Part 9

I express cordial thanks and kind good wishes to your Excellency and the State Ministry on the day on which, thirty years ago, I ascended the throne. When I celebrated my twenty-five-year jubilee as ruler I was able, with special gratitude, to point out that I had been able to do my work as a prince of peace. Since then the world picture has changed. For nearly four years, forced to it by our enemies, we have been engaged in the hardest struggle history records. God the Lord has laid a heavy burden upon my shoulders, but I carry it in the consciousness of our good right, with confidence in our ship, our sword, and our strength, and in the realization that I have the good fortune to stand at the head of the most capable people on earth. Just as our arms under strong leadership have proved themselves invincible, so also will the home land, exerting all its strength, bear with strong will the sufferings and privations which just now are keenly felt.

Thus, I have spent this day 'midst my armies, and it moved me to the depths of my heart, yet filled with the most profound gratitude to God's mercy.

I know that Prussian militarism, so much abused by our enemies, which my forefathers and I, in a spirit of dutifulness, loyalty, order, and obedience, have nurtured, has given Germany's sword and the German Nation strength to triumph, and that victory will bring a peace which will guarantee the German life.

It will then be my sacred duty, as well as that of the States, with all our power to see to healing the wounds caused by the war and to secure a happy future for the nation. In most faithful recognition of the work hitherto performed, I rely on your approved strength and the help of the State Ministry. God bless our land and people!

In an address at Main Headquarters on June 15 he said that the war was not a matter of strategic campaign, but a struggle of two world views wrestling with each other. "Either German principles of right, freedom, honor, and morality must be upheld," he added, "or Anglo-Saxon principles with their idolatry of mammon must be victorious."

The Anglo-Saxons, he asserted, aimed at making the peoples of the world work as slaves for the Anglo-Saxon ruling race, and such a matter could not be decided in days or weeks, or even in a year.

The Emperor emphasized the fact that from the first he had realized that the trials of war would be great. The first outbreak of enthusiasm had not deceived him. Great Britain's intervention had meant a world struggle, whether he desired it or not. He said he was thankful that Field Marshal von Hindenburg and General Ludendorff had been placed at his side as counselors. Drinking to the health of the army and its leaders, the Emperor said:

The German people and army indeed are now one and the same and look up to you with gratitude. Every man out there knows what he is fighting for, the enemy himself admits that, and in consequence we shall gain victory--the victory of the German standpoint. That is what is in question.

The Emperor referred to the period of peace, which he described as "twenty-six years of profitable but hard work, though they could not always be regarded as successful in a political respect and had brought disappointments."

His interests had been centred in the work connected with the development of the army and the effort to maintain it at the level at which it had been intrusted to him. Now, in time of war, he could not better celebrate the day than under the same roof with the Field Marshal and his faithful, highly gifted Generals and General Staff. The Emperor continued:

In peace time in the preparation of my army for war my grandfather's war comrades gradually passed away, and as the German horizon gradually darkened, many a German, and not the least I, hoped with assurance that God would in this danger place the right man at our side. Our hope has not been disappointed.

In your Excellency and in you, General Ludendorff, Heaven bestowed upon the German Empire and the German Army and staff men who are called upon in these great times to lead the German people in arms in its decisive struggle for existence and the right to live, and with its help to gain victory.

He sent the following telegram to the Crown Prince:

Under your leadership the armies of Generals von Boehm, von Below, and von Hutier have severely defeated the enemy and shattered the storm of his hurriedly brought-up army reserves. Eighty-five thousand prisoners and more than 1,000 guns are the outward signs of this tremendous battle success. To you and the participating commanders and troops I express my thanks and those of the Fatherland. The fighting spirit and fighting strength of my incomparable troops guarantee our final victory. God will further help.

Field Marshal von Hindenburg, in congratulating the Emperor on behalf of the army, extolled the Emperor's "wise care for peace" during the first twenty-six years of his reign and Germany's brilliant progress in all works of peace in that period. If the German Army and people had been able for nearly four years in the face of a world of enemies to show such proof of their strength and right to existence as never yet in history had been demanded and given in such measure, he added, they also owed this to their war lord, who had indefatigably watched over the fighting efficiency of his armies. The Field Marshal renewed the unswerving loyalty until death of Germany's sons at the front, and concluded:

"May our old motto, 'Forward with God for King and Fatherland, for Kaiser and Empire,' result in many years of peace being granted to your Majesty after our victorious return home."

Demoralization and Crime in Germany

Evidence that the war has brought a great increase of crime in Germany is forthcoming in many forms. At a conference held in Berlin early in 1918 to discuss "public insecurity" in all parts of Germany, it was stated that most of the burglaries and other crimes were committed during the nights between Friday and Monday. Statistics were given of the payments made by companies which issue insurance policies against burglary and theft. Payments on account of burglaries increased from $400,000 in 1914 to $1,100,000 in 1916, and to about $5,000,000 in 1917. Compensation for stolen goods to the amount of nearly $15,000,000 was paid by the Prussian railways in 1917, as compared with a total of only $1,050,000 in 1914.

Owing to the constant thefts of food in Berlin an official order has been issued that no wheat or flour is to be moved through the streets after dark. The theft of letters is becoming more and more common. One night nineteen letter-boxes in Charlottenburg were broken open, and the letters were destroyed after the postage stamps had been torn off. Owing to frequent thefts of letters at a small town named Mittenwalde, the Postmaster laid a trap for the thief, with the result that his own wife has been sent to prison for six months.

The U-Boat Raid in American Waters

Twenty Vessels, Mostly in the Coastwise Trade, Sunk Off the New Jersey and Virginia Coasts

One or more German submarines--the number was not definitely established--appeared off the coast of the United States on May 25, 1918, and began sinking merchant ships on a large scale. Up to June 20 more than twenty steamers and sailing vessels, mostly of American register, had been sent to the bottom.

This was the second visit of an armed German submarine to the American side of the Atlantic for hostile action. In October, 1916, before the United States entered the war, the U-53 held up coastwise traffic off Nantucket and sank four British, one Dutch, and one Norwegian ship. The U-53 had been preceded by the merchant submarine Deutschland, which arrived at Baltimore on July 9, 1916, from Bremen and returned with a cargo of nickel and rubber. The Deutschland made a second trip, arriving at New London, Conn., in October.

The appearance off the American coast of the unidentified submarine, or submarines, which made the raid on American and neutral shipping in May and June, 1918, was not altogether unexpected. For several weeks the American naval authorities had been searching for U-boats in home waters in consequence of a dispatch from the British Admiralty stating that two German submarines of the latest type, with a cruising capacity of 10,000 miles, had left the North Sea and were observed proceeding westward, probably in an attempt to cross the Atlantic.

The first information that German U-boats were conducting a transatlantic campaign was brought to New York City on June 4 by Captain Humphrey G. Newcombe and the ten members of the crew of the American four-masted schooner Edward H. Cole, which was sunk with bombs on the afternoon of June 2, fifty miles southeast of Barnegat, N. J. All were agreed that the U-boat was about 200 feet long, of more than 20 feet beam, and with 5 feet freeboard, that it carried a three-inch gun fore and aft, and a one-pounder quick-firer amidships, and that it had a speed of 17 knots. The mate of the Edward H. Cole told how he had noticed a submarine moving around the vessel at a high speed and believed that it was an American craft with Naval Reserve cadets on board, who were trying to have some fun with the sailors of the merchant ship.

"I thought," the mate continued, "that it would be a good idea to have a little fun with our skipper, who had turned in for a nap in his cabin, and I yelled down the skylight, 'Tumble up on deck lively, Cap! There's a big German submarine close astern, getting ready to attack us.' Then I took the marine glasses and looked through them at the stern of the U-boat, where her ensign was flapping limply against the short flagstaff. For a moment or two I could not make out her nationality, and then a gust of wind came and blew the ensign straight so that I could see that it was the German flag, and then I shouted in earnest to Captain Newcombe, 'It's no joke this time. By gosh, she is a German submarine!'"

The schooners Hattie Dunn and Edna were the first vessels sunk--on May 25. Their crews, as well as that of the schooner Hauppauge, which was sunk three days later, numbering twenty-three men, were taken on board the submarine and kept prisoner there for eight days. When the tank steamer Isabel Wiley was sunk, on June 2, the twenty-three prisoners were placed, with the crew of the Isabel Wiley, in the tanker's four boats and left to find their way to the shore. They were picked up by a coastwise steamer and brought safely back to land.

Captain Charles E. Holbrook of the Hattie Dunn, the first skipper to encounter the U-boat, thus described his experience:

We left New York for Charleston in ballast on May 23, and when, two days later, we were about fifteen miles south of Winter Quarter Lightship bowling along under an eight-knot breeze, I heard a shell pass near the vessel. Then another shell, which fell perhaps a quarter of a mile away. I was not taking much notice, because I believed the vessel which I saw about two miles away was an American submarine at target practice.

A third shell exploded close by us on the weather quarter, and I knew that, whoever it was, wanted us to stop. I brought the vessel up into the wind. The submarine, with her superstructure and conning tower showing plainly above the water, came within two hundred yards, and I saw that she was flying the two code letters "A B," meaning "stop immediately."

From a small staff at the rear end of the superstructure fluttered a small flag of the Imperial German Navy. An officer and three men came over in a small boat, not over twelve feet long. In perfect English the officer told us to get into our boats and that we had but ten minutes allotted to us to get clear of our vessel. They placed bombs along the sides of our vessel and blew her up immediately, in the meantime putting an armed German sailor on board the small boat in which were seven men and myself. This did not give me time to rescue my personal effects and nautical instruments. My men only saved what they stood in.

