The German Spy in America / The Secret Plotting of German Spies in the United States and the Inside Story of the Sinking of the Lusitania

by John Price Jones

FIRE BOMBS

Another part of this vast conspiracy against the export of arms and ammunition was the scheme to manufacture the so-called fire bombs, which could be placed in the holds of ships and which, exploding after a certain time, would set fire to the cargoes. By this means, thirty-three ships were stealthily attacked, with New York as a basis of operation, and damage of $10,000,000 was done. Vessels sailing not only from New York, but from Boston, Galveston, and even from Pacific ports, carried these bombs stowed away in their holds. Sugar ships especially were an object of attack, for sugar forms an ingredient of a certain explosive. These ships especially were adapted to this method, because once a fire started, the bomb itself would be destroyed, and as water had to be poured into the hold, the sugar would be destroyed.

Several bombs would be placed in the same hold, as has been shown by the fact that one fire was started in a vessel before she had left port. The fire was extinguished and more sugar loaded on the boat. Scarcely had the boat got out of port when another fire started. Among the ships attacked by bombs were La Touraine, of the French line, the Minnehaha, of the Atlantic Transport Line, the Rochambeau, the Euterpe, Strathtay, Devon City, Lord Erne, Lord Ormonde, Tennyson and many others.

The man accused of having charge of these bombs is a chemist, named Dr. Walter T. Scheele, formerly of Brooklyn, later of Hoboken, and still later a resident of some foreign country, whither he fled. He developed—or it was suggested to him by German officers—a scheme for taking a small metal container divided into two parts. Into one part would be put sulphuric acid; into another part, chlorate of potash. The sulphuric acid eating through the partition between the two sections made of aluminium, would unite with the chlorate of potash, causing combustion. Thus started, a fire so intense would be created that the container made of lead would be destroyed, and the cargo would be set on fire. Dr. Scheele, it is charged, made hundreds of these bombs, and received a large amount of money from German sources. One story is that von Rintelen paid him $10,000. Another story is that Wolf von Igel, von Papen’s assistant, paid him money after von Papen left the country. Still further, Captain Otto Wolpert, Pier Superintendent of the Atlas Line, is charged with having received some of these bombs. The metal containers were manufactured on board the steamship Friedrich der Grosse, tied up in the North German Lloyd pier in Hoboken. The chief engineer, Carl Schmidt, who spent some time in collecting money for a monument to commemorate the part Germans have taken in the present war, is said to have been directed by a German officer to turn over the workshop of the ship as a bomb factory. At any rate, Ernst Becker, chief electrician, who has turned State’s evidence, and three assistant engineers have been arrested as co-conspirators in this ship plot. Dr. Scheele’s assistant, Captain Charles von Kleist, also has been arrested. It was through information unwittingly supplied by him that Captain Tunney and Detective George Barnitz, assisted by extremely keen members of the bomb squad, unearthed the whole conspiracy.

Captain von Papen, as an organizer of a part of Germany’s secret service in America, as the schemer who sought to control a monopoly in certain high explosives and as a director of military enterprises—has been revealed by the Federal authorities as an extremely able servant of the Kaiser. These activities, however, were only a part of the task