Frye_, an American vessel carrying wheat, three British

ships, three flying the French flag, and one Russian ship. Their total

tonnage came to 18,245. The fact that she had sunk an American ship on

the high seas opened up still another diplomatic controversy between

Germany and the United States, which cannot be treated here.

When she left Tsing-tau she took as her crew the men from the German

gunboats _Tiger_ and _Luchs_, and had their four 4.1-inch and some of

their one-pounder guns as her armament. Soon afterward she stopped the

British ship _Schargost_ and expected to refill her coal bunkers from

those of the merchantman, but in this she was disappointed, for those

of the latter were almost empty. Her next victim was a French sailing

vessel, _Jean_, and on board this was found a pleasant surprise for

the German raider, for the vessel was laden with coal. Captain

Thierichens had her towed 1,500 miles, to Easter Island, where the

coal was transferred to the bunkers of the _Eitel Friedrich_, and the

crews of her first three victims were put ashore. These marooned men

were burdens to the white inhabitants of the island, for there was not

too much food for the extra forty-eight mouths. Finally, on February

26, 1915, the Swedish ship _Nordic_ saw them signaling from the island

and took them off, landing them at Panama on the day after the _Prinz

Eitel Friedrich_ entered Newport News.

By the beginning of December, 1914, the German raider was in the South

Atlantic, and while there heard wireless messages exchanged between

the ships of the British fleet that took part in the battle off the

Falkland Islands. The bark _Isabella Browne_, flying the Russian flag,

was the next ship overtaken by the _Eitel Friedrich_, on January 26,

1915. She was boarded and all of her provisions and stores were

removed to the German ship; after her crew and their personal effects

were taken aboard the German ship she was dynamited and sank. On that

same morning the French ship _Pierre Loti_ was sighted, and while the

_Prinz Eitel Friedrich_ put an end to her, after first taking off her

crew, the captive crew of the _Isabella Browne_ was sent below, but

was allowed to come on deck to watch the sinking of the French ship.

The American ship _William P. Frye_ was sunk soon afterward, and her

crew, also, was made part of the party on board the raider. After

sinking the French bark _Jacobsen_ the _Prinz Eitel Friedrich_ stopped

the _Thalasia_ on February 8, 1915, and let her go on her way, but on

February 18 the British ships _Cindracoe_ and _Mary Ada Scott_ were

sunk. On the 19th the French steamer _Floride_ was overtaken off the

coast of Brazil; all persons aboard her were transferred to the German

ship and most of her provisions were also taken aboard the latter; the

_Floride_, the largest steamer destroyed by the German ship, was set

afire and left to burn. On February 20, 1915, the British ship

_Willerby_ was overtaken and nearly sank the _Prinz Eitel Friedrich_

before being boarded. As the German ship passed across the stern of

the other at a short distance the British captain, knowing that the

end of his own ship was near, decided to take his captor down with

him. He tried to ram the German ship with the stern of his ship, but

failed in the attempt.

On the evening of February 20, 1915, the wireless operator of the

_Prinz Eitel Friedrich_ heard British cruisers "talking" with each

other, one of them being the _Berwick_. The German captain now saw

that his long raiding cruise was up, for though he could replenish his

stores and bunkers from captured ships he could not make the many

repairs which his vessel needed. To put them off at a neutral port or

to let them go in one of the ships he captured would mean that his

position would be reported to British ships within a week. He

therefore decided to end his raiding and put in at Newport News. His

vessel was interned in the American port.

We may now return to the story of the blockade against Germany and the

retaliation she sought. The Allies were now stopping as much shipping

on its way to Germany as they dared without bringing on trouble with

neutral powers. The _Dacia_, formerly a German merchantman, was taken

over, after the outbreak of the war, by an American citizen and sailed

from New Orleans for Rotterdam with a cargo of cotton on February 12,

1915. She was stopped by a French warship and taken to a French port

February 27, 1915, and there held till the matter of the validity of

her transfer of registry could be settled.

On the other hand the German submarine exploits continued and found

among their victims a British warship, along with the many

merchantmen. On March 11, 1915, the British auxiliary cruiser

_Bayano_, while on patrol duty became the victim of a German torpedo

off the Scotch coast. She went down almost immediately, carrying with

her the greater part of her crew.

But not always were the submarines immune. Only the day before the

British destroyer _Ariel_ rammed the German submarine _U-12_ and sent

her to the bottom, after rescuing her crew. She was of an older type,

built in 1911, of submarine, and had played an active part in the

raiding in British waters. On February 21, 1915, she had sunk the

Irish coasting steamer _Downshire_ in the Irish Sea, and her

destruction was particularly welcome in British shipping circles.

Once more an incident in the naval warfare of the Great War was to

involve diplomatic exchanges between the belligerents and the United

States. The African liner _Falaba_, a British ship on her way from

Liverpool to Lisbon, was torpedoed in St. George's Channel on the

afternoon of March 28, 1915. She had as one of her passengers an

American, L. C. Thrasher, who lost his life when the ship sank.

The naval warfare was proceeding like a game of checkers. When on

March 14, 1915, there came the end of still another of the German

raiding cruisers, the _Dresden_. She was a cruiser built in 1907 and

having a displacement of 3,544 tons. Her speed was good--24.5

knots--and her armament of ten 4.1-inch guns and eight 5-pounder guns

made her quite a match for enemy warships of her class and superior as

for merchantmen. She was a sister ship to that other famous raider the

_Emden_. In 1909 she had taken her place among the other foreign

warships in the line in the Hudson River, participating in the

Hudson-Fulton Celebration. In the spring of 1914 she was in the

neighborhood of Central America and rescued a number of foreign

refugees who fled from Mexico, and also took Senor Huerta from Puerto

Mexico.

She was still in that neighborhood when the war broke out, and was

immediately sought after by British and French warships which were

near by. She managed to get away from these pursuers and sank the

British steamers _Hyades_ and _Holmwood_ off the Brazilian coast

during the latter part of August, 1914. She then went south, rounded

the Horn and joined the other ships under command of Admiral Von Spee,

taking part in the battle off Coronel, on November 1, 1914.

She remained with that squadron and took part in a second battle--that

off the Falkland Islands--on December 8, 1914. When Admiral von Spee

saw that he had little chance of winning the battle he gave orders

that the lighter ships should leave the line and seek safety in

flight. The _Dresden_ was one of the ships which escaped, to the

chagrin of the British Admiral. She then turned "raider."

Five days later, on December 13, 1914, she had appeared off Punta

Arenas, in the Straits of Magellan, stopped at that port long enough

to take on some provisions and put to sea again, with British and

Japanese warships on her trail. She was too closely hunted to be able

to sink many ships, but during the week of March 12, 1915, she sank

the British steamer _Conway Castle_, off the coast of Chile, and took

coal and provisions from the two German steamers _Alda_ and _Sierra

Cordoba_.

On March 14, 1915, she was sighted by the British cruisers _Glasgow_,

_Kent_ and _Orama_ near Juan Fernandez Island. What then ensued is in

doubt, owing to conflicting reports made by the senior British officer

and by the captain of the German cruiser. The latter insisted that,

seeing his ship was at the end of her career, he ordered his men to

leave her and then blew her up. The former declared that shots were

exchanged, that she was set afire and was otherwise badly damaged by

the British fire. At any rate, she was destroyed, and all of her men

were saved. It was estimated that the amount of damage she inflicted

on allied trade amounted to $1,250,000.

Thus at the end of March, 1915, only the _Karlsruhe_ and _Kronprinz

Wilhelm_, of the eleven German warships that were detached from the

main German fleet in the North Sea at the outbreak of the war, and of

the few ships which slipped out of various ports as converted

auxiliary cruisers, were still at large on the high seas.

Naval activity in the northern waters of Europe did not abate. The

British admiralty on March 25, 1915, had announced that the German

submarine _U-29_, one of the most improved craft of the type in use,

had been sunk. This loss was admitted by the German admiralty on April

7, 1915. It was a serious loss to the German navy, for its commander

was Otto von Weddigen, he who, in the _U-9_, had sent the _Cressy_,

_Aboukir_ and _Hogue_ to the bottom in September, 1914.

The naval warfare at the Dardanelles proceeded in the same desultory

fashion. A Turkish torpedo boat caught up with the British transport

_Manitou_, and opened fire on her, killing some twenty of the soldiers

on board.

In answer to calls for help from the _Manitou_ the British cruiser

_Minerva_ and some torpedo boats went to the scene and attacked the

Turkish craft on April 7, 1915, driving it ashore off Chios and

destroyed it as it lay beached. But during April, 1915, it seemed as

though there would be another pitched fight between British and German

warships in the North Sea. On April 23, 1915, the German admiralty

announced that "the German High Sea Fleet has recently cruised

repeatedly in the North Sea, advancing into English waters without

meeting the sea forces of Great Britain." The British admiralty had

undoubtedly been aware of this activity on the part of their enemy,

but for reasons of their own did not choose to send British ships to

meet the German fleet, and the expected battle did not take place.

France, on April 26, 1915, was to sustain a severe loss to her navy;

she had up to this time not lost as many ships as her ally, England,

or her enemy, Germany, but her navy was so much smaller than either of

them that the sinking of the _Leon Gambetta_ on that date was a matter

of weight. The _Gambetta_ was an armored cruiser, built in 1904, and

carrying four 7.6-inch guns, sixteen 6.4-inch guns and a number of

smaller caliber. She had a speed of twenty-three knots. While doing

patrol duty in the Strait of Otranto she was made the victim of the

Austrian submarine _U-5_, and sank, carrying with her 552 men.