Perhaps I would have been given more time if the commander of the submarine had not seen the Hauppauge under full sail about four or five miles away. Like us the Hauppauge was light, and, I understand, was bound from Portland to Newport News. He destroyed Captain Sweeney's fine new schooner after ordering him and his crew to take to their boats, and within a half hour both crews were on board the submarine and both the small boats had been placed on the submarine's deck and lashed down.

ON BOARD THE U-BOAT

Captain C. M. Gilmore of the Edna said that when he was stopped by the U-boat an officer came aboard and told him he had ten minutes to abandon ship. During the week he was on board the submarine, Captain Gilmore said the Americans were treated with such extreme courtesy by the Germans that it was evident that the whole matter was being done under orders with the hope of having an effect on American public opinion. Captain Gilmore added:

The officers of the submarine included a spare Captain who was apparently on hand to take charge of any prize that might be worth while turning into a raider, the commander of the U-boat itself, and two others. These gave up their berths to me and the master of the Hattie Dunn, and the Germans of the crew gave up their bunks to the sailors and slept in hammocks themselves. The officers gave us wines, cordials, and fine cigars, and in general treated us with such marked hospitality that it seemed apparent that they were carrying out a course that had been laid upon them. The commander said that he had fuel and supplies for a month in American waters and intended to stay here for that time before going back.

The Carolina, a 5,000-ton passenger steamship belonging to the New York and Porto Rico Steamship Line, which was sunk at 6 P. M. on June 2, had on board the largest number of persons of any of the ships destroyed. Passengers and crew numbered 331. All escaped except seven out of the twenty-six who were put on board on a motor launch. The launch encountered a heavy storm and overturned. Christian Nelson, Chief Engineer of the Carolina, who was in charge of the launch, after a great effort managed to right it, but in the meanwhile seven persons had disappeared in the sea. With the aid principally of a young Porto Rican girl, who did not understand English, but who behaved very intelligently and bravely, Nelson kept the launch afloat, although it was waterlogged and the engine would not work. The launch was finally picked up by a British freighter, which took the survivors into Lewes, Del. The rest of the passengers and crew of the Carolina were picked up by other vessels and safely landed. Some of the survivors were more than twenty hours at sea in open boats.

LIST OF VESSELS SUNK

The complete list of ships attacked up to June 20 is as follows:

Jacob H. Haskell, schooner, 1,362 tons. Isabel B. Wiley, schooner, 611 tons. Hattie Dunn, schooner, 365 tons. Edward H. Cole, schooner, 1,791 tons, subsequently raised and saved. Herbert L. Pratt, tank steamer, 7,200 tons. Carolina, passenger steamer, 5,093 tons. Winneconne, freighter, 1,869 tons. Hauppauge, auxiliary schooner, 1,500 tons. Edna, schooner, 325 tons, subsequently towed in. Texel, steamship, 3,210 tons. Samuel M. Hathaway, schooner, 1,038 tons. Samuel C. Mengel, schooner, 700 tons, unconfirmed. Edward Baird, schooner, 279 tons. Eidsvold, Norwegian steamship, 1,570 tons. Harpathean, British steamship, 4,588 tons. Vinland, Norwegian steamship, 1,143 tons. Desauss, schooner, 500 tons. Pinar del Rio, steamship, 2,504 tons. Vindeggen, Norwegian steamship, 2,632 tons. Henrik Lund, Norwegian steamship, 4,322 tons. One seagoing and two coal barges, which struck mines.

All the ships mentioned were sunk except the Herbert L. Pratt and the Edna. Most of them were destroyed by bombs placed alongside after the crews had left. In some cases gunfire was used. The submarine also laid mines, which caused some damage. The commander of the submarine was reported as saying that he was saving his torpedoes for bigger ships. With the exception of the British and Norwegian vessels all were American. The raid extended along the coast from within a couple of hundred miles of New York southward as far as the entrance to Chesapeake Bay.

HUNTING THE RAIDER

As soon as the first news was received that a submarine campaign was being conducted off the American coast, prompt action was taken by the Navy Department. Destroyers, submarine chasers, and airplanes were sent out in large numbers to patrol the coast and search the neighboring waters, but the U-boat eluded detection. New York Harbor was temporarily closed, and, though there was no indication of the presence of hostile airplanes, the lighting of the city was for several nights diminished by darkening the main thoroughfares. There were rumors that the submarine either had a "mother ship" or was using a base on the Mexican coast. Marine insurance rates were not raised, but the officers of vessels in the coastwise trade were granted a bonus by the Shipping Board.

Other Submarine Activities of the Month

The British Admiralty's official statement of all losses of shipping during the month of April, 1918, shows that 220,709 tons of British and 84,393 tons of allied and neutral vessels, a total of 305,102 tons, were destroyed by submarines and lost by accident. The total for the preceding month was 381,631 tons. In April, 1917, the total losses amounted to 893,877. April, 1918, showed the lowest figures for any month since the beginning of 1917. Another satisfactory feature of the situation was that 40,000 tons more shipping was built by Great Britain and the United States than was lost during the month.

Georges Leygues, the French Minister of Marine, informed the Army and Navy War Committees of the Senate on May 25 that the means employed to rid the seas of submarines had become increasingly effective since January and had given decisive results. Tremendous strides had recently been made by the Allies in repairing ships damaged by torpedoes or mines. The Minister added that co-ordination between the allied nations had become so smooth during the past four months that the tonnage restored to the sea exceeded 500,000 weekly. Great Britain had repaired 598,000 tons in one week recently, while France had effected repairs upon 260,000 tons in one month. The increased building and more efficient and speedier repair work were constantly bringing better results in the transport of troops and supplies.

Twelve German submarines were sunk or captured in British waters by the American and British destroyers during the month of April, which was a record. This means that twelve U-boats were officially reported and recognized as sunk and that evidence, either a cap bearing the name of the submarine, a portion of the craft, or a live or dead German, was produced when each case was recorded.

In addition to this number, at least two other U-boats were destroyed during that period. One was sunk on April 8 in the North Sea while making an attack on a convoy to Holland. Another U-boat, making the total fourteen, was sunk on Friday, April 26, during the forenoon while attempting to attack a convoy of transports filled with American troops on the way to France. In the case of these two U-boats no débris or other direct evidence was recovered, and the British Admiralty accordingly withheld official recognition.

Senator Swanson of Virginia, a member of the Senate Naval Committee, made the statement on June 7 that the allied and American naval forces had destroyed 60 per cent. of all German submarines constructed. Senator Lodge of Massachusetts on June 15 said that since Jan. 1, 1918, the United States Navy had sunk twenty-eight German submarines.

The American troop transport President Lincoln, 18,168 gross tons, was sunk by a German submarine on May 31 while returning under convoy from Europe. The ship was struck simultaneously by three torpedoes and sank in eighteen minutes. Three other vessels were in company with her at the same time. The crew and passengers abandoned the ship in excellent order. All passengers, including the sick, were saved. One of the American destroyers which went to the rescue saved 500 persons, and another destroyer the remainder of the survivors. The number missing was twenty-seven, comprising four officers and twenty-three enlisted men. One of the officers was taken prisoner by the submarine.

The British armed mercantile troop-ship Moldavia, with American troops on board, was torpedoed and sunk on May 23. Of the American soldiers fifty-six were reported by the British Admiralty as "unaccounted for." The British transport Ausonia was torpedoed and sunk on May 26. Forty of the officers and crew were reported missing. The British transport Leasowe Castle was torpedoed and sunk by an enemy submarine May 26 in the Mediterranean. Thirteen military officers and seventy-nine of other ranks, and of the ship's company the Captain, two wireless operators, and six of other ratings were drowned.

Out of the Sleep of Death

Rescue of a Submarine Crew Imprisoned Fathoms Deep for Three Days

By an act which must stand among the most heroic in the records of the war, Commander Francis H. H. Goodhart sacrificed his life to save the crew of a British submarine, fast in the mud in thirty-eight feet of water. It was in the first week of May, 1918, that the commander's vessel found itself in this perilous plight. When the air supply of the imprisoned men was about exhausted, Goodhart entered the conning tower, giving instructions that he was to be blown upward in the hope of reaching the surface and bringing aid to the imperiled crew. As he entered the tower with the senior officer a small tin cylinder containing instructions for rescuers was fastened to his belt, and the commander's last words were: "If I don't get up, the cylinder will."

Air at high pressure had been forced into the conning tower, and the lid was opened. Taking a deep breath, Commander Goodhart was shot upward, but he struck a portion of the superstructure and was killed.

The senior officer, who had intended to remain in the submarine, was forced from the tower by the air pressure and reached the surface safely. The remainder of the crew was rescued soon afterward. A posthumous reward of the Albert Medal for gallantry in saving life at sea was conferred on Commander Goodhart.

The sufferings of the crew were thus described by one of the rescued sailors in a letter to The London Telegraph:

When the first night of imprisonment passed, and it appeared from our watches--we had artificial light enough to see the time--that the dawn of a new day had come with no sign of release, some of the company threatened to chuck hope. But others of us put as bright a face on a black outlook as we could, and gave them such cheer as a waterless and breadless situation would allow. Of course, too, we had to remember that our air supply was running out.