BERLIN’S DELIBERATIONS
For such intricate action Germany had been preparing with infinite patience both before and after the war began. Prior to the outbreak, representatives of Germany had started the building of the wireless plant at Sayville, Long Island, by which aerial communication was established with Berlin. After the war began, the equipment of the station was increased, and instead of 35 kilowatt transmitters, 100 kilowatt transmitters were installed, the machinery for tripling the efficiency of the plant having been shipped from Germany via Holland to this country. Wireless experts, members of the German navy, also slipped away from Germany to direct the work of handling messages between the two countries.
Everything was in readiness at Sayville, consequently, to catch the directions that were flashed through the air. There was an operator specially trained to take the message coded for the deception of Captain Turner, and send it crackling fatefully through the air. Everything was ready and only the request of the operator on the Lusitania for directions south of Ireland was needed. All this was in violation not only of our neutrality laws, but also in disregard of American statutes governing wireless stations.
Meantime, the vessel had reached the edge of the war zone decreed by Germany in violation of international law, and Captain Turner sent out his call for instructions. Presently the order came. It was hurried to Captain Turner’s state-room.
Captain Turner, carefully decoding the message by means of a cipher book which he had guarded so jealously, read orders to proceed to a point ten miles south of Old Head of Kinsale, and run into St. George’s Channel, making the bar at Liverpool at midnight. He carefully calculated the distance and his running time, and adjusted his speed accordingly. He felt assured, because he relied on the assumption that the waters over which he was sailing were being thoroughly scoured by English cruisers and swift torpedo boats in search of German submarines.