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Show U!NA VA L T REAR ADMIRAL AUSTIN M. KNIGHT, who took an active part in rescuing ships' crews and passengers. -r '." I V - i ' Three German Submarines Said to Be Engaged in the Work of Destruction Off Nantucket Nan-tucket Lightship. ALLIED CRUISERS ARRIVE UPON THE SCENE TOO LATE Four British, One Dutch, One Norwegian Nor-wegian and Three Unknown Vessels Sent Down by the Raiders. NEWPORT, Oct. 9. The executive officer of the destroyer Ericcson, returning early today from the scene of the German submarine activities off Nantucket, reported that nine ships had been sunk and that three submarines were operating off the coast. This information, he said, he had on the authority of the captain of the Nantucket shoals lightship. NANTUCKET, Mass., Oct. 9. Three British cruisers arrived off Nantucket island at 2:40 o'clock this morning. Radio messages in code were constantly exchanged by the vessels. Other cruisers of the allied naval forces were expected in the same waters soon. LONDON, Oct. 9, 3:25 a. m. Only the latest editions of the London newspapers contain accounts ac-counts of the attack on British shipping off the American coast by the German submarine U-53. The morning newspapers displayed prominently promi-nently accounts of the unexpected appearance at Newport of the U-53, but none commented editorially edi-torially on the incident. BOSTON, Oct. 8. The submarine arm of the imperial German navy ravaged shipping off the eastern coast of the United States today. Four British, one Dutch and one Norwegian steamers were sent to the bottom or left crippled derelicts off Nantucket shoals. Tonight the destroyer flotilla of the United States Atlantic fleet was picking up passengers and crews of the destroyed vessels ves-sels and bringing them into Newport, R. I. So far as known, there was no loss of life, though the crow of the British steamer Kingston had not been accounted for. A submarine held up the American steamer Kansan, bound from New York for Genoa with steel for the Italian government, but later, on establishing her identity, allowed the American to proceed. The Kansan came into Boston harbor late tonight for her usual call here. MAY BE TWO U-BOATS. The hostile submarine is believed to be the U-53, which paid a call to Newport yesterday and disappeared at sunset. Some naval men, however, declared that at least two submarines are operating close to the American shore, though outside the three-mile limit. The record of submarine warfare, as brought to land by wireless wire-less dispatches, follows: The Strathdene, British freighter, torpedoed and sunk off Nantucket. Crews taken aboard Nantucket shoals lightship and later removed to Newport by torpedo boat destroyers. The Strathdene Strath-dene left New York yesterday for Bordeaux, and was attacked at 6 a, m. The West Point, British freighter, torpedoed and sunk off Nantucket. Crew abandoned the ship in small boats, after a warning warn-ing shot from the submarine's gun. Officers and men were taken aboard a destroyer. The vessel was attacked at 10:45 a. m. She was bound from London for Newport News. PASSENGERS PICKED UP. The Stephano, British passenger liner, plying regularly between be-tween New York, Halifax and St. Johns, N. F. Torpedoed southeast south-east of Nantucket, bound for New York. Reported still afloat late y (Continued on Pa(,' Tour.) ADMIRAL CLEAVES SENDS BOATS TO RESCUE CREWS (Continued from Page One.) tonight. Passengers and crew, numbering 140, were picked up by the destroyer Balch and brought to Newport. The attack was made at 4:30 p. m. The Kingston, British freighter, torpedoed and sunk southeast of Nantucket. Crew missing- and destroyer searching for them. This vessel is not accounted for in maritime registers, and may be the Kingstonian. The attack occurred at 6 p. m. Bloomersdijk, Dutch freighter, torpedoed and sunk south of Nantucket. Crew taken aboard a destroyer. The steamer wa3 bound from New York for Rotterdam, having- sailed last night. WARNINGS SENT OUT. The sensation created yesterday when the U-53 quietly slipped into Newport harbor, and as quietly slipped away three hours later, was nothing to the shock in shipping circles when wireless reports of submarine attacks began to come into the naval radio stations just before noon today. Within a few minutes the air was literally charged with electricity as wireless messages of warning were broadcasted broad-casted along the coast. The submarine, or submarines, had taken a position directly in the steamer lanes. Vessels of the entente allied nations and neutral bottoms carrying carry-ing contraband of war scurried to get within the three-mile limit of the American shore. Several that were following the outside course shifted and made for the inside lane. The Stephano of the Red Cross Hue, however, was caught outside tho neutral .one. The destruction of this vessel was perhaps the highest prize of the day. The craft had been sold to the Russian Rus-sian government .and would have been used ns an ice breaker after her present pres-ent trip. Up to late tonight none of the British Brit-ish and French patrolling fleet had been sighted. The