On April 28, 1915, there occurred another incident which gave rise to

diplomatic exchanges between Germany and the United States. On that

date a German seaplane attacked the American merchantman in broad

daylight in the North Sea, but fortunately for its crew the ship was

not sent to the bottom. The first American ship to be struck by a

torpedo in the war zone established by the German admiralty's

proclamation of February 5, 1915, was the _Gulflight_. This tank

steamer was hit by a torpedo fired by a German submarine off the

Scilly Islands, on the 1st of May, 1915.

But of more importance, because of the number of American lives lost,

the standing of the matter in international law and the prominence of

the vessel, was the sinking of the Cunard liner _Lusitania_, on May 7,

1915. This is fully described in the chapter on submarines, and in the

diplomatic developments discussed in the chapter on the United States

and the War. The _Lusitania_ had left New York for Liverpool on the

1st of May, 1915. She was one of the fastest ships plying between the

Eastern and Western Hemispheres. Larger than any warship afloat at the

time, she was able to make the trip from Liverpool to New York in a

little under five days. On her last crossing she carried 2,160

persons, including passengers and crew, many of the former being

Americans, some of them of great prominence. While off Old Head of

Kinsale, on the southeastern end of Ireland, at about half past two,

on the afternoon of May 7, 1915, with a calm sea and no wind, she was

hit by one or more torpedoes from a German submarine without warning.

Those on board immediately went to the life boats, but it was only

twenty minutes after she had first been hit that she sank, and not

enough of the small craft could be gotten over her side in that time

to rescue all those on board. Out of the 2,160 souls aboard at least

1,398 were lost. Of these 107 were American citizens. Small boats in

the neighborhood of the disaster hurried to the scene and rescued

those whom they could reach in the water and brought them to

Queenstown. The sacks of mail which the liner carried and which went

down with her were the first American mail sacks ever lost at sea as a

result of war. The controversies which this disaster gave rise to

between England, Germany and the United States are given elsewhere.

Against British warships the submarine warfare was also effective

during the month of May, 1915. On the 1st day of that month the old

British destroyer _Recruit_ was sent to the bottom of the North Sea by

a German submarine, but the two German destroyers which had

accompanied the submarine that did this were pursued immediately by

British destroyers and were sunk. On the same day that the _Lusitania_

went down a German mine ended the career of the British destroyer

_Maori_.

CHAPTER XXX

ITALIAN PARTICIPATION--OPERATIONS IN MANY WATERS

The month of May, 1915, saw new characters enter the theatres of naval

warfare. Italy had now entered the war and brought to the naval

strength of the Allies a minor naval unit.

At the time Italy entered the war she possessed six dreadnoughts, the

_Caio Duilio_ and the _Andrea Doria_, completed in 1915, the _Conte di

Cavour_, _Giulio Cesare_, and _Leonardo da Vinci_, completed in 1914,

and the _Dante Alighieri_, completed in 1912. Each of these

dreadnoughts had a speed of 23 knots. The _Dante Alighieri_ displaced

19,400 tons and had a main battery of twelve 12-inch guns, and a

complement of 987 men. Each of the other five had thirteen 12-inch

guns and a complement of 1,000 men. The displacement of vessels of the

1914 type was 22,340 tons; that of the 1915 type 23,025 tons. There

were many lesser craft flying the Italian flag, but these larger ships

were the most important additions to the naval forces of the Allies in

southern waters.

The chief operations of the Italian navy were directed against

Austria. On May 28, 1915, the Italian admiralty announced the damage

inflicted on Austrian maritime strength up to that date. On May 24,

1915, the Austrian torpedo boat _S-20_ approached the canal at Porto

Corsini, but drew a very heavy fire from concealed and unsuspected

batteries which forced her to leave immediately. The Austrian torpedo

boat destroyer _Scharfschuetze_, the scout ship _Novara_ and the

destroyer _Ozepel_, all of the Austrian navy, came to the assistance

of the _S-20_ and also received salvos from the Italian land

batteries. But on the same day the Italian destroyer _Turbine_, while

scouting gave chase to an Austrian destroyer and the Austrian cruiser

_Helgoland_. The strength of these Austrian ships was too much for the

_Turbine_ and she put on speed with the intention of escaping from

their fire, but she was severely damaged by Austrian shells, and not

having enough ammunition aboard to give a good account of herself, she

was scuttled by her own crew.

It is now necessary to take up again the story of the German raiding

ships at large on the high seas. As has been told above, after the

_Prinz Eitel Friedrich_ ended her career by putting in at Newport News

the only German ships of the kind remaining at large were the

_Karlsruhe_ and _Kronprinz Wilhelm_. But on the 1st of April, 1915,

the _Macedonia_, a converted liner which since November, 1914, had

been interned at Las Palmas, Canary Islands, succeeded in slipping out

of the harbor laden with provisions and supplies for use of warships

and made her way to South American waters in spite of the fact that

she had run through lines patrolled by British cruisers.

The _Kronprinz Wilhelm's_ career as a raider ended on April 11, 1915,

when, like the _Prinz Eitel Friedrich_, she succeeded in getting past

the British cruisers and slipped into Newport News, Virginia. How this

former Hamburg-American liner had slipped out of the harbor of New

York on the night of August 3, 1914, with her bunkers and even her

cabins filled with coal and provisions, with all lights out and with

canvas covering her port holes has already been told. From that date

until she again put in at an American port she captured numerous

merchant ships, taking 960 prisoners and doing damage amounting to

more than $7,000,000. She kept herself provisioned from her captives,

and it was only the poor condition of her plates and boilers that made

her captain give up raiding when he did. Her movements had been

mysterious during all the time she was at large. She was known to have

reprovisioned the cruiser _Dresden_ and to have taken an almost

stationary position in the South Atlantic in order to act as a

"wireless station" for the squadron of Admiral von Spee. But when the

latter was defeated off the Falkland Islands, she resumed operations

as a raider of commerce. When she came into Newport News more than 60

per cent of her crew were suffering from what was thought to be

beri-beri; she had but twenty-one tons of coal in her bunkers and

almost no ammunition.

The total damage inflicted on the commerce of the Allies by the

_Emden_, _Karlsruhe_, _Kronprinz Wilhelm_, _Prinz Eitel Friedrich_,

_Koenigsberg_, _Dresden_ and _Leipzig_ amounted, by the end of May,

1915, to $35,000,000. Sixty-seven vessels had been captured and sunk

by them.

In the Dardanelles the naval operations were resumed, to some extent,

during the month of May, 1915. For a number of weeks after the allied

fleet had made the great attempt to force the Dardanelles on March 19,

1915, their commanders attempted no maneuvers with the larger ships,

but the submarines were given work to do. On April 27, 1915, the

British submarine _E-14_, under command of Lieutenant Commander Boyle,

dived and went under the Turkish mine fields, reaching the waters of

the Sea of Marmora. In spite of the fact that Turkish destroyers knew

of its presence and hourly watched for it in the hope of sinking it,

this submarine was able to operate brilliantly for some days, sinking

two Turkish gunboats and a laden transport. Similar exploits were

performed by Lieutenant Commander Nasmith with the British submarine

_E-11_, which even damaged wharves at the Turkish capital.

But when the military operations were getting under way during May,

1915, the larger ships of the fleets were again used. The Germans

realizing that these great ships, moving as they did slowly and

deliberately while they fired on the land forts, would be good targets

for torpedoes, sent some of their newest submarines from the bases in

the North Sea, down along the coasts of France and Spain, through the

passage at Gibraltar and to the Dardanelles. Destroyers accompanying

the allied fleets kept diligent watch for attacks from them. The

_Goeben_, one of the German battle cruisers that had escaped British

and French fleets in the Mediterranean during the first weeks of the

war, and which was now a part of the Turkish navy, was brought to the

scene and aided the Turkish forts in their bombardment of the hostile

warships.

On May 12, 1915, the British battleship _Goliath_, of old design and

displacing some 12,000 tons, was sunk by a torpedo. This ship had been

protecting a part of the French fleet from flank attack inside the

straits, and under the cover of darkness had been approached by a

Turkish destroyer which fired the fatal torpedo. It sank almost

immediately.

The submarines of the German navy which had made the long journey to

participate in the action near the Dardanelles got in their first work

on May 26, 1915, when a torpedo fired by one of them struck the

British battleship _Triumph_ and sent her to the bottom. Of interest

to naval authorities all over the world was the fact that this ship at

the time she was struck had out torpedo nets which were supposed to be

torpedo-proof; but the German missile tore through them and reached

the hull. A hunt was made for the hostile submarine by the British

destroyers, but she was found by the British battleship _Majestic_;

but before the British ship could fire a shot at the German submarine,

the latter fired a torpedo that caught the battleship near her stern

and sank her immediately. Apprehension was now felt for the more

formidable ships such as the _Queen Elizabeth_ and others of her class

which were in those waters; inasmuch as the operations at the

Dardanelles assumed more and more a military rather than a naval

character, the British admiralty thought it wiser to keep the _Queen

Elizabeth_ in safer waters; she was consequently called back to

England. Only old battleships and cruisers were left to cooperate

with the troops operating on the Gallipoli Peninsula.

Naval warfare in southern waters was continued against British

warships by the Austrian navy. On June 9, 1915, the Austrian admiralty

announced that a cruiser of the type of the _Liverpool_ had been

struck by a torpedo fired by an Austrian submarine while the former

was off San Giovanni di Medua, near the Albanian coast. Reports of the

incident issued by the Austrian and British naval authorities

differed, the former claiming that the cruiser had sunk, and the

latter that it had remained afloat and had been towed to an Adriatic

port.

Most unique was an engagement between the Italian submarine _Medusa_

and a similar craft flying the Austrian flag on June 17, 1915. This

was the first time that two submarines had ever fought with each

other. On that day the two submarines, the presence of each unknown to

the other, lay submerged, not a great distance apart. The _Medusa_,

after some hours, came up, allowing only her periscope to show; seeing

no enemy about, her commander brought the rest of her out of the

water. She had not emerged many moments before the Austrian vessel

also came up for a look around and the commander of the latter espied

the Italian submarine through his periscope. He immediately ordered a

torpedo fired; it found a mark in the hull of the _Medusa_ and she was

sent to the bottom. One of her officers and four of her men were

rescued by the Austrian submarine and made prisoners.

Italy's navy was not to continue to act as a separate naval unit in

the southern naval theatre of war, for on June 18, 1915, the Minister

of Marine of France announced that the "Anglo-French forces in the

Mediterranean were cooperating with the Italian fleet, whose

participation made possible a more effective patrol of the Adriatic.

Warships of the Allies were engaged in finding and destroying oil

depots from which the enemy's submarines had been replenishing their

supplies." This effective patrol did not, however, prevent an Austrian

submarine from sinking an Italian torpedo boat on June 27, 1915.

In the Baltic Sea the naval activity had at no time during the first

year of the war been great, but during the month of June, 1915, there

was a minor naval engagement at the mouth of the Gulf of Riga, during

which the Germans lost a transport and the Russians an auxiliary

cruiser. In the other northern waters the Germans lost the submarine

_U-14_, which was sunk on June 9, 1915. The crew were brought to

England as prisoners. Three days later the British admiralty admitted

that two torpedo boats, the _No. 10_ and the _No. 12_ had been lost.

The loss of two such small boats did not worry Britain as much as did

the loss of many merchant ships in the war zone right through the

spring and summer of 1915, and to show that British warships were not

immune from submarine attack, in spite of the fact that many of the

underwater craft of Germany were meeting with disaster, the British

cruiser _Roxburgh_ was struck by a torpedo on June 20, 1915, but was

able to get away under her own steam. The rest of the month saw small

losses to nearly all of the fleets engaged in the war, but none of

these were of importance.

The twelfth month of the first year of war was not particularly

eventful in so far as naval history was concerned. On July 1, 1915,

the Germans maneuvered in the Baltic Sea with a small fleet which

accompanied transports bearing men who were to try to land on the

northern shores of Russia. The port of Windau was the point at which

the German bombardment was directed, but Russian torpedo boats and

destroyers fought off the invading German fleet--which must have been

small--and succeeded in chasing the German mine-layer _Albatross_,

making it necessary for her captain to beach her on the Swedish island

of Gothland, where the crew was interned on July 2, 1915. On the same

day a German predreadnought battleship, believed to have been the

_Pommern_, was sunk at the mouth of Danzig Bay by a torpedo from a

British submarine.

In the Adriatic Austria lost a submarine, the _U-11_, through a unique

action. The submersible was sighted on July 1, 1915, by a French

aeroplane. The aviator dropped two bombs which found their mark on the

deck of the submarine and sank her. Austria had, during that month,

made an attempt to capture the Austrian island of Pelagosa, which had

been occupied by the Italians on July 26, 1915. But July 29, 1915, the

fleet of Austrian cruisers and destroyers, which made the attack, was

driven off by unnamed units of the Italian navy. But a loss by the

latter had been incurred on July 7, 1915, when the armored cruiser

_Amalfi_, while scouting in the upper waters of the Adriatic Sea, was

sighted and torpedoed by an Austrian submarine. She sank, but most of

her men were saved. Another Austrian submarine had the same success on

July 17, 1915, when it fired a torpedo at the Italian cruiser

_Giuseppe Garibaldi_, and saw her go down fifteen minutes later. Italy

endeavored to imitate the actions of Germany when, on July 6, 1915,

she proclaimed that the entire Adriatic Sea was a war zone and that

the Strait of Otranto was in a state of blockade. All the ports of

Dalmatia were closed to every kind of commerce.

Near the coasts of Turkey, toward the end of the first year of war,

there was fought the second duel between submarines. This time the

vanquished vessel was the French submarine _Mariotte_, which, on July

26, 1915, was sunk by a torpedo from a German submarine in the waters

right near the entrance to the Dardanelles. Britain ended the first

year of naval warfare by destroying the German cruiser _Koenigsberg_,

which, since the fall of the year before, had been lying up the Rufiji

River in German East Africa, after having been chased thence by a

British cruiser. It was decided to destroy her in order that she might

not get by the sunken hulls that the British had placed at the mouth

of the river in order to "bottle her up." Consequently, on the morning

of July 4, 1915, after her position had been noted by an aviator, two

British river monitors, _Severn_ and _Mersey_, aided by a cruiser and

minor vessels, began to fire upon the stationary vessel. Their fire

was directed by the aviator who had discovered her, but it was at

first almost ineffective because she lay so well concealed by the

vegetation of the surrounding jungle. She answered their fire and

succeeded in damaging the _Mersey_, but after being bombarded for six

hours she was set on fire. When the British monitors had finished with

her she was a total wreck.

CHAPTER XXXI

STORY OF THE "EMDEN"

We now return to the exploits of the _Emden_, its mysterious

disappearance and the narrative of its heroes--a great epic of the

sea.

When in Volume III the story of the sinking of the German cruiser

_Emden_ was related, mention was made of the escape of the landing

party belonging to that ship from Cocos Island. This party consisted

of fifty men, headed by Captain Muecke, and from the time their ship

went down on November 9, 1914, until they reported for duty again at

Damascus, Syria, in May, 1915, they had a series of adventures as

thrilling as those encountered by the heroes in any of the Renaissance

epics.

Before the _Emden_ met the Australian cruiser _Sydney_, and had been

sunk by the latter, she had picked up three officers from German

steamers which she had met. This proved to be a piece of good fortune,

for extra officers were needed to board and command the prize crews of

captured vessels. The story of the raiding of the _Emden_ has already

been given; but here the story of the landing party is given as told

by Captain Muecke himself on May 10, 1915, at Damascus:

"On November 9, 1914," he said, "I left the _Emden_ in order to

destroy the wireless plant on Cocos Island. I had fifty men, four

machine guns, about thirty rifles. Just as we were about to destroy

the apparatus it reported, 'Careful; _Emden_ near.' The work of

destruction went smoothly. The wireless operators said: 'Thank God.

It's been like being under arrest day and night lately.' Presently the

_Emden_ signaled us, 'Hurry up.' I packed up, but simultaneously the

_Emden's_ siren wailed. I hurried to the bridge and saw the flag

'Anna' go up. That meant 'Weigh anchor.' We ran like mad to our boat,

but already the _Emden's_ pennant was up, the battle flag was raised,

and they began to fire from the starboard."

"The enemy," explained Captain Muecke, "was concealed by the island and

therefore not to be seen, but I saw the shells strike the water. To

follow and catch the _Emden_ was out of the question, as she was going

at twenty knots, and I only four with my steam pinnace. Therefore I

turned back to land, raised the flag, declared German laws of war in

force, seized all arms, set up my machine guns on shore in order to

guard against a hostile landing. Then I ran out again in order to

observe the fight. From the splash of the shells it looked as though

the enemy had 15-centimeter guns, bigger, therefore, than the

_Emden's_. He fired rapidly but poorly. It was the Australian cruiser

_Sydney_."

According to the account of the Englishmen who saw the first part of

the engagement from the shore, the _Emden_ was cut up rapidly. Her

forward smokestack lay across the deck, and was already burning

fiercely aft. Behind the mainmast several shells struck home.

"We saw the high flame," continued Captain Muecke, "whether circular

fighting or a running fight now followed, I don't know, because I

again had to look to my land defenses. Later, I looked on from the

roof of a house. Now the _Emden_ again stood out to sea about 4,000 to

5,000 yards, still burning. As she again turned toward the enemy, the

forward mast was shot away. On the enemy no outward damage was

apparent, but columns of smoke showed where shots had struck home.

Then the _Emden_ took a northerly course, likewise the enemy, and I

had to stand there helpless, gritting my teeth and thinking; 'Damn it;

the _Emden_ is burning and you aren't aboard!'"

[Illustration: The Cruise of the "Emden" Landing Party.]

Captain Muecke, in relating his thrilling adventure, then explained:

"The ships, still fighting, disappeared behind the horizon. I thought

that an unlucky outcome for the _Emden_ was possible, also a landing

by the enemy on the Keeling Island, at least for the purpose of

landing the wounded and taking on provisions. As there were other

ships in the neighborhood, according to the statements of the

Englishmen, I saw myself faced with the certainty of having soon to

surrender because of a lack of ammunition. But for no price did I and

my men want to get into English imprisonment. As I was thinking

about all this, the masts again appeared on the horizon, the _Emden_

steaming easterly, but very much slower. All at once the enemy, at

high speed, shot by, apparently quite close to the _Emden_. A high

white waterspout showed amidst the black smoke of the enemy. That was

a torpedo. I saw how the two opponents withdrew, the distance growing

greater and greater between them; how they separated, till they

disappeared in the darkness. The fight had lasted ten hours.

