W., or about 300 miles off the Maryland coast. That the submarine was proceeding westward into the waters of the fourth naval district was indicated by information received on May 20 from the master of the J. C. Donnell, who, upon his arrival at Lewes, Del., on that day, reported that his ship's radio had intercepted a message from the American steamship Jonancy, 3,289 gross tons, on May 19, saying that she was being gunned and giving her position as 150 miles east of Winter Quarter Shoals. On May 21, at 11.15 a. m., the Canadian steamer Montcalm relayed a message to Cape May radio station from the British steamship Crenella, 7,082 gross tons, stating that a submarine
had been sighted in latitude 37° 50' N., longitude 73° 50' W., a point about 80 miles off the Maryland coast. Six shots were fired at the Crenella by the submarine, but no hits were registered. At
1 p. m. on the same day the Montcalm reported that the Crenella had escaped.
The information that merchant vessels had reported a German submarine proceeding toward the coast was immediately disseminated to the section bases, to the forces afloat, and to the commanders of the coast defenses. In addition to the regular patrols, detachments of sub-chasers were established and ordered, whenever practicable, to proceed to the positions given in S O S messages.
Subsequent information indicated that as the submarine approached the American coast she picked as her prey sailing vessels not likely to have means of communication by radio, and in attempting further to conceal her presence in the vicinity took as prisoners the crews of the first three vessels she attacked, the Hattie Dunn, the Hauppauge, and the Edna.
On May 26, 1918, the Edna, an unarmed American schooner of 325 gross tons, owned by C. A. Small, Machias, Me., was found abandoned near Winter Quarter Shoals Lightship. She was taken in tow by the Clyde'Line steamer Mohawk. The schooner's towing bitts carried away and she was abandoned by the Mohawk; later she was picked up by the tug Arabian and towed to Philadelphia, arriving May 29. An investigation made by the aide for information, fourth naval district,
disclosed the presence of two holes, 20 to 30 inches in diameter, in the vessel's hold just above the turn of the bilge, evidencing an external explosion.6 A time fuse was found, the extreme end of which had been shattered by an explosion. Thus, the naval authorities
received the first visual evidence of the work of an enemy raider off the coast.
In interviews with the survivors of the Edna, who had been held as prisoners aboard the submarine until June 2, it was learned that the damage to the Edna had been inflicted by the enemy in an attempt to sink her, and that the vessels, Hattie Dunn and Hauppauge, had
6 See the story of Capt. Gilmore, of the Edna, p. 27.
25
THE CRUISE OF THE U-151.
been sunk earlier on the same day, May 25. At the same time definite information was gained concerning the identity and military characteristics of the submersible. Although there were no identifying
marks, letters, or numbers on the hull, M. H. Sanders, mate of the Hauppauge, stated that he saw the letter and figures "U-151" at the foot of several bunks and on the blankets aboard the submarine;
T. L. Winsborg saw the letter and figures on the hammocks and on the machine guns; other survivors noticed that tools, furniture, and equipment were similarly marked. These facts, together with a comparison of the photograph of the submarine known to have sunk the first ships, with photographs and silhouettes of submarines obtained from official sources, proved conclusively that the raider operating off the American coast was the U-151 of the DeutscMand type. The description of the submarine as given by Capt. Gilmore of the Edna and Mate Sanders of the schooner Hauppauge, and by other survivors, was most complete. This description, together with the information gained from official sources, furnished the basis for the dissemination, on June 7, to all naval forces of the following data concerning the U-151:
Identity, U-151, DeutscMand type of converted mercantile submarine, complement; 8 officers and 65 enlisted men; length, 213 feet 3 inches; breadth, 29 feet 2 inches; surface
draft, 14 feet 9 inches; displacement (surface), 1,700 tons; displacement (submerged),
2,100 tons; engine, 1,200 H. P.; speed (surface), 11* knots; speed (submerged), 8 knots; fuel storage, 250 tons, including storage of ballast tank; endurance (surface), 17,000 miles at 6 knots; endurance (submerged), 50 miles at 7 knots; armament, two 6-inch guns, two 22-pounders, one machine gun, six torpedo tubes—four in bow and two in stern; ammunition capacity, 400 rounds per each gun; maximum number torpedoes, 12; many time fuse bombs; equipped to carry and lay 40 mines; a two-kilowatt wireless set, and a portable set which could be rigged up in a few hours on a captured merchant vessel to be used as a decoy or as a mother ship. Submarines "TJ-converted mercantile type" are especially fitted with submarine cable-cutting devices.
That the U-151 carried a cable-cutting device is apparently borne out by the statements of Capt. Sweeney, of the Hauppauge, and of Capt. Holbrook, of the Hattie Dunn, describing a mysterious device on the deck of the submarine. Along the center line of the ship's deck, fore and aft, there were two stanchions about 70 feet apart, around each of which a coil of 48 turns of f-inch wire rope was taken. On one end of this rope, which was covered only with a coat of heavy grease, there was an eye splice, and at the other end there was a cable attached to some instruments and appliances hidden and carried in sets abreast of and on each side of the conning tower. Capt. Holbrook
stated that on one occasion when the prisoners were below deck they noticed that the submarine gave a sudden lurch and listed on beam end. He was unable to state the cause of the lurch. As far as he could make out, the submarine was at the time, May 28,
2 6 GERMAN SUBMARINE ACTIVITIES ON ATLANTIC COAST.
off New York Harbor. It is possible that this lurch may have been caused by the submarine's grappling with or cutting cables leading from New York. As a matter of fact, one cable to Europe and one to Central America were cut 60 miles southeast of Sandy Hook, on May 28, 1918. This device had disappeared when the prisoners came on deck on the morning of May 30.
The statements of survivors also furnished details concerning the procedure and the methods employed by the TJ—151 in her attack upon vessels. The first sinking by the U-151 off the American coast occurred when the Hattie Dunn, an unarmed American schooner of 435 gross tons, was attacked off Winter Quarter Shoals at 10.10
a. m. on May 25. Capt. C. E. Holbrook, master of the Hattie Dunn, tells the following story:
The Hattie Dunn sailed from New York on May 23, 1918, en route for Charleston,
S. C, in ballast. On Saturday, May 25, about 10.10 a. m., when about 15 to 25 miles off Winter Quarter Lightship, I heard a cannon go off; I looked and saw a boat, but thought it was an American. That boat fired once; I started my ship full speed to the westward. He fired again, and finally came alongside and said:
"Do you want me to kill you?"
I told him I thought his was an American boat. He told me to give him the papers, and get some foodstuff. He then wanted me to get into his small boat, but I was anxious to get ashore, so I immediately got into one of my own boats and shoved off. He halted me because he did not want me to get ashore. He then put a man into my boat so that I would come back to the submarine. An officer and other men from the German submarine then boarded the schooner and after placing bombs about her ordered the crew of the Hattie Dunn to row to the submarine, which we did. The schooner was sent to the bottom by the explosion of the bombs in latitude 37° 24' N., longitude 75° 05' W. The second officer in command aboard the submarine gave me a receipt for my ship.
There were no casualities. The weather was fine and clear, the sea was calm.
We kept aboard the submarine until the morning of June 2. While we were aboard, the second officer and others of the submarine crew wrote some letters and gave them to me to mail. I told them I would not mail the letters if there was anything in them detrimental to my country. I handed them to the first naval officer I came to.
A few minutes later the U-151 made another attack in the same vicinity, which culminated in the sinking of the Hauppauge, an unarmed
American schooner of 1,446 gross tons, owned and operated by
R. Lawrence Smith, New York. Capt. Sweeney, master of the Hauppauge, gave the following information:
We left Portland, Me., on Friday, May 17, 1918, en route for Norfolk, Va., in ballast. The voyage was uneventful until the morning of Saturday, May 25, when at about 10.15 a. m. we sighted what appeared to be a submarine standing to the westward
about 5 miles distant. We immediately heard a shot and the remark was passed by one of the men that firing was going on somewhere. A few minutes later we heard another shot and then a third one. We tacked ship and headed in about northwest for the shore. This brought us broadside to the German submarine, who immediately fired a shot which landed about 225 feet away. We kept going at a speed of about 4 or 5 knots, and a second shot was fired, which passed through the ship's side about 5 feet above the water; a third shot passed through the vessel's wake about 75 feet astern.
THE CEUISE OF THE U-151. 2 7
The shots were fired in sequence of about four or five minutes. We stopped the schooner in latitude 37° 27' N., longitude 75° 09' W. and shortly after the submarine came cloBe to us. An officer aboard the submarine called to us:
"Leave your ship immediately."
The submarine then pulled away from the ship, 50 feet or more, and ordered us to come alongside. We obeyed and went aboard. The commanding officer asked me for the ship's papers, and when I told him they were on the ship he replied:
"Well, we have to have the papers."
A copy of the receipt for the Hattie Dunn and photostatic copy of that for the Hauppauge are on file and are practically the same in effect. The receipt for the Hauppauge reads as follows:
PKOTOKOLL.
Am 25 ten Mai 1918, 11 Uhr 10 Min. Vormittags ist auf 37° 27' N. und 75° 09' W. der amerikanische 4 Mast Schooner Hauppauge L T Q H von S. M. Unterseeboot vernichtel worden.
Aug See, den 25 ten Mai 1918.
Der Kommandant,
v. NOSTTTZ,
Korvettenkapitdn.
Then they took me back to the schooner for the papers; they also took three bombs with them which they placed aboard the Hauppauge. We had just returned to the submarine wheD the bombs exploded and the Hauppauge sank at 11.30 a. m.7
There were no casualties. The weather was fine and clear; the sea was calm.
Upon boarding the submarine we found the crew of the Hattie Dunn sunk a short while before. We were retained as prisoners until the morning of June 2, when we were placed in boats with the survivors of two sunken vessels—the Isabel Wiley and Winneconne.
The sea had scarcely closed over the sinking hull of the Haupphuge, before the submarine cast about for new prey, and early in the afternoon
she made the attack upon the schooner Edna, in latitude 37° .30'
N. and longitude 74° 52' W. In describing the attack on his vessel, Capt. C. W. Gilmore, master of the Edna, said:
We cleared Philadelphia on the 17th of May and sailed from Delaware Breakwater on May 24 en route to Santiago, Cuba, with a cargo of case oil. About half past 1 on May 25 we heard a gun fired and a little later a shell struck in the water about a half a mile from us. We had heard firing inshore about an hour or so before. About a minute after the first shot there came another shot which fell about 50 feet away. I then ran up the American ensign; he had run up a German flag. He was standing about 4 or 5 miles northwest. I hauled down the jibs and hove to. The submarine then came toward us towing a yawl boat belonging to one of the schooners he had sunk before; finally he came alongside. Two German officers and four men came over the Edna's railing; they shook hands with us and greeted us just the same as they would have done men on one of their own naval vessels. They ordered us to lower our boat and gave us 10 minutes to abandon ship, saying that they were going to blow her up. They asked me where I was from, where I was bound, and what my cargo consisted of. The officer in charge took me into the cabin and said he wanted me to come below and that he wanted my papers. When we got below he said to me: