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Show Off JU COAST GERMAN SUBMARINE CHARGED WITH SINKING VESSELS IN STEAMER LANE. Four British and Two Neutral Steamers Steam-ers Sent to Bottom or Left Crippled Crip-pled Derelicts Just Outside Three-Mile Limit. Boston Four British, one Dutch and one Norwegian steamers were sent to the bottom or left crippled derelicts der-elicts off Nantucket on Sunday. The submarine arm of the imperial German navy is blamed with the attack at-tack on the vessels. Sunday nigkt the destroyer flotilla of the United States Atlantic fleet was picking up passengers and crews of the destroyed vessels and bringing them to Newport, R. I. So far as known, there was no loss of life, though the crew of the British steamer Kingston had not been accounted ac-counted for. A submarine held up the American steamer Kansas, bound from New York for Genoa with steel for the Italian government, but later, on establishing es-tablishing her identity, allowed thi American to proceed. The Kansan came into Boston harbor late at night for her usual call here. The hostile submarine is believed to be the U-53, which paid a call to Newport Saturday, 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 sensation created when the U-53 quietly slipped into Newport harbor, har-bor, and as quietly slipped away three hours later, was nothing to the shock in shipping circles when wireless reports re-ports of submarine attacks began to come into the naval radio stations just before noon Sunday. Within a few minutes the air was literally charged with electricity as wireless messages of warning were broadcasted broadcast-ed along the coast. The submarine or submarines had taken a position directly in the steamer steam-er lanes. Vessels of the entente allied nations and neutral bottoms carrying contraband contra-band 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 line, however, was caught outside the neutral zone. The destruction of this vessel was perhaps the biggest prize of the day. The craft had been sold to the Russian Rus-sian government and would have been used as an ice-breaker after her present pres-ent trip. The executive officer of the destroyer de-stroyer Krickson, returning early Sunday Sun-day from the scene of the German submarine activities off Nantucket, reported that nine ships b-ad been sunk and that three submarines were operating off the coast. This infor mation, he said, he had on the authority author-ity of the captain of the Nantucket shoals lightship. |