Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
file which includes the original illustration.
See 45922-h.htm or 45922-h.zip:
(https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/45922/pg45922-images.html)
or
(https://www.gutenberg.org/files/45922/45922-h.zip)
Images of the original pages are available through
Internet Archive. See
https://archive.org/details/voyageofdeutschl00knrich
Transcriber's note:
Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_).
Text enclosed by equal signs is in bold face (=bold=).
THE VOYAGE OF THE "DEUTSCHLAND"
_This translation is published
under the licence
of The Board of Trade._
[Illustration: CAPTAIN PAUL KÖNIG,
Commander of the Submarine Merchantman _Deutschland_.]
THE VOYAGE OF THE "DEUTSCHLAND"
by
PAUL KÖNIG
Captain of the Submarine Merchantman "Deutschland"
Translated by Vivien Ellis
London
C. Arthur Pearson Ltd.
Henrietta Street
1917
CONTENTS
PAGE
INTRODUCTION 7
CHAPTER I
HOW WE CAME TO JOIN THE "DEUTSCHLAND" AND
WHAT I THOUGHT OF HER 9
CHAPTER II
THE TRIAL AND DEPARTURE 15
CHAPTER III
THE FIRST DAY AT SEA 20
CHAPTER IV
THE U-BOAT TRAP 28
CHAPTER V
A SOMERSAULT IN THE NORTH SEA 35
CHAPTER VI
OUT INTO THE OPEN 42
CHAPTER VII
IN THE ATLANTIC 48
CHAPTER VIII
THE INFERNO 63
CHAPTER IX
AMERICA 68
CHAPTER X
BALTIMORE 75
CHAPTER XI
THE DEPARTURE FROM BALTIMORE 86
CHAPTER XII
RUNNING THE BLOCKADE 96
CHAPTER XIII
THE HOMEWARD JOURNEY 100
CHAPTER XIV
THE ARRIVAL 110
CHAPTER XV
THE RECEPTION OF THE "DEUTSCHLAND" BY THE
GERMAN PEOPLE 114
INTRODUCTION
The voyage of the submarine merchantman "Deutschland" has, for a long
time past, been the subject of eager speculation among the nations of
the Old and New worlds.
The wildest rumours regarding the fate of our cruise have appeared in
the newspapers, to say nothing of the pretty imaginative stories in
which the English have announced again and again that we were stranded
or sunk, or, still worse, dispatched to America in bales of cargo.
How often we chuckled on board when our wireless operator picked up one
of these nice English wild goose stories from the air!
It is with all the greater pleasure, therefore, that I am now about to
start on this account of our fairy-like cruise and adventures. Not that
it was such a "fairy-like" business after all. It could hardly be that,
for we went as far out of the way of adventure as possible.
Readers must not therefore expect to find in this little book a series
of thrilling experiences such as are to be met with in the published
narratives of the voyages of battleships. Our task was to bring our
valuable cargo to America as smoothly and with as few incidents as
possible; to get the better of the English blockade, and to return
safely with an equally valuable cargo. This we succeeded in doing, as
the following account will show. But as events will prove, things did
not by any means always work as smoothly as they might have done, and if
at times we were in a pretty tight corner and much occurred that was not
on our programme, my readers must thank the amiable activities of the
English for all these exciting little incidents.
In spite of such things, however, our enemies were not able to hinder
our voyage, though they certainly helped very materially in making it
more varied and interesting, and it would be ingratitude on our part not
to acknowledge this.
And here I must specially thank my two officers of the watch, Krapohl
and Eyring, whose notes have helped to make this account complete. It
is impossible for a commander to be always on the conning-tower--I had
almost said the "bridge" from force of habit--and six eyes see further
than two. For it must be remembered that careful observation is
necessary, above everything, on a submarine.
Indeed, a great number of the incidents related here came to my
knowledge through the observations of my officers. Throughout the cruise
they proved true and unflagging companions, and to-day they have also
become fellow-workers with me in writing this account of the voyage.
My thanks are due to them, even more than to the English, and I trust my
readers' gratitude will likewise be extended to them when they have read
this book.
THE AUTHOR.
THE VOYAGE OF THE "DEUTSCHLAND"
CHAPTER I
HOW WE CAME TO JOIN THE "DEUTSCHLAND" AND WHAT I THOUGHT OF HER
How did we come to join the "Deutschland"?
That is a long story which I shall leave the authorities to relate. The
most important part of it, however, will be found related at the end of
this book in the account given of our reception at the Bremen Town Hall
after the return of the "Deutschland" from the United States.
To me, the idea of a submarine merchantman that has been built for long
voyages is the tangible expression of the will of the German people to
frustrate the effects of the English blockade of the coasts of Germany
and America, and of the entire cutting off of our lawful commercial
imports.
The Hanseatic enterprise, the technical ingenuity of German shipbuilding
and the workmanlike activities of one of our greatest dockyards, have
united in giving English domination on the sea the biggest blow it has
ever had since the Union Jack fluttered over the waves.
At the same time we must not to-day overlook the changes and
developments that are bound to follow in the construction and use of
submarine merchantmen. Thus it is possible that the methods of sea
warfare will be entirely revolutionised, that new conceptions and
conditions of international law will be created, and that changes in the
commercial relations of the world will follow which may influence the
lives of peoples even more strongly than the present world-war is doing.