"I had made up my mind to leave the island as quickly as possible. The

_Emden_ was gone; the danger for us growing. In the harbor I had

noticed a three-master, the schooner _Ayesha_. Mr. Ross, the owner of

the ship and of the island, had warned me that the boat was leaky, but

I found it quite a seaworthy tub. Now provisions for eight weeks, and

water for four, were quickly taken on board. The Englishmen very

kindly showed us the best water and gave us clothing and utensils.

They declared this was their thanks for our 'moderation' and

'generosity.' Then they collected the autographs of our men,

photographed them and gave three cheers as our last boat put off. It

was evening, nearly dark, when we sailed away.

"The _Ayesha_ proved to be a really splendid boat. We had only one

sextant and two chronometers on board, but a chronometer journal was

lacking. Luckily I found an 'Old Indian Ocean Directory' of 1882 on

board; its information went back to the year 1780.

"I had said: 'We are going to East Africa.' Therefore I sailed at

first westward, then northward. There followed the monsoons, but then

also, long periods of dead calm. Only two neutral ports came seriously

under consideration; Batavia and Padang. At Keeling I had cautiously

asked about Tsing-tau, of which I had naturally thought first, and so

quite by chance I learned that it had fallen. Now I decided for

Padang, because I knew I would be more apt to meet the _Emden_ there,

also because there was a German consul there, because my schooner was

unknown there and because I hoped to find German ships there, and

learn some news. 'It'll take you six to eight days to reach Batavia' a

captain had told me at Keeling. Now we needed eighteen days to reach

Padang, the weather was so rottenly still."

The suffering of the crew of the _Emden_ on their perilous voyage is

here told in the captain's words: "We had an excellent cook aboard; he

had deserted from the French Foreign Legion. We had to go sparingly

with our water; each man received but three glasses daily. When it

rained, all possible receptacles were placed on deck and the main sail

was spread over the cabin roof to catch the rain.

"At length as we came in the neighborhood of Padang, on the 26th of

November, 1915, a ship appeared for the first time and looked for our

name. But the name had been painted over, because it was the former

English name. As I thought, 'You're rid of the fellow' the ship came

up again in the evening, and steamed within a hundred yards of us. I

sent all my men below deck, and I promenaded the deck as the solitary

skipper. Through Morse signals the stranger gave her identity. She

proved to be the Hollandish torpedo boat _Lynx_. I asked by signals,

'Why do you follow me?' No answer. The next morning I found myself in

Hollandish waters, so I raised pennant and war flag. Now the _Lynx_

came at top speed past us. As it passed I had my men line up on deck,

and gave a greeting. The greeting was answered. Then, before the

harbor at Padang, I went aboard the _Lynx_ in my well and carefully

preserved uniform and declared my intentions. The commandant opined

that I could run into the harbor, but whether I might come out again

was doubtful.

"Three German ships were in the harbor at Padang," continues Captain

Muecke. "The harbor authorities demanded the certification for pennant

and war flag, also papers to prove that I was the commander of this

warship. For that, I answered, I was only responsible to my superior

officer. Now they advised me most insistently to allow ourselves to be

interned peacefully. They said it wasn't at all pleasant in the

neighborhood. We'd fall into the hands of the Japanese or the English.

As a matter of fact, we again had great luck. On the day before a

Japanese warship had been cruising around here. Naturally, I rejected

all the well-meant and kindly advice, and did this in the presence of

my lieutenants. I demanded provisions, water, sails, tackle, and

clothing. They replied we could take on board everything which we had

formerly had on board, but nothing which would mean an increase in our

naval strength.

"First thing, I wanted to improve our wardrobe, for I had only one

sock, a pair of shoes, and one clean shirt, which had become rather

threadbare. My comrades had even less. But the master of the port

declined to let us have, not only charts, but also clothing and

toothbrushes, on the ground that these would be an increase in

armament. Nobody could come aboard, nobody could leave the ship

without permission. I requested that the consul be allowed to come

aboard. The consul, Herr Schild, as also did the brothers Baeumer, gave

us assistance in the friendliest fashion. From the German steamers

boats could come alongside and talk with us. Finally, we were allowed

to have German papers. They were, to be sure, from August only. From

then until March, 1915, we saw no papers.

"Hardly had we been towed out of the harbor again after twenty-four

hours, on the evening of the 28th of November, 1914, when a

searchlight flashed before us. I thought, 'Better interned than

prisoner.' I put out all lights and withdrew to the shelter of the

island. But they were Hollanders and didn't do anything to us. Then

for two weeks more we drifted around, lying still for days. The

weather was alternately still, rainy, and blowy. At length a ship, a

freighter, came in sight. It saw us and made a big curve around us. I

made everything hastily 'clear for battle.' Then one of our officers

recognized her for the _Choising_. She showed the German flag. I sent

up light rockets, although it was broad day, and went with all sails

set, that were still setable, toward her. The _Choising_ was a coaster

from Hongkong to Siam. She was at Singapore when the war broke out,

then went to Batavia, was chartered, loaded with coal for the enemy,

and had put into Padang in need, because the coal in the hold had

caught fire. There we had met her.

"Great was our joy now. I had all my men come on deck and line up for

review. The fellows hadn't a rag on. Thus, in nature's garb, we gave

three cheers for the German flag on the _Choising_. The men of the

Choising told us afterward 'We couldn't make out what that meant,

those stark-naked fellows all cheering.' The sea was too high, and we

had to wait two days before we could board the _Choising_ on December

16, 1914. We took very little with us; the schooner was taken in tow.

In the afternoon we sank the _Ayesha_ and were all very sad. The good

old _Ayesha_ had served us faithfully for six weeks. The log showed

that we had made 1,709 sea miles under sail since leaving Keeling. She

wasn't at all rotten and unseaworthy, as they had told me, but nice

and white and dry inside. I had grown fond of the boat, on which I

could practice my old sailing maneuvers. The only trouble was that the

sails would go to pieces every now and then, because they were so old.

"But anyway, she went down quite properly. We had bored a hole in her;

she filled slowly and then all of a sudden disappeared. That was the

saddest day of the whole month. We gave her three cheers, and my next

yacht at Kiel will be named _Ayesha_, that is sure.

"To the captain of the _Choising_ I had said, when I hailed him, 'I do

not know what will happen to the ship. The war situation may make it

necessary for me to strand it.' He did not want to undertake the

responsibility. I proposed that we work together, and I would take the

responsibility. Then we traveled together for three weeks, from Padang

to Hodeida. The _Choising_ was some ninety meters long, and had a

speed of nine miles, though sometimes only four. If she had not

accidentally arrived I had intended to cruise along the west coast of

Sumatra to the region of the northern monsoon. I came about six

degrees north, then over toward Aden to the Arabian coast. In the Red

Sea the northeastern monsoon, which here blows southeast, could bring

us to Djidda. I had heard in Padang that Turkey was still allied with

Germany, so we would be able to get safely through Arabia to Germany.

"I next waited for information through ships, but the _Choising_ did

not know anything definite, either. By way of the _Luchs_, the

_Koenigsberg_ and _Kormoran_ the reports were uncertain. Besides,

according to newspapers at Aden, the Arabs were said to have fought

with the English; therein there seemed to be offered an opportunity

near at hand to damage the enemy. I therefore sailed with the

_Choising_ in the direction of Aden. Lieutenant Cordts of the

_Choising_ had heard that the Arabian railway already went almost to

Hodeida, near the Perin Strait. The ship's surgeon there, Docounlang,

found confirmation of this in Meyer's Traveling Handbook. This railway

could not have been taken over by the Englishmen, who always dreamt of

it. By doing this they would have further and completely wrought up

the Mohammedans by making more difficult the journey to Mecca. Best of

all, we thought, 'We'll simply step into the express train and whizz

nicely away to the North Sea.' Certainly there would be safe

journeying homeward through Arabia. To be sure, we had maps of the Red

Sea; but it was the shortest way to the foe whether in Aden or in

Germany.

"On the 7th of January, 1915, between nine and ten o'clock in the

evening, we sneaked through the Strait of Perin. It lay swarming full

of Englishmen. We steered along the African coast, close past an

English cable layer. That was my greatest delight--how the Englishmen

will be vexed when they learn that we passed safely by Perin. On the

next evening we saw on the coast a few lights near the water. We

thought that must be the pier of Hodeida. But when we measured the

distance by night, three thousand meters, I began to think that must

be something else. At dawn I made out two masts and four smokestacks;

that was an enemy ship and, what is more, an armored French cruiser. I

therefore ordered the _Choising_ to put to sea, and to return at

night.

"The next day and night the same; then we put out four boats--these we

pulled to shore at sunrise under the eyes of the unsuspecting

Frenchmen. The sea reeds were thick. A few Arabs came close to us;

then there ensued a difficult negotiation with the Arabian coast

guards. For we did not even know whether Hodeida was in English or

French hands. We waved to them, laid aside our arms, and made signs to

them. The Arabs, gathering together, began to rub two fingers

together; that means 'We are friends.' We thought it meant 'We are

going to rub against you and are hostile.' I therefore said:

'Boom-boom' and pointed to the warship. At all events, I set up my

machine guns and made preparations for a skirmish. But, thank God, one

of the Arabs understood the word 'Germans'; that was good.

"Soon a hundred Arabs came and helped us and as we marched into

Hodeida the Turkish soldiers who had been called out against us

saluted us as Allies and friends. To be sure, there was not a trace of

a railway, but we were received very well and they assured us we could

get through by land. Therefore, I gave red-star signals at night,

telling the _Choising_ to sail away, since the enemy was near by.

Inquiries and deliberations concerning a safe journey by land

proceeded. I also heard that in the interior about six days' journey

away, there was healthy highland where our fever invalids could

recuperate. I therefore determined to journey next to Sana. On the

kaiser's birthday we held a great parade in common with the Turkish

troops--all this under the noses of the Frenchmen. On the same day we

marched away from Hodeida to the highland.

"Two months later we again put to sea. The time spent in the highland

of Sana passed in lengthy inquiries and discussions that finally

resulted in our foregoing the journey by land through Arabia, for

religious reasons. But the time was not altogether lost. The men who

were sick with malaria had, for most part, recuperated in the highland

air.

"The Turkish Government placed at our disposal two sambuks (sailing

ships), of about twenty-five tons, fifteen meters long and four wide.

But, in fear of English spies, we sailed from Jebaua, ten miles north

of Hodeida. That was on March 14, 1915. At first we sailed at a

considerable distance apart, so that we would not both be captured if

an English gunboat caught us. Therefore, we always had to sail in

coastal water. That is full of coral reefs, however."

Captain Muecke had charge of the first sambuk. Everything went well for

three days. On the third day the order was given for the sambuks to

keep near together because the pilot of the first one was sailing less

skillfully than the other. Suddenly, in the twilight the men in the

second sambuk felt a shock, then another, and a third. The water

poured into it rapidly. It had run upon the reef of a small island,

where the smaller sambuk had been able to pass on account of its

lighter draft. Soon the stranded boat began to list over, and the

twenty-eight men aboard had to sit on the gunwale.

"We could scarcely move," narrated Lieutenant Gerdts, who commanded

the stranded boat. "The other boat was nowhere in sight. Now it grew

dark. At this stage I began to build a raft of spars and old pieces of

wood that might keep us afloat. But soon the first boat came into

sight again. The commander turned about and sent over his little

canoe; in this and in our own canoe, in which two men could sit at

each trip, we first transferred the sick. Now the Arabs began to help

us. But just then the tropical helmet of our doctor suddenly appeared

above the water in which he was standing up to his ears. Thereupon the

Arabs withdrew: We were Christians, and they did not know that we were

friends. Now the other sambuk was so near that we could have swum to

it in half an hour, but the seas were too high. At each trip a good

swimmer trailed along, hanging to the painter of the canoe. When it

became altogether dark we could not see the boat any more, for over

there they were prevented by the wind from keeping any light burning.

My men asked: 'In what direction shall we swim?' I answered: 'Swim in

the direction of this or that star; that must be about the direction

of the boat.' Finally a torch flared up over there--one of the torches

that was still left from the _Emden_. But we had suffered considerably

through submersion. One sailor cried out: 'Oh, psha! It's all up with

us now, that's a searchlight.' About ten o'clock we were all safe

aboard, but one of our typhus patients wore himself out completely by

exertion and died a week later. On the next morning we went over again

to the wreck in order to seek the weapons that had fallen into the

water. You see, the Arabs dive so well; they fetched up a considerable

lot--both machine guns, all but ten of the rifles, though these were,

to be sure, all full of water. Later they frequently failed to go off

when they were used in firing.

"Now we numbered, together with the Arabs, seventy men on the little

boat. Then we anchored before Konfida and met Sami Bey. He had shown

himself useful, even before, in the service of the Turkish Government,

and had done good service as a guide in the last months of the

adventure. He procured for us a larger boat of fifty-four tons. We

sailed from the 20th of March, 1915, to the 24th, unmolested to Lith.

There Sami Bey announced that three English ships were cruising about

in order to intercept us. I therefore advised traveling a bit

overland. I disliked leaving the sea a second time, but it had to be

done."

Captain Muecke explained that Lith is nothing but desert, and therefore

it was very difficult to get up a caravan at once. They marched away

on March 28, 1915, with only a vague suspicion that the English might

have agents here also. They could travel only at night, and when they

slept or camped around a spring, there was only a tent for the sick

men. Two days' march from Jeddah, the Turkish Government having

received word about the crew, sent sixteen good camels.

"Suddenly, on the night of April 1, 1915, things became uneasy," said

Captain Muecke. "I was riding at the head of the column. All our

shooting implements were cleared for action, because there was danger

of an attack from Bedouins, whom the English had bribed. When it began

to grow a bit light I thought: 'We're through for to-day'; for we were

tired--had been riding eighteen hours. Suddenly I saw a line flash up

before me, and shots whizzed over our heads. Down from the camels! We

formed a fighting line. You know how quickly it becomes daylight

there. The whole space around the desert hillock was occupied. Now we

had to take up our guns. We rushed at the enemy. They fled, but

returned again, this time from all sides. Several of the gendarmes

that had been given to us as an escort were wounded; the machine-gun

operator fell, killed by a shot through the heart; another was

wounded. Lieutenant Schmidt was mortally wounded. He received a bullet

in the chest and another in the abdomen.

"Suddenly, they waved white cloths. The sheik, to whom a part of our

camels belonged, went over to them to negotiate, then Sami Bey and

his wife. In the interim we quickly built a sort of wagon barricade, a

circular camp of camel saddles, of rice and coffee sacks, all of which

we filled with sand. We had no shovels, and had to dig with our

bayonets, plates, and hands. The whole barricade had a diameter of

fifty meters. Behind it were dug trenches, which we deepened even

during the skirmish. The camels inside had to lie down, and thus

served very well as cover for the rear of the trenches. Then an inner

wall was constructed, behind which we carried the sick men. In the

very center we buried two jars of water, to guard us against thirst.

In addition we had ten petroleum cans full of water; all told, a

supply for four days. Late in the evening Sami's wife came back from

the futile negotiations, alone. She had unveiled for the first and

only time on this day of the skirmish, had distributed cartridges and

had acted faultlessly.

"Soon we were able to ascertain the number of the enemy. There were

about 300 men; we numbered fifty, with twenty-nine machine guns. In

the night Lieutenant Schmidt died. We had to dig his grave with our

hands and with our bayonets, and to eliminate every trace above it, in

order to protect the body. Rademacher had been buried immediately

after the skirmish with all honors.

"The wounded had a hard time of it. We had lost our medicine chest in

the wreck; we had only little packages of bandages for skirmishes; but

no probing instrument, no scissors, were at hand. On the next day our

men came up with thick tongues, feverish, and crying: 'Water, water!'

But each one received only a little cupful three times each day. If

our water supply became exhausted we would have to sally forth from

our camp and fight our way through. At night we always dragged out the

dead camels that had served as cover and had been shot.

"This continued about three days. On the third day there were new

negotiations. Now the Bedouins demanded arms no longer, but only

money. This time the negotiations took place across the camp wall.

When I declined the Bedouin said, 'Lots of fight.' I said, 'Please go

to it.'

"We had only a little ammunition left, and very little water. Now it

really looked as if we would soon be dispatched. The mood of the men

was pretty dismal. Suddenly, at about ten o'clock in the morning,

there bobbed up in the north two riders on camels, waving white

cloths. Soon afterward there appeared, coming from the same direction,

far back, a long row of camel troops, about a hundred; they drew

rapidly nearer, rode singing toward us, in a picturesque train. They

were the messengers and the troops of the Emir of Mecca.

"Sami Bey's wife, it developed, had in the course of the first

negotiations, dispatched an Arab boy to Jeddah. From that place the

governor had telegraphed to the emir. The latter at once sent camel

troops with his two sons and his personal surgeon; the elder,

Abdullah, conducted the negotiations, and the surgeon acted as

interpreter in French. Now things proceeded in one-two-three order,

and the whole Bedouin band speedily disappeared. From what I learned

later I know definitely that they had been corrupted with bribes by

the English. They knew when and where we would pass, and they had made

all preparations. Now our first act was a rush for water; then we

cleared up our camp, but had to harness our camels ourselves, for the

camel drivers had fled at the very beginning of the skirmish.

"Then, under the safe protection of Turkish troops, we got to Jeddah.

There the authorities and the populace received us very well. From

there we proceeded in nineteen days by sail boat to Elwesh, and under

abundant guard with the Suleiman Pasha, in a five-day caravan

journeyed to El Ula."

"Have I received the Iron Cross?" was the first question Captain Muecke

asked when he got to that place, and old newspapers which he found

there told him that he had. A few days later the party was on train,

riding toward Germany.

CHAPTER XXXII

SUMMARY OF THE FIRST YEAR OF NAVAL WARFARE

The first year of the war came to an end in August, 1915, with the

naval situation much the same as it stood at the end of the first six

months. The navy of practically every belligerent was intact; the

Allies enjoyed the freedom of the seas, but the fact that a German

fleet lay intact in the North Sea, and an Austrian fleet lay intact in

the Adriatic Sea, indicated only the naval supremacy of the Allies,

but not that they had won decisive naval victories.

As there had been no victory there had been no defeat, yet there had

been losses to all concerned. The mine and the submarine had changed

somewhat the methods of naval warfare--the enemies "nibbled" at their

opponents' fleets. Battleships were lost, though the first year of the

Great War had seen no pitched battle between ships of that class.

During the second six months of the war England lost the five old

battleships _Irresistible_, _Ocean_, _Goliath_, _Triumph_, and

_Majestic_; the destroyers _Recruit_ and _Maori_; and the submarine

_E-15_ and another unidentified; and the auxiliary cruisers _Clan

McNaughton_, _Bayano_, and _Princess Irene_. Her ally France had lost,

during the same period, the old battleship _Bouvet_, the cruiser _Leon

Gambetta_, the destroyer _Dague_, and the submarines _Joule_,

_Mariotte_, and one unidentified.

