(_Photo from Central News._)]
[Illustration: H.I.M. FRANCIS JOSEPH I.
Latest Portrait of the Venerable Sovereign of the Austro-Hungarian
Empire
(_Photo from Bain._)]
A submarine like the U-38, which sank the Armenian, carrying one or
more outside guns, capable of discharging various kinds of shell, from
blank shots to shrapnel, represents an important evolution in the
development of marine warfare. Such a craft has the equipment to
enable her to visit and search a passing merchantman, and to provide
for the safe removal of officers, crew or passengers from a challenged
steamer, before the destruction of the vessel. It is only necessary
for such a submarine to fire her torpedoes as a last resort for the
destruction of the steamer. With her exterior guns a submarine like
the U-38, upon meeting a merchant vessel, may fire one or more warning
shots, as Captain Trickey of the Armenian says the U-38 did.[1] The
raider, he said, fired two warning shots, and when he turned away from
her and put on speed, the submarine's guns opened fire on him with
shrapnel.
[Footnote 1: Captain Trickey, describing the destruction of his
vessel, through which several Americans lost their lives, said on July
1 in Liverpool:
"We sighted the submarine about 6.48 o'clock Monday night, June 28,
when we were about twenty miles west of Trevose Head, on the northwest
coast of Cornwall. We were then about four miles away. She drew
closer. She fired two shots across our bows. I then turned my stern to
her and ran for all I was worth. The submarine shelled us all the
time, killing several of the crew and cutting away several of our
boats. The boats had already been swung out, and some of the men had
taken up positions in them ready for the order to lower away. In some
cases the falls were cut by shrapnel, and several of the men fell into
the sea.
"A stern chase ensued, lasting for about an hour, the German shelling
us unceasingly. My steering gear was cut and knocked out of order. One
shell came through the engine-room skylight, and another knocked the
Marconi house away. Still another shell went down the funnel,
disabling the stokehole and making it impossible to keep up a full
head of steam. Thirteen of my crew were lying dead on the deck, and
the ship was on fire in three places. Then I decided to surrender. It
was the only thing I could do. By this time the submarine had
decreased the distance between us to about a mile.
"From the moment we surrendered the Germans acted fairly toward us and
gave us ample time to get out of the ship. They even rescued some of
the men--three, I think--who had previously fallen from the boats and
were still afloat aided by their lifebelts. When we had got away from
the ship the submarine fired two torpedoes into her and she sank at
8.07 o'clock. We remained in the boats all night and were picked up
the next morning by the Belgian steam trawler President Stevens."]