We may be proud of the fact that it is a German boat that has ushered in
this new epoch.
Our achievement is not to be minimised by the fact that Canadian
warships have crossed the Atlantic before us during this war. For they
travelled in company, always changing, and accompanied by torpedo-boats,
cruisers and auxiliaries. They contained only provisions and ammunition,
and except for their armament had no dead weight to carry. But their
greatest advantage was that they could defend themselves if necessary,
whereas the only defence of the submarine merchant-trader lies in
submerging. And that is not everywhere possible with a huge, heavy ship
of nearly 2000 tons.
Well, I found myself faced with the problem of taking the "Deutschland"
to America--an entirely novel and wonderful task. It would have been a
new one to me, moreover, if I had not been as I was, an old North German
Lloyd captain of a large clumsy steamboat, but a young U-Boat commander.
But to explain this I must first relate how I came across the
"Deutschland." Events moved with surprising rapidity in connection with
it. In the middle of October, 1915, I was in Berlin on business. I had
then been obliged to leave my bonny steamer "Schleswig" for some
time, but the North German Lloyd Company were well acquainted with my
whereabouts.
One evening, whilst I was at my hotel, I received a communication, with
an urgent invitation to visit Herr Lohmann in Bremen at the Hotel Adlon
at the earliest possible moment.
I was surprised. I knew the name of the head of the famous Bremen firm
very well, and had been personally acquainted at one time with Herr
Lohmann in Sydney, where his firm had been agents for the North German
Lloyd Company.
But what did Herr Lohmann want of me, now in these days of war when the
"German merchant fleet had been swept from off the seas," as one
read daily in the English newspapers? At that time it would have been
exceedingly difficult to undertake the management of a German line to
the Straits and Australia! And in the Baltic Sea the firm had no trade
connections.
What, then, did they want with an old East Asia, America, and
Mediterranean captain? Thus I ruminated as I made my way to the Hotel
Adlon.
Herr Lohmann received me cordially and did not hold me long in suspense.
He alluded to the fine old days in Sydney, asked me how I liked hanging
about on dry land, and if I would care again to undertake a long voyage.
What could an old merchant captain say to this, a man who had been
practically obliged to leave his ship in an enemy country, and lie about
like a wreck on land, while on the other side of the Channel and off the
Shetlands the cursed English cruisers lay in wait, and four miles from
New York even the American post on neutral ships was overhauled?
I shrugged my shoulders and was silent.
Then it all came out.
Herr Lohmann told me straight away that he was thinking of starting a
line of submarine traders to America, and asked me if I would be willing
to take command of the first boat. He explained that the first voyage
was to be to Newport-News, and asked me, as I had a knowledge through
my voyages on the Baltimore line of the North German Lloyd ships, of the
waters and depth conditions outside Chesapeake Bay, whether I thought
I should be equal to taking such a submarine trader safely across the
Atlantic, if the matter really came off.
It was a great plan.
I was never one for weighing pros and cons, and so I said "Yes" straight
away. This was indeed a chance for a fellow of over forty-five years, in
this war of "black lists" and daily postal robberies, to do something!
"Herr Lohmann," I said, "if the matter really comes off, you can count
on me."
And the matter really did "come off."
Barely two months had elapsed when a telegram called me to Bremen for an
important discussion. There I saw designs, sketches, and constructional
drawings enough to make me open my eyes wide. And when, four months
later, during which time I had been by no means idle, I travelled to
Kiel, there rose before my eyes on the slips a strange steel object.
Trim, comfortable-looking, and quite harmless she lay there, but
nevertheless, hidden in its interior, was the realisation of all those
detailed, overwhelmingly complicated figures and plans.
I cannot say that the completed reality even then helped to make more
intelligible those blue papers with their endless network of strokes and
lines, which had so dismayed and bewildered the mind and eye.
Any of my readers who have ever seen in illustrated papers sketches of
the control-room or of the conning-tower of a U-Boat will understand
this. Indeed, when they are face to face with such a wild medley of
rudders, valves, screws, cocks, tubes and pipes, with such a bewildering
conglomeration of levers and apparatus, each of which has a highly
important meaning and purpose, let them take comfort. My impressions
were just the same.
But when this tube-like monster was christened, and her giant grey-green
body slipped majestically and silently into the water, she was suddenly
transformed into a seafaring vessel, a vessel that swam in her rightful
element, as if she had always done so. The first time I trod her
narrow deck and climbed into the conning-tower and on to the navigation
platform, it was only from her sides, where the green body swelled
massively out of the water, that it was possible even faintly to realise
how enormous her hull must be.
With proud delight my eyes travelled over the whole structure, as it
swayed lightly beneath me, delicacy and strength symbolically blended.
Now I knew that what had hitherto appeared to me as a monstrous product
of technical imagination, was a ship, in which I could travel the
seas--a real ship--on which an old seaman could set his affections.
Then I laid my hand on the parapet of the conning tower of the
"Deutschland" and swore to be true to her.
And in this manner I struck the "Deutschland" and became commander of
the first submarine merchant-trader.