passengers and crews of destroyed de-stroyed vessels who were being brought into Newport were not expected to reach there until after midnight. Preparations Prep-arations to care for them have been made by Kcar Admiral Aust in M. Knight, commandant of the Narragan-sett Narragan-sett naval station, and Hear Admiral Elbert (Heaves, commander of the destroyer de-stroyer flotilla now at Newport. ' All steps possible in the circumstances circum-stances are being taken to deal with the situation." This message was received by the Associated Press (tonight from the commander com-mander in chief of the British North Atlantic squadron, at Halifax, N. S. it was in reply to a request for a statement state-ment by him. Tho Steprmno met -R submarine six : miles southeast of Nantucket lightship and was attacked by gunfire and a torpedo. tor-pedo. She remained afloat until 10:05 0 "'clock tonight. The West Point went' down ten miles south of the Nantucket lightship. The Strathdene was attacked "oft lightship." light-ship." the reporj: stated, .and the Bloomersdijk Bloom-ersdijk was sunk three miles south of the lightship. She remained afloat some time, going down at 8:05. The first wireless warning of the presence of a hostile submarine in the steamship lane was given in the distress dis-tress signals of the West Point. Within With-in a very short time press dispatches from Halifax indicated that trio patrolling pa-trolling battleships had received the alarm. The British censorship, however, prevented pre-vented the disclosure ot the movements of the patrolling fleets. At li o 'clock tonight the returning return-ing destroyer nearest home was still fifty miles from Newport, and she was not expected until after 1 a. ni. One thing that is puzzling naval men tonight is why the U-53 came into port yesterday, and another thing that is the subject of the speculation of many outside out-side the navy is why a destroyer flotilla flo-tilla of seventeen vessels was sent out to rescue the crew of a single freight steamer. The destroyers were ordered out at the first report that tho West Point had been torpedoed. Hear Admiral Ad-miral Knight reiterated this evening that Commander Rose's call was one of courtesy, but it was suggested that the German commander wished to guard against loss of life through the aid of American vessels in kicking up passengers passen-gers and crews of ships destroyed. NANTUCKET HEARS BOOM OF THE GUNS TEN MILES AWAY BOSTON, Oct. 8. A German submarine, subma-rine, supposedly the TJ-53, which called at Newport yesterday, today torpedoed and sank the British freight steamer Strathdene and crippled the Britisb freighter West Point, off Nantucket. Xo loss of life was reported. The submarine also held up the American Amer-ican freight steamer Kansau, but later allowed her to proceed. The crew of the Strathdene, nearly all of them Lascars, were taken aboard the Nantucket light ship. Officers and men of the West Point took to their small boats after summoning assistance from shore. Fleet Sent to Rescue. The distress signals of the West Point were (licked up by the government radio station at Newport, R. I. Rear Admiral Ad-miral Albert Gleaves, commander of the destroyer flotilla . of the American Atlantic At-lantic fleet, ordered his ships to the rescue. The West. Point gave her position posi-tion as fifty miles southeast of Nantucket, Nan-tucket, but the navy officials said that later reports indicated that the vessel was not more than ten miles off shore. The weather was thick. It was expected expect-ed that the crew would not be brought into Newport News .before midnight. The booming of the submarine's guns was distinctly heard at Nantucket. It was plain that the submarine had placed herself in the lane of passenger and freight traffic and terrorized shipping ship-ping along the coast. Warnings Sent Out. Tu a flash wireless messages were sent up and down the coast and far out to sea warning everything afloat that a submarine ship was operating in the steamer lane. . . Every vessel equipped with Wireless was warned to make for the three-mile zone, and the commanders of merchant vessels of th.e entente allies lost no time in shifting their course. Those that were following what is known as the outside course turned to the inside course that would bring them closer to American land. British consular officers who had been advised by the British embassy to warn British shipping against the U-53 renewed their caution on learning learn-ing that the submarine had gone into action. Shippers in Panic. Panic possessed the minds of shippers ship-pers at points along the coast when the first reports of the torpedoing were received. The news that the U-03 had attacked British vessels traveled fast. Anxious inquiries were made at newspaper news-paper offices from seemingly everyone who had a friend on the water or owned a share of stock in a merchant bottom. The Frederick VJII of the Scandinavian-American line, which is bringiug home the American ambassador to Germany, Ger-many, James W. Gerard and Mrs. Gerard, Ger-ard, was six hundred miles east of New York at noon today. Assurances that the ambassador and his wife were on a neutral vessel were given to inquiring friends bv the press. The rarlio stations were suddenly closed to the press by an order from the navy department at Washington. H was explained ex-plained that every thins learned by government gov-ernment stations must first be transmitted transmit-ted to the navy department before being made public. Particulars of the attack, however, continued con-tinued to come from merchant vessels to commercial wireless plants and through marine observers on shore. American Vessel Stopped. At daylight today the U-53 turned up southeast of Nantucket anil got in the way of the American steamer Kansan of the American-Hawaiian company, bound from New York to tienoa by way of Boston Bos-ton with freight. The Kansan was flying the American flag. She was stopped by t l:e submarine al 5:30 o'clock. Assured that the Kansan was an American-owned vessel, the submarine later allowed her to proceed. d plain Smith, of the Kansan reported to the Shoals lightship that he had been stopped. He said the submarine showed no colors, but from his meager description of the era ft naval men were satisfied that it was the b'-03. Strathdene Sunk. A half hour later the submarine encountered en-countered the Strathdene. commanded by Captain 'Wilson, and under charter by the French line. A subsequent message from the Nantucket lightship stated that the Strathdene had been sunk al 6 o'clock I this morninti. and that tiie crew of "twenty "twen-ty men" were on the lightship. The steamer ca cried a crew of thirty-four. There was doubt as to whether the lightship light-ship had puked them all up. I-ater a private dispatch added the information in-formation that the submarine, after stopping stop-ping t he "West Point, ordered the crew into their small boats. The crew abandoned aban-doned the siiip. which was then torpedoed. Meantime the American line steamship Philadelphia, winch left New York yesterday yes-terday for I,ierpool. had gotten within the war zone, and an S. O. S. wireless message was received by her fonimander. He held his course for the east. No Word From Patrol. During the day no woid came from the British and French pa trol vessels tiiat cave been watching the Atlantic coast. This afternoon a message was snt to Halifax asking wha t was being done to protect British, and French shipping from rhe submarine. Tiie British iommaiider o? the Halifax slat ion replied he was i. ousulering the ad inability of any statement. state-ment. Rumor had It that a fleet of German submari n?s was off The oa t. A not her that the Germans had established submarine sub-marine ba e on the Cau;i d ia n I'oast. Another speculation was that supph ships were ro-opera t ing with the t -53- H wns pnmitH om that the sulm larine. ;tfier nsiensibly rruiHn- the Atlantic unassisted, arrived at Newport fully provisional for three months, and not reputing fuel or j-n much as a .jug of water. Samuel i'p'V, New Kim land agent of the nirlra n - I la n iia n St a mshtp rompa nv, which ownf the Kansan, sj id tonight he 1 :.d reached no information from ("apiam S.nhh concerning the incioent. The Kan-s.'i! Kan-s.'i! was expected to arrive here tin:- alter-noun alter-noun , but Im tiiied her course in r spouse to d is tress i a lis f rum the stea mer W.-t Pol-it. At 1 o'clock the Kansan notified t he Boston navy yard tiiat she was fii t -five mil..-? from the disabled steamer, and expected to rtuch her in five hours, traveling trav-eling at a speed of tweUe knots. T'ne Kynsan I-ft New York witii a rarzo of stee1. acd was coming to Hoston on her way to ( n oa to take aboard a shipment of horses foe i he entente allies. Within the immediate zone of possible j fu rther ope rat ions by the 1" - 53 are se v-1 v-1 era! trans-At la n tie steamships under ve-I ve-I ipLry of nations with which Oern.auy is at war. Also, the American line steamer steam-er Philadelphia. with passengers and freight from New York to Liverpool, is in those waters, and the Scandinavian-American Scandinavian-American liner Frederik VII T is approaching approach-ing that part of the coast, bound to New York from Copenhagen. Vessels Menaced. Better known among tiie vessels sub. Ject. because of their registry and their present position, to the -submarine menace men-ace are the French liner Hspagne. from Bordeaux for New York; the Anchor li net- Ca meronia, bound to New York from i Jiasuow and Liverpool, and the ('iniiHilfi- A lau nia, only a few hours out frum New York, for Falmouth and London. Lon-don. Other vessels of lesser size were reported approximately in tiie same waters. wa-ters. Most of these steamships tonight have recrived by wireless warnings of the presence pres-ence of the German submarine off the tempt to destroy entente vessels a code message was d ispatehed I o the embassy at Washington setting forth the facts, as far as obtainable. While Consul Ijeay declined tonight to make any statement, there was no doubt at the consulate that the submarine had come to American waters to begin operating oper-ating off the Atlantic coast. When it became known that the American Ameri-can steamer Kansan had been halted, telephone messages were forthwith sent to agents of steamship lines here and the consulate endeavored to get into communication com-munication with every master of a British Brit-ish vessel along the coast. There was no attempt to disguise or conceal the fact that shipping had been terrorized by the daring performance of a German submarine sub-marine so far from its home base. New England coast. This message, as sent to steamships of Great Britain's merchant mer-chant marine, was regarded as constituting constitut-ing orders to change courses. The result re-sult was indicated in messages tonight that tin's. vessel or that was swinging in shore to be within easy speeding distance of the three-mile zone of protection. Francis P. Leay, British consul here, was in constant touch with steamship officials, offi-cials, and on the strength of reports that the submarine had begun a wholesale at- Patrol Boats Notified. The British consul said he had no information infor-mation as to the present whereabouts of British patrol boats, although he assumed as-sumed that these vessels had been notified noti-fied by wireless that the U-53 was a few miles off the coast. It was learned today that the embassy's warning had been sent to Halifax. N. S., the naval base for British Brit-ish ships operating in the North Atlantic, and to other points in tiie maritime provinces. prov-inces. The British steamer Leonatus. without wireless and so cut off from possibility of warning- of the submarine's presence on this side ot. the Atlantic, is almost due here with a large cargo of sugar from Matanzas, Cuba. Her course would take her past Nantucket shoals lightship. The British freighter Isle of Lewes, carrying supplies for war purposes, sailed early today for Manchester, England, notwithstanding not-withstanding the U-53's visit to Newport. The Great City, another British freighter, deferred her sailing with a cargo of steel and horses consigned to the French government gov-ernment at St. Nazaire, France, but her agents said it was because of slow loading rather than any fear of danger. In Pathway of Raider. The Warden liner Bay State from Liverpool, Liv-erpool, the freighter Ttesperides from Montevideo, Mon-tevideo, and the City of Naples from the far east, by way of San Francisco, and the Panama Canal, were other British vessels now headed on courses that were regarded as probably crossing the path of the submarine. Immediately after the P. O. S. calls from the West Point were picked un at Newport today. Admiral Gleaves ordered out the destroyer fleet to give assistance. The Jarvis, one of the fastest of the fleet, being capable of making thirty-one knots, had steam up and was one of the first to get away. She steamed out of the harbor har-bor at full speed shortly before 1 :30 o'clock. Following the Jarvis as rapidly as steam could be made, went the destroyers Drayton, Dray-ton, Erickson. O'Brien, Ben ham. Cassia, Batch, McCall. Porter, Fanning Winalow, Aylwyn, Gushing, Cu minings, Paulding and Cony ham. and the tender Melville. The fleet went to sea under full speed, and naval officers did not expect the return re-turn of any of lite vessels with survivors before a late hour. Search Ordered. The destroyers had orders from Rear Admiral Gleaves. commander of tiie destroyer de-stroyer force, to spread out and search for the ship's boats. He said that the object in sending this large number of vessels was particularly to facilitate the locating of small boats. Soon after the destroyers had departed. Admiral Cleaves, who was directing the operations from the flagship Birmingham, which remained behind, received a radio from the Nantucket Nan-tucket shoals lightship saying that twentv members , of the crew of the Strathdene were on board that ship. Instructions were immediately issued the nearest destroyers de-stroyers to proceed to the lightship and to take them off. Just before S o'clock tonight a radio message was picked up here stating that the British steamer Kingston had been sunk by a submarine. This was later confirmed by Admiral Knight at Newport. New-port. All on board t he steamer were picked up by one of the destroyers sent out from Newport. Message From Kansan. The steamer Kansan. which turned back to help the West Point, later proceeded pro-ceeded on Iter course, and tonight was reported re-ported coming inio Boston harbor. A message from Captain Smith of the Kansan Kan-san directed to the Associated Press, was received as follows: "At noon leeeived distress signals from West Point. Started back to her assistance, assist-ance, and steered for her -till 4:45 p". m., when message was received that crew of fifty-five was approaching: Nantucket liKhtshlp in iwo boats. Found position of torpedo boat was nearer to AYest Point than that of Kansan. so gave up search and proceeded to Boston. Smith." At 9 o'clock tonight all the passengers and crews of the torpedoed vessels had been accounted for withy the exception of the crew of the Kingston. These were missing" and were being" sought hy the American destroyer Cushlng. It is supposed sup-posed that the crew of the Kingston took to their lifeboats. The weather off shore was thick tonight, to-night, hut the sea was caini with lit i le wind stirring.. |