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Show Americans Sink Six Submarines Off French Coast I Washington, Sept. 11 American destroyers are believed to liavo sunk six hostllo submarines off tho coast of France, September 5, while convoying con-voying a flet-t of merchantmen from the United States. Two of tho merchant merch-ant ships were lost, but, It Is reported, re-ported, without loss of life. Meager reports to the navy department today give a brief account of the fight, - transmitted from tho American tank ! ' steamer Westwego, one of tho ships I which survived the attack. I Navy I)eiartinent'. I Statement. 1 "Tho navy department has receiv ed a report from Paris which states that the steamer Westwego reports on September 8 that, while cruising with several other ships, she was attacked at-tacked by a massed force of six submarines sub-marines off the coast of France on September 5. The result of this attack at-tack was that two of the steamers attacked were sunk and probably all of tho submarines were lost." Kn Ilontc to Kurope From U. S. The merchant fleet, of which the Westwego was one, was en route to Europe from tho United States when attacked. The vessels were under convoy, but no details of the right i wero Included In the reports. No 1 loss of life was reported, nor wore i the names of the two ships sunk In- eluded In tho dispatch. It is not i even known whether they were American ships or not. Tho navy department de-partment has cabled for further Information. In-formation. The Westwego, an oil tank steamer, steam-er, was built In Germany In 1914 for Rumanian account under the name of the Steaua Ilomana. Later her registry was changed to American and afterwards her namo was made Westwego. The vessel wns of 3,003 tons net and carried a crew ot' forty-two forty-two Latest reports ihovr she was In an American port August 8 and later sailed on a trans-Atlantic voyage commanded by Captain Mulcoy. Under American Com oy. While this does not actually state that American destroyers were convoying con-voying the ship, that is believed to bo tho fact. It was announced recently that a policy of convoying fleets of merch- int ships across the Atlantic hail been ndopted and since the Westwego nd tho other merchant craft which wero the objects of the submarines' nttack were bound for Europe, It is regarded as more than probablo that American warships guarded the merchant ships on the way across. I Deadly Depth ' Bombs. American warships all have been equipped with depth bombs for fighting fight-ing submarines. This weapon has been highly perfected by American ordnance experts and proved very i deadly. Most Notable Action . of War. If detailed reports bear out tho first dispatch they will signalize the I most notable action against subnu- rlnes since the war began. In no other case has such a wholesale do- J structlon of U-boats been reported, f It also will mark a most striking victory vic-tory for the American naval forces. I The Westwego had an experience with a German submarine before the United States entered the war, hav-ing hav-ing been attacked by on January 1 last while off the coast of England I She was proceeding from an American Ameri-can port with a cargo of oil for Europe, Eur-ope, when a submarine flrejl flvo shots at her from astern. Tho West- j wego's captain, J. S. Mulcoy, brought his vessel to a stop and sent a boat with his papers, whereupon tho German Ger-man suhamrlne commander demanded demand-ed a supply of oil, threatening to j sink the ship if his demands wero I not complied with. The submarine commander also demam;eiT tnat Hi3 . vessel's $1,000,000 cargo of gasollno , bo thrown overboard, saying ho would give Captain Mulcoy until tho next morning to comply. Four barrels bar-rels of cylinder oil were sent to tho submarine and the Westwetfo proceeded. pro-ceeded. She saw no more of the submarine. i I |