At least one shot was aimed directly at the tower of a Coast Guard
station. It missed by a small margin and landed in a marsh, according
to the description given me by a former Coast Guardsman who was
standing the tower watch at the time. The three barges were sunk. The
Perth Amboy, while badly burned, was subsequently towed in for repairs,
and she may even be in service today.
A Cape Cod man, strange as it may seem, was skipper of the Perth
Amboy--Capt. Joe Perry hailed from Provincetown. Another Provincetown
man, Henry J. James, son of a fishing captain in that old port at the
tip-end of the Cape, was moved to write a significant book after the
Orleans attack.
Of interest even today, this book--“German Subs in Yankee Waters”--came
out not long before Pearl Harbor, though James (when I last heard from
him he was superintendent of schools in Simsbury, Connecticut) had
negotiated with publishers for a long time to get it into print.
Many American developments for defense in the present war coincide
with suggestions made by James--small, fast boats for coastal defense,
beam-trawlers for minesweeping, the registering of all small craft for
coastal protection and other aids lacking in the last war.
The Cape Cod attack and its implications made a strong impression upon
James in his youth; this spurred him on to devote many years of patient
research to complete his book.
He relates that in 1918, during the final action of the last war,
Germany had six U-boats operating in our waters and these alone sank 91
ships and took a toll of 368 lives. All this happened within a brief
six months.
These half-dozen underseas boats operating along the Atlantic
shore--3400 miles from their base at Kiel, Germany--all got away
safely after their destructive work. All but one--this struck a mine in
the North Sea, not far from Kiel--got back to the home base.