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Show H WASHINGTON, Aug. 12. Gas from oil discharged on, the, water by the H German submarine operating off the H middle Atlantic coast, overcame six H men in the coast guard station and H light houst on Smith's Inland, N. C, Saturday evening, tho navy dopart-H dopart-H ment was advised today by the com-H com-H mandant of the Sixth naval district. If the gas attack was deliberate, as M most ofhcials belioved, it constituted a now and ingenious form of "frightful-H "frightful-H ness" and, so far as has been reported, H was the first direct effort of the Ger-H Ger-H man raiders to harm persons or prop-H prop-H crty on American shores. D The gas was said by tho command - ant of the coast guard station to have H much the same effect as thu mustard Q gas used by the Germans on the west-H west-H ern front. The men were laid out Tor (I more than half an hour, but apparent -jfl ly suffered no serious after-effects. Q The dispatch relating the gas attack D was one of a series concerning Gorman M submarine warfare off tho Atlantic II coast received during the day by the H navy department. One told of an at-H at-H tack on a submarine 100 miles east of ffl the Virginia coast by an American de-M de-M stroyer, which discharged seventeen depth charges where the raider was H seen to submerge. The result of tho H attack was not determined, but after HI oil had appeared on Lho surface of the Hi walor, two bombs were dropped on the D spot and the submarine was not seen H again. H Sinking of the British steamer Penl- M stone, of 4139 gross tons, and tho ID Swedish steamer Sydland, of 3031 va gross tons, in New England waters BE near where ten fishing smacks were jll destroyed Sunday also was reported to H the navy department during the day. W Tho former was torpedoed Sunday I with tho fate of her crew still undc-f undc-f f termlned, while the latter was dell de-ll stroyed by bombs August S and her II crew later rescued by passing ships. II Still another despatch said that four survivors of the fishing schooner Katie III Palmer landed at New Bedford, Mass., reported that they had been taken ft aboard the submarine, tho commander III of which boasted that he was equipped Bfl to remain in American waters for six H months if ho desired. H The submarine was described by tho l men as being about 300 feet long, with Jm a conning tower fifteen feet high, and m mounting one gun. The raider carried j ( a crew of sixty men, according to the rail ' survivors, who were held aboard the III submersible for a time and later set adrift in a dory. H Whllo the reports from the com- SS raandants of the Smith's Island coast H guard station and sixth naval district H clearly indicated their firm belief that ul the gas attack on tho island was delib- U erate, some officers tonight thought H there was a possibility that the sub- U marine had discharged the oil and gas BM after being wrecked on a reef. I H Attention was called to the fact that II W acU011 of salt water on electric I In batteries used "by submarines gene- I jjl rates chlorine gas, which is similar to M mustard gas in its effect and is deadly If encountered In a closed space. If the submarine were wrecked, it was said, this gas would be generated and would come to tho surface with the oil which would bo freed. Assuming the attack was deliberate, the only explanation offered here was that the submarino commander sought to put tho light house out of commission commis-sion with the attendant danger 10 passing ships. If that were the pur-poso pur-poso officials could not understand why he did not destroy tho lighthouse with his guns. On the basis of. reports received concerning the attack on lho submarine subma-rine off the Virginia coast, officials would not venture an opinion as to the possibility that tho U-boat was destroyed. The time of tho attack w:is not given in the dispatch and consequently conse-quently it was not known whether it was before or after the gassing of the men on Smith's Island. The attack may have occurred Sunday Sun-day and been reported by radio, but tho more generally accepted belief was that It took place several days ago and since there was no conclusive proof of the destruction of the enemy, the destroyer waited until returning to its base before reporting to tho district naval commander. When tho destroyer sighted tho raider at somo distance it dashed forward for-ward at full speed. The Germnn evidently evi-dently was maintaining a sharp lookout look-out for the U-boat soon submerged. Tho destroyer circled tho spot and dropped flfte.cn depth charges. When the upheaval of tho water caused by the terrific explosions had subsided, an oil scum was seen. As this is a ruse long employed by tho Germans when attacked, the destroyer destroy-er dashed in and discharged two moro bombs. The warship then cruised In the vicinity for some time but no further fur-ther trace of the raider was seen. In discussing the submarine raids with newspaper correspondents today Secretary Daniels said he believed there are two U-boats operating on this side of the Atlantic. He said ho did not believe they have a base on American shores and explained that they frequently replenished their stores and supplies from vessels thoy destroy. Naval patrols on the coast are as effective as can be, Mr. Daniels declared, de-clared, adding that it is impossible for them to be everywhere. Thus far the raiders have done no military damage, the secretary said, and the navy is carrying out successfully its paramount para-mount duty of safely convoying American Amer-ican troops overseas. oo |