The losses on the other side were confined to the German navy, with

the exception of the Turkish cruiser _Medjidieh_. Germany lost the

battleship _Pommern_; the cruisers _Dresden_ and Koenigsberg; the

submarines _U-12_, _U-29_, _U-8_, one of the type of the _U-2_, and

another unidentified; two unidentified torpedo boats; and the

auxiliary cruisers _Prinz Eitel Friedrich_ (interned), _Holger_,

_Kronprinz Wilhelm_ (interned), and _Macedonia_. Also the destroyer

_G-196_, the mine layer _Albatross_, and the auxiliary cruiser

_Meteor_.

In retaliation for having her flag swept from the seas, Germany's

submarines, during the second six months of the war, had sunk a total

of 153 merchant ships, including those belonging to neutral countries

as well as to her enemies. The total tonnage of these was about

500,000 tons; 1,643 persons died in going down with these ships.

Not of the least importance were the precedents that were established,

or attempted to be established, by Germany in conducting naval warfare

with her submarine craft. In a note delivered to the United States

Government, the German Government declared that British merchant

vessels were not only armed and instructed to resist or even attack

submarines, but often disguised as to nationality. Under such

circumstances it was assumed to be impossible for a submarine

commander to conform to the established custom of visit and search.

Accordingly, vessels of neutral nations were urgently warned not to

enter the submarine war zone. The war zone which she proclaimed about

Great Britain had no precedent in history, and it immediately brought

to her door a number of controversies with neutrals, particularly the

United States. The sinking of liners carrying passengers claiming

citizenship in neutral countries was another precedent, which had the

same effect with regard to diplomatic exchanges.

Predictions that had been made long before the war came were found to

be worthless; there were those who had predicted that Germany in the

event of war with England would give immediate battle with her largest

ships; but twelve months went by without an actual battle between

superdreadnoughts. "Der Tag" had not come. There were those who had

predicted that the British navy would force the German ships out of

their protected harbors. "We shall dig the rats out of their holes,"

said Mr. Winston Churchill, British Secretary of State for the Navy in

the early months of the war. Mr. Churchill was removed from his

position, and twelve months passed by with the German ships still in

their "holes."

Certain lessons had been taught naval authorities of all nations

through the actual use of the modern battleship in war. The first

year showed that the largest ships must have very high speed and long

gun range. To some extent the fact that the fighting ships of nearly

all of the belligerent countries were thus equipped changed battle

tactics.

When the allied fleets had started their bombardment of the Turkish

forts at the Dardanelles they were breaking certain well-defined rules

which had been axiomatic with naval authorities. The greatest of

modern battleships were designed to fight with craft of their like,

but not to take issue with land fortifications. For weeks, while the

fleets succeeded in silencing for a time some of the Turkish forts, it

was thought that this rule no longer held good. But when, after March

19, 1915, the fleets ceased attempting to take the passage without

military cooperation, the worth of the rule was reestablished. The

ease with which the bombarding ships were made victims of hostile

submarines was greatly instrumental in making the rule again an axiom.

The naval supremacy of the allied powers brought them certain

advantages--advantages which they had without winning a decisive

victory. Germany and Austria were cut off from the Western Hemisphere,

and were troubled, in consequence, by shortage in food for their

civilian populations to a greater or lesser degree. This was perhaps a

negative benefit derived by the Allies from their naval supremacy; the

affirmative benefit was that their own communications with the Western

Hemisphere were maintained, enabling them not only to get food for

their civilian populations, but arms and munitions for their armies;

and even financial arrangements, which, if their emissaries could not

pass back and forth freely could not have been made, depended on their

control of the high seas.

They were able to keep the Channel clear of submarines long enough to

permit the passage of the troops, which England from time to time

during the first year of the war sent to the Continent, and permitted

the participation of the troops of the British overseas dominions, the

troops from Canada joining those in France, and the troops from New

Zealand and Australia taking their places in the trenches along the

Suez Canal and on the Gallipoli Peninsula. Thus, to a certain extent,

the advantage of continuous railroad communication which was enjoyed

by the Teutonic allies "inside" the arena of military operations was

offset by the naval communication maintained by the Entente Powers

"outside" the arena of military operations.

CHAPTER XXXIII

FIGHTS OF THE SUBMARINES

When, on the 5th of February, 1915, the German admiralty proclaimed a

"war zone" around the British Isles and announced that it would fight

the sea power of the Allies with submarines, a new era in naval

warfare had opened. In all previous wars, and in the earlier months of

the Great War, submarines were employed as auxiliaries to the larger

naval units. The Germans were the first to use them as separate units.

The idea of sending a fleet of submarines out on to the high seas was

a new one, and had been impossible in the last war in which they had

been used--that between Russia and Japan. But the improvements which

had been made in their design and equipment since then had made an

actual cruising submarine possible, and made possible the new phase of

naval warfare inaugurated by the German admiralty.

While Germany was the last great sea power to adopt the submarine as a

weapon, both England and Germany, in the years immediately preceding

the war, had spent the same amounts of money on this sort of

craft--about $18,000,000--but while the Germans had later given as

much attention to them as to any other sort of naval craft, the

British authorities did not figure on employing the submarine as a

separate offensive tactical unit being sufficiently equipped in large

ships carrying large guns. And being weaker in capital ships Germany

was compelled to rely upon underwater warfare in her campaign of

attrition. Not only were the naval authorities of the rest of the

world uninformed about the improvements that German submarines

carried, but they were fooled even as to the actual number which

Germany had built.

The most modern of the German submarines at the time had a length of

213 feet and a beam of twenty feet, these dimensions giving them

sufficient deck space to mount thereon two rapid-fire guns, one of 3.5

inches and another of 1.4 inches. Their displacement was 900 tons, and

they could make a speed of 18 knots when traveling "light" (above

water), and 12 knots when traveling submerged. These speeds made it

possible for them to overtake all but the fastest merchantmen, though

not fast enough to run away from destroyers, gunboats, and fast

cruisers. Their range of operation was 2,000 miles, and in the early

months of 1915, it was possible for Germany to send two or three of

them from their base in the North Sea to the Mediterranean. Germany

was at the same time experimenting with a larger type, with a

displacement of 1,200 tons and an operating distance of 5,000 miles.

The ordinary submarine in service at the beginning of the war could

remain below the surface for twenty-four hours at least. Reserve

amounts of air for breathing were carried in tanks under pressure, and

in the German type there were also chemical improvements for

regenerating air. Contrary to the opinion of laymen, submerging was

accomplished both by letting water into ballast tanks, and also by

properly deflecting a set of rudders; every submarine had two sets of

rudders, one of which worked in vertical planes and pointed the prow

of the ship either to the left or the right; the other pair worked in

horizontal planes and turned the prow either upward or downward. A

pair of fins on the sides of the hull assisted action in both rising

and diving. The action of water against the fins and rudders when the

ship was in motion was exactly the same as that of the air against the

planes of a kite; to submerge one of the craft it was necessary to

have it in motion and to have its horizontal rudders so placed that

the resistance of the water would drive the ship downward; the reverse

operation drove it upward. And here lay a danger, for if the engines

of a diving submarine stopped she was bound to come to the surface.

Her presence, while moving entirely submerged could be detected by a

peculiar swell which traveled on the water above; if submerged only so

much as to leave the tip of her periscope still showing, the latter

left an easily discernible wake.

The periscope was merely a tube in which there were arranged mirrors

so that anything reflected in the first mirror, the one above the

surface of the water, was again reflected till it showed in a mirror

at the bottom of the tube, within the hull of the vessel, where its

commander could observe it safely. A crew of about twenty-five men was

necessary to operate one of these crafts, and theirs was an unpleasant

duty, first because of the danger that accompanied each submergence of

their vessel; second because of the discomforts aboard. The explosive

engines which drove the craft, whether burning oil or the lighter

refinements such as gasoline, gave off gases that caused headaches and

throbbing across the forehead; and it was almost impossible to heat

the interior of the craft.

Though merchantmen had gone to the bottom as victims of German

submarines before the proclamation of a "war zone" was issued they

were individual cases; the first instance of a merchant ship being

sunk as a result of the new policy of the German admiralty was the

sinking of the British steamer _Cambark_ on the 20th of February,

1915. This ship was bound for Liverpool, from Huelva, Spain. While off

the north coast of Wales, on the morning of the 20th, the periscope of

a hostile submarine was sighted only 200 yards ahead. The engines of

the steamship were immediately reversed, but she had no time to make

off, for a torpedo caught her amidships and she started to sink

immediately. Her crew managed to get off in small boats, but all of

their personal belongings were lost.

The small Irish coasting steamer _Downshire_ was made a victim on the

21st of February, 1915, but instead of sending a torpedo into her

hull, the commander of the _U-12_, the submarine which overhauled her,

resorted to boarding. After trying to elude the submarine by steering

a zigzag course, the _Downshire_ was finally overtaken. The crew was

ordered to take to the small boats, while nineteen men of the

submarine, which had come above water, watched the operations from

the deck. A crew from the submarine took one of the small boats of the

steamship and rowed toward her. They placed a bomb in a vital spot and

set it off, sinking the merchantman. In this way the submarine's

commander had saved a torpedo. A conversation which took place between

the captains of the two craft revealed the methods by which the

submarine commanders were able, not only to steal up on their intended

victims, but to elude being sighted by the patrolling British

warships. Some fishing smacks had been in the vicinity while the

_Downshire_ was sunk, and the British captain asked the German captain

why they had not been attacked. The latter hinted that his plans

worked best if the fishing boats were unmolested. When asked whether

he had hidden behind one these little boats he changed the subject,

but it was learned later that the commanders of the submarines made a

practice of coming to the surface right near fishing boats and bade

them act as screens while they lay in wait for victims. By keeping the

small boats covered with a deck gun or by putting a boarding crew

aboard, it was possible for the commanders of the submarines to keep

their periscopes or the hulls of their vessels behind the sails of the

fishing boats, unobservable to lookouts on larger ships.

By the 23d of February, 1915, the success of German submarines had

been so marked that the insurance rates on merchantmen went up.

Lloyd's underwriters announced that the rate on transatlantic passage

had gone up nearly one per cent. And on the same day it was announced

that the British Government would thereafter regulate steamship

traffic in the Irish Sea. Certain areas of the Irish Sea were closed

to all kinds of traffic; lines of passage were defined and had to be

followed by all merchantmen, and vessels of all descriptions were

ordered to keep away from certain parts of the coast from sunset to

sunrise.

The comparatively small size of the submarines made it possible for

the German admiralty to load them on to trains in sections and

transport them where needed, and in this manner some were sent from

the German ports on the North Sea to Zeebrugge, there assembled and

launched. Others were sent to the Adriatic, arriving at Pola on the

25th of February, 1915. These were intended for use in the

Mediterranean as well as in the Adriatic Sea.

Neutral ships, in order to escape attack by German submarines had to

resort to unusual methods of self-identification. The use of flags

belonging to neutral countries by the merchantmen of belligerent

powers made the usual identification by colors almost impossible, the

German admiralty claiming that the commanders of submarines were

unable to wait long enough, after stopping a vessel, to ascertain

whether she had a right to fly one flag or another. Consequently the

ships belonging to Dutch and American lines had their names painted

with large lettering along their sides. At night, streamers of

electric lights were hung over the sides to illuminate these

letterings; and on the decks of many of the neutral ships their names

and nationalities were painted in large letters so that they might be

identified by aircraft. Owing to such precautions the Dutch steamship

_Prinzes Juliana_ escaped being sunk by a torpedo on the 3d of March,

1915. A submarine ran a parallel course to that followed by the Dutch

ship, but after examining the lettering on her sides the commander of

the German craft saw that she was not legitimate game and turned off.

Not always did the German submarines themselves succeed in escaping

unharmed in their raiding of allied merchantmen. Rewards were offered

in Great Britain for the sinking of German submersibles by the

commanders of British merchantmen. Instructions were issued in the

British shipping periodicals, showing how a submarine might be sunk by

being rammed. It was officially announced on the 5th of March, 1915,

by the British admiralty, that the _U-8_ had been rammed and sunk by a

British warship. The crew of twenty-nine was rescued and brought to

Dover. For the British this was a stroke of good fortune, for while

the _U-8_ was of an earlier type it was a dangerous craft, having a

total displacement of 300 tons, a radius of operation of 1,200 miles,

a speed of 13 knots when traveling "light" and a speed of 8 knots when

submerged. On the same day the French minister of marine announced

that a French warship had come upon a German submarine of the type of

the _U-2_ in the North Sea and that after firing at the hull of the

vessel and hitting it three times it was seen to sink and did not

reappear.

During the last week of February and the first week of March, 1915,

bad weather on the waters surrounding the British Isles hampered the

operations of German submarines to an extent which led the British

public to believe that the submarine warfare on merchantmen had been

abandoned, but they were disillusioned when on the 9th of March, 1915,

three British ships were sunk by the underwater craft. The steamship

_Tangistan_ was torpedoed off Scarborough, the _Blackwood_ off

Hastings and the _Princess Victoria_ near Liverpool. Part of this was

believed to be the work of the _U-16_.

In the three days beginning March 10, 1915, eight ships were made

victims of German submarines in the waters about the British Isles.

Most novel was the experience of a crowd gathered on the shore of one

of the Scilly Islands on March 12, 1915, when two of these eight

ships, the _Indian City_ and the _Headlands_, were torpedoed. At about

eight in the morning the islanders on St. Mary's Island saw a German

submarine overtake the former and sink her. The German vessel then

remained in the adjacent waters to watch for the approach of another

victim, while two patrol boats near by put out and opened fire on her.

The crowd saw the enemies exchange shots at a distance of ten miles

off shore. But neither side put in any effective shots, and the combat

ended when the submarine dived and retired.

The steamship _Headlands_ was then sighted by the commander of the

submarine and he immediately started to pursue her. The steamship

steered a zigzag course, but the submarine got in a position to launch

a torpedo, and at about half past ten in the morning the crowd on the

shore saw steam escaping from her in large quantities. Some time after

they saw a large volume of black smoke and debris fly upward and they

knew that another torpedo had found its mark. She then settled, her

crew and the men from the _Indian City_ reaching St. Mary's in small

boats.

To keep British harbors free from the German submarines the British

admiralty had to set their engineers to work to devise some method of

trapping the underwater craft automatically, for there seemed to be no

sort of patrol which they could not elude. Steel traps, not unlike the

gill nets used by fishermen, were finally hit upon as the best thing

to use against the submarines, and by March 13, 1915, a number of

these were installed at entrances to some of the British harbors. They

were made of malleable iron frames, ten feet square, used in sets of

threes, so arranged that they might hold a submarine by the sides and

have the third of the set buckle against its bottom. They were

suspended by buoys about thirty feet below the surface of the water.

When a submarine entered one of these it was held fast, for the frame

which came up from the bottom caught the propeller and made it

impossible for the submarine to work itself loose. The disadvantage to

the submarine was that, while traveling under water, it traveled

"blind"; the periscopes in use were good only for observation when the

top of them were above water; when submerged the commander of a

submarine had to steer by chart. By the end of March, 1915, a dozen

submarines had been caught in nets of this kind.

By the 18th of March, 1915, three more British ships had been made the

victims of German torpedoes. The _Atlanta_ was sunk off the west coast

of Ireland only a day before the _Fingal_ was sunk off Northumberland.

And the _Leeuwarden_ was sunk by being hit from the deck guns of a

German submarine off the coast of Holland. There was no loss of life

except during the sinking of the _Fingal_, some of whose men were

drowned when she dragged a lifeboat full of men down with her.

By way of variety the Germans attempted to sink a British ship in the

"war zone" with bombs dropped from an airship, the news of which was

brought to England by the crew and captain of the _Blonde_ when they

reached shore on March 18, 1915. This ship had been German originally,

but being in a British port when the war started was taken over and

run by a British crew. Two or three mornings before the men landed

they had noticed a Taube aeroplane circling over their ship at about

500 feet altitude. It then swept downward and took a close look at the

vessel. Two bombs which fell into the water near the ship, were

dropped by the German aviator. The captain of the _Blonde_ ordered

that the rudder of his ship be fastened so that she might drive in a

circle and her engines were set at full speed, with the intention of

making a more difficult target for the airship's bombs. The whistle of

the ship was set going and continued to blow in the hope of attracting

help from other ships. More bombs were near the vessel, but none of

them found its mark. After one more attempt, when only 300 feet above

the ship's deck, the aviator let go with his last supply, but again

being unsuccessful he veered off to the north and allowed the _Blonde_

to escape.

The naval attack on the Dardanelles is told in another chapter, but

the work of the Allies' submarines there included the use of French

submarines, which is not narrated elsewhere. On the 19th of March,

1915, Rear Admiral Guepratte of the French navy reported that one of

his submarines had attempted, without success, to run through the

Dardanelles. The object of the attempt was to sink the Turkish battle

cruiser _Sultan Selim_, formerly the _Goeben_. The submarine submerged

and got as far as Nagara. But she had to travel "blind" and her

captain, being unfamiliar with those waters, struck some rocks near

the shore and immediately brought her to the surface. She became a

target for the land guns of the Turks at once and was sunk, only a few

of her men, who were taken prisoners, escaping death.

On the 19th of March, 1915, the British admiralty reported that the

three British ships, _Hyndford_, _Bluejacket_, and _Glenartney_ had

been torpedoed in the "war zone" without warning, with the loss of

only one man. Beachy Head in the British Channel had been the scene of

most of the operations of German submarines against British ships, and

consequently, when on the 21st of March, 1915, the collier _Cairntorr_

was torpedoed in that region, no unusual comment was made by the

admiralty. Heretofore the scene of the latest attack had been thought

worthy of mention on account of the unusual and unexpected places that

submarines chose for action.

A new phase of the submarines' activities was opened on March 21,

1915, when two Dutch ships _Batavier V_ and _Zaanstroom_ were held up

and captured. The _U-28_ had for some days been hiding near the Maas

Lightship, and had been taking shots with torpedoes at every ship

which came within range. The _Batavier V_ had left the Hook of Holland

on March 18, 1915. At about five o'clock that morning she came near

the Maas Lightship on her way to England, whence she was carrying

provisions and a register of fifty-seven persons, including passengers

and crew; among the former there were a number of women and children.

Suddenly a submarine appeared off her port bow, and her captain was

ordered to stop his ship. This he did readily, for he had been thus

stopped before, only to be allowed to proceed. But this time the

commander of the submarine, the _U-28_, shouted to him through a

megaphone: "I am going to confiscate your ship and take it to

Zeebrugge."

While the two commanders were arguing over the illegality of this, the

_Zaanstroom_ was sighted, and was immediately overtaken by the

submarine. An officer and a sailor from the submarine had been placed

on the _Batavier V_, and this prevented her escaping while the pursuit

of the _Zaanstroom_ was on. A similar detail was now placed on the

latter, and her captain was ordered to follow the _U-28_ which

returned to the _Batavier V_. "Follow me to Zeebrugge" was the order

which the commander of the submarine gave the two ships, and their

captains obeyed. They arrived at Zeebrugge at noon, and were

immediately unloaded. Those of the passengers and crews who were

citizens of neutral countries were sent to Ghent and there released,

while all those aboard, such as Belgians and Frenchmen, were detained.

When possible, the commanders of the German submarines saved their

costly torpedoes and used shell fire instead to sink their victims.

This was done in the case of the steamship _Vosges_, which was sunk on

March 28, 1915. For two hours, while the engines of the steamship were

run at full speed in an attempt to get away from the submarine, she

was under fire from two deck guns on board the submersible. Though the

latter made off at the approach of another vessel, her shells did

enough damage to cause the _Vosges_ to sink a few hours later.

Up to the middle of March, 1915, all the ships which had become

victims of German submarines had been of the slower coasting variety.

There had been numerous unconfirmed reports that the faster

transatlantic ships had been chased, but no credence had been given to

them. On the 27th of March, 1915, however, when the _Arabic_ arrived

at Liverpool it was reported by those on board that she had given a

submarine a lively chase and had gotten away safely. At about nine

o'clock the evening before the submarine was sighted off Holyhead. She

was only 200 yards ahead, and while her commander jockeyed for a

position from which he could successfully launch a torpedo, the

commander of the _Arabic_ gave the order "Full speed ahead." His

passengers lined the rail of the ship to watch the maneuvers. Soon the

steamship had up a speed of 18 knots, which was a bit too fast for the

submarine, and she fell to the rearward. Her chance for launching a

torpedo was gone, but she brought her deck guns into action, firing

two shots which went wild. The _Arabic_ proceeded to port unmolested.

At times even the cost of shell fire was figured by the commanders of

German submarines, and pistol and rifles were used instead. This was

done in the case of the _Delmira_ on the 26th of March, 1915. This

steamship was sunk off Boulogne. Ten minutes were given by the crew of

the submarine to the crew of the steamship for them to get off. The

submarine had come up off the bow of the _Delmira_, and men standing

on the deck of the former had fired shots toward the bridge of the

latter to make her captain bring her to a stop. The latter ordered his

engines started again at full speed, with the intention of ramming the

enemy, but his Chinese stokers refused to obey the order, and his ship

did not move. The crew of the steamship got into their small boats,

and for an hour and a half these were towed by the submarine so that

their row to shore would not be so long. Though torpedoed, the

_Delmira_ did not sink, and was last seen in a burning condition off

the French coast near Cape de la Hogue.

The sinking of the steamship _Falaba_, which is mentioned, though not

narrated in full, in another chapter, was the last act of German

submarines during the month of March, 1915. This ship on the 29th of

March, 1915, was overtaken by a German submarine in St. George's

Channel. She was engaged in the African trade, voyaging between the

African ports and Liverpool. On her last journey she carried a crew of

90 men and some 160 passengers, many of the latter being women and

children. The commander of the submarine brought his craft to the

surface off the bow of the _Falaba_, and gave the captain of the

steamship five minutes in which to put his crew and passengers into

lifeboats. A torpedo was sent against her hull and found the engine

room, causing a tremendous explosion. One hundred and eleven persons

lost their lives because they had not been able to get off in time, or

because they were too near the liner when she went down. This was the

most important merchantman which had been sent to the bottom by a

submarine since the proclamation of February 15, 1915.

The next two victims of this sort of warfare were the steamships

_Flaminian_ and the _Crown of Castile_, one of which was sunk by the

_U-28_, and the other by an unidentified submarine on April 1, 1915.

They went down off the west coast of England with no loss of life,

though the _Crown of Castile_ was torpedoed before her crew could get

off. The _Flaminian_ had tried to get away, but had to stop under fire

from deck guns on the submarine. The shells did not hit her in vital

spots, however, and it was necessary to send a torpedo into her hull

to sink her.

The ease with which submarines had been able to bob up in unexpected

places and to sink British merchantmen, in spite of the patrols

maintained by British warships, caused the captains of merchant

vessels to petition the British Government to be allowed to arm their

vessels on April 1, 1915. This was not granted, because their being

armed would have made the steamship legitimate prey for the

submarines, nor was any attention paid to the demand made by the

British press that the crews and officers of captured German

submarines be treated, not as prisoners of war, but as pirates.

Reprisals on the part of the Germans was feared.

Beachy Head on the 1st of April, 1915, was again the scene of two

successful attacks on merchantmen by submarines. On that day the

French steamship _Emma_, after being torpedoed, went to the bottom

with all of the nineteen men in her crew. The same submarine sank the

British steamer _Seven Seas_, causing the deaths of eleven of her men.

In order to indicate the amount of harm which the submarine warfare

caused British shipping, the admiralty on April 1, 1915, announced

that though five merchantmen had been sent to the bottom and one had

been only partially damaged by submarines during the week ending March

31, 1915, some 1,559 vessels entered and sailed from British ports

during the same period.

Efforts were made to damage the base, from which many of the German

submarines had been putting out at Zeebrugge, with aircraft. On the

1st of April, 1915, the British Government's press bureau announced

that bombs had been dropped, with unknown success, on two German

submarines lying there, and that on the same day a British airman had

flown over Hoboken and had seen submarines in building there.

The steamship _Lockwood_, while off Start Point in Devonshire, was hit

abaft the engine room by a German torpedo on the morning of April 2,

1915, and though she went down almost immediately, her crew was able

to get off in small boats and were picked up by fishing trawlers.

The _U-28_, which had done such effective work for the Germans during

the month of March, 1915, was relieved of duty near the British Isles

during the first week of April by the _U-31_, which sank the Russian

bark _Hermes_ and the British steamship _Olivine_ off the coast of

Wales on April 5, 1915.

The British admiralty decided in April, 1915, to use some other means

besides the employment of torpedo boats and destroyers to keep watch

for German submarines, and innocent-looking fishing trawlers were used

for the purpose. While these could give no fight against a submarine,

it was intended that they would carefully make for land to report

after sighting one of the hostile craft. The Germans, discovering this

strategy, then began to sink trawlers when they found them. On the

morning of April 5, 1915, one of these small craft was sighted and

chased by the _U-20_. After a pursuit of an hour or more the German

ship was near enough for members of her crew to fire on the trawler

with rifles. Her crew got into the small boat and were picked up

later by a steamer. The trawler was sent to the bottom.

The _U-20_ still kept up her raiding. On the 5th of April, 1915, she

overtook the steamer _Northland_, a 2,000-ton ship, and torpedoed her

off Beachy Head. The crew of the steamer were able to escape, although

their ship went down only ten minutes after the submarine caught up

with it.

The use of nets to catch submarines was vindicated, when on the 6th of

April, 1915, one of these vessels became entangled in a steel net near

Dover and was held fast. The loss of the _U-29_, which was commanded

by the famous Otto von Weddigen, who commanded the _U-9_ when she sank

the _Hogue_, _Cressy_, and _Aboukir_ in September, 1914, was confirmed

by a report issued by the German admiralty on April 7, 1915, after

rumors of her loss had circulated throughout England and France for a

number of weeks.

In order to encourage resistance on the part of crews of British

vessels attacked by German submarines, the British Government rewarded

the crew of the steamship _Vosges_. It was announced on April 9, 1915,

that the captain had been given a commission as a lieutenant in the

Royal Naval Reserve and the Distinguished Service Cross; the remaining

officers were given gold watches, and the crew were given $15 per man.

Rumors had reached the outside world that the German submarines were

using hidden spots to store fuel and provisions so that they might go

about their raiding without having to return to German ports for

reprovisioning. Neutral nations, such as the Netherlands and Norway,

found it necessary, to maintain their neutrality, to keep watch for

such action. On the 9th of April, 1915, Norwegian airmen reported to

their Government that such a cache had been discovered by them behind

the cliffs in Bergen Bay. Submarines found there were ordered to

intern or to leave immediately, and chose to do the latter.

Certain acts of the commanders of German submarines seemed to make it

evident that their intention was to sink ships of every description,

no matter where found, in order to make the "war zone" a reality, and

to make it shunned by neutral as well as belligerent ships. Thus the

Dutch steamship _Katwyk_, which lay at anchor seven miles west of the

North Hinder Lightship off the Dutch coast, was sunk. This lightship

was maintained by the Netherlands Government and stood at the mouth of

the River Scheldt, forty-five miles northwest of Flushing. The

_Katwyk_ was stationary there on the night of April 14, 1915, when the

crew felt a great shock and saw that their ship was rapidly taking

water. They managed to reach the lightship in their lifeboats just as

their vessel sank. The same submarine sank the British steamer

_Ptarmigan_ only a few hours later.

Among victims flying the flags of neutral nations the next ship was of

American register. This was the tank steamship _Gulflight_, which was

torpedoed off the Scilly Islands on the 29th of May, 1915. The hole

made in her hull was not large enough to cause her to sink, and she

was able to get to port. But during the excitement of the attack her

captain died of heart failure and two of her crew jumped into the sea

and were drowned. Three days later the French steamship _Europe_ and

the British ship _Fulgent_ were sent to the bottom, probably by the

same submarine.

The month of May, 1915, had opened with greater activity on the part

of German submarines than had been shown for many weeks previous.

Between the 1st and the 3d of that month seven ships were torpedoed,

four of them being British, one Swedish, and two Norwegian. By the 5th

of May, 1915, ten British trawlers had been sunk; some of these were

armed for attack on either German submarines or torpedo boats.

CHAPTER XXXIV

SINKING OF THE "LUSITANIA"