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Show U-BOAT DASH EASY, 0EGLARESCAPIAI1 .DARING VOYAGE OF SUBMARINE ACROSS THE ATLANTIC DESCRIBED DE-SCRIBED BY COMMANDER. DODGED FOE BY SUBMERGING Undersea Craft Dropped to Bottom of -4 Ocean at Times to Avoid Possible Dangers Threaded Maze of Hostile Warships. Baltimore, MiL "And we sat down upon the floor of the British channel because the root was crowded with nosey destroyers, and we drank good French champagne while we sang "We've rings on our fingers and bells on our toes,' and presently the destroyers destroy-ers gave us room en the roof and we came up and went on to America. It was all just as simple as that, I tell you." . Thus simply did Capt. Paul Koenig, commander of the German submarine Deutschland, describe the daring voyage voy-age of his undersea craft through the North sea, which was dotted with enemy ene-my vessels, and across the Atlantic ocean to the port of Baltimore. "What Is there about my voyage to caui'3 all this commotion?" asked the captain of a group of reporters who were eagerly questioning him regarding regard-ing the great game of hide and seek which he played with the British navy on his 4,000-mile dash across the waters. wa-ters. "I have done nothing remarkable. Anybody who has sense enough to navigate a boat and who builds a boat like the Deutschland can do equally well better, I believe." Captain Koenig will have it no other way than that the British grip on German Ger-man commerce is shortly to be broken. "We have proved It," he said, his yes afire with enthusiasm. "We are building a 2,000-ton submarine that will be able to voyage 13,000 miles without replenishing Ml tanks. And the British can't catch us. We laugh at them look now at that flag." He pointed to the house flag of the Deutsche Ozean Rhederei, the corporation cor-poration of Bremen whlcl. devised the undersea trading plan. The Deutschland went from Bremer-liaven Bremer-liaven out to sea In the light of day on June 14, went in the early morning as matter of factly as a scow of bricks or lumber from any New York pier slips out into the harbor and down to the lower bay. Neither Bremen up the river, nor Bremerhaven, gate to the North sea, sent bands to blare farewell or crowds to cheer. Koenig laid a course straight to Germany's north sea Gibraltar, Helgoland. Helgo-land. "Why did you do that?" hr was asked. Knew Foe Was Near. "We knew that British warships were somewhere about," he said. "And we wanted to lay up at Helgoland for some days to fool them. There Is always a chance that spies may reveal the comings and goings of our ships, and it was wise to mark time for a little while. In this case only one nlien, so far as I knew, had our secret, lie wns the American consul at Bremen, Bre-men, Win. Thomas Fee, whose duty it -was to approve our manifeet. He was to be trusted, .naturally, but we could take no chances. "We loafed pleasantly off Helgoland under the shade of the big guns until the morning of June 23. The time was passed usefuUy'.n Improving the train-lug train-lug of the ir.en. "Good Fellows, My Boys." "About these men, now say a word for them if you must hold us up to the world's eyes. They nre good fellows, my boys, strong fellows. Most of them are quite young, though most are married mar-ried and are r:'7t.ng rosy cheeked billies bi-llies to giw up for Germany's glory. They are all line mechanics and full of what do you say pep, that is it. "On the morning of June 23 we turned westward in the North sea and headed straight for the British channel. chan-nel. Somebody has said that we went all the way around Scotland. Nonsense, Non-sense, why should we? It was easy enough to fool the British and going through the Channel was child's play." "What were your best aids to navigation, navi-gation, captain? How did you figure out your safe progress under sea?" Microphone Aided Cruise. "The microphone and our device for taking soundings while submerged did the trick. Everybody understands these days what the microphone is au undersea telephone, so delicate that it catches and records the vibrations of any bulk moving upon or under the waves. "We have two microphones cm the Deutsehlund. one on the port, one on the starboard side. One of us. an editor edi-tor If possible, kept an ear always to Hie transmitter. When we lu-ani disturbing dis-turbing murmurs through our little eavesdropper we stopped dead still, maybe, or went ahead slowly. Sometimes Some-times we dropped to the sea floor and kept as slill as n mouse until wo could figure out what the menace was. Sometimes Some-times we merely dropped fifty feet or so beneath (lie surface and anchored in that position, suspended between She surface and the bottom. The microphones micro-phones warned us of cruisers and destroyers de-stroyers and sometimes of buoyed I mines." How He Dodged Mines. "About these mines." somebody cut In, "we have heard that the Channel is own with them, that they run in solid lanes across the Straits of Cover. Weren't you bothered by these mines! How did you dodge them?" "Wouldn't you like to know, now? laughed Koenig. "It is a secret, our method for avoiding mine fields, bul this much I can say we Germans know a trick to beat the mines danger and I used it in my run through the Channel. "Taking soundings is simple. There is a tube which projects from the Deutschland's bottom and through this tube we heave the lead. By a system of valves we prevent water entering the hull while the soundings are being taken. But this is dry talk. Let me tell you about our happiest evening. The Champagne Party Then the tale of the champagne party came out. "And we felt that way," said Koenig, referring to the "bells on our fingers" song. "We were the finger-ringed, bell-toed bell-toed boys, and we didn't care a damn for all the British ships of the Channel Chan-nel patrol." Rid of the perilous straits finally, the Deutschland breasted the Atlantic rollers rol-lers and proceeded upon Its businepfl. Officers and crew had plenty of time on their hands. The long days and nights were divided into four-hour watches, shifts on duty for four hours, at leisure for four, on duty again for four, and so on. Incessantly they kept vigilant watch for enemy craft any craft. Koenig. who knows New York as well as he knows Bremen, says the North sea and the Channel were as crowded as Broadway, and at night about as garishly lighted with those "detestable destroyers" playing tag all over the waters with their searchlights. A lot of time he poked the periscopo clear and sighted looming perils Just In time to dive without being spottod. But there were dull hours. Had Phonograph Aboard. "How did yon folks amuse yourselves?" your-selves?" he was asked. "Mostly," he said, "with the phonograph. phono-graph. Every submarine carries a phonograph. It is as much of the submarine's sub-marine's equipment as a torpedo tube. We keep it going pretty steadily (at times, of course, when there was no special danger in enjoying music), and we had a fine lot of records, though the American records were not especially es-pecially up to date." "Have any time to read, captain? Did the ship boast of a library." "You bet It did," he replied. "We have a fine little library of German, American, English and Spanish books." "It was remarkable," Koenig said, "all things considered, how seldom the submarine was forced to dive. In the entire trip only ninety miles was un-dersurface un-dersurface going. This ninety miles was logged as straight progress and did not include the times the Deutschland Deutsch-land simply went below and sat on Its bunkers, staying there until It felt it was quite judicious for a nice, fat, quite helpless U-boat to Isk sun or moonlight. There never as a close call. No Warship Saw Them. "Not one time in the whole trip were we seen by a warship," explained Captain Koenig. "And I very much doubt If as many as half a dozen merchant mer-chant ships spied us. We, of course, saw scores of craft. The very last one we sighted was thirty miles off the Virginian capes, a big white fruit boat rolling home from Jamaica, I suppose." The Deutschland submerged less than twenty times from Bremerhaven to Norfolk. Six times in the North sea It reckoned discretion as the better bet-ter part, six times in the English channel, chan-nel, and six times in the Atlantic. Once in the Channel it clung to the sea floor for ten hours. It can stay down four days, if necessary. It can resist the terrific pressure of 300 feet of water. Boat a Mass of Machinery. As described by Dr. John C. Travers, assistant U. S. health officer, who wns taken through the boat by Captain Koenig, the Deutschland's interior appears ap-pears to be mainly a mass of machinery. machin-ery. She has but one deck below and a seventeen-foot depth of hold for her cargo. Dr. Travers descended through the forward hatch, where he found the crew's quarters, bunks on either side of a narrow passageway leading to compartments occupied by the captain cap-tain and his two officers. The captain's cap-tain's room is scarcely six feet square and barely high enough for a man to stand. It is furnished all in metal, with the exception of a small oak desk. Directly beneath the officers' quarters is the dynamo, which stores electrical energy to drive the vessel when submerged. sub-merged. Next Dr Travers was taken Into the officers' messroom. scarcely larger than the staterooms, with a galley built with all the economy of space of a Pullman dining-car kitchen. Aft the messroom. about one-third the ship's length from her stern, is the submerging machinery and two periscopes. peris-copes. Calls It Amazing Sight. "I never saw such a mass of machinery ma-chinery in my life." said Dr. Travers. "It was an amazing sight and I doubt if it would mean much except to the engineer who designed it. There seemed to be fi.000 different pieces, an Inexplicable tangle of burnished copper and glistening steel." Aft of the submerging machinery were the submarine's two powerful Diesel oil engines which propel her on the surface. Captain Koenig told the doctor that while on the surface the noise of the machinery was almost deafening. When sub! lerged. said the skipper, "she moves almost silently, and then we enjoy ourselves." "De man dat likes flattery." said Uncle F.ben. "would rather wear brass Jewelry dan go wifout no decoratlonf at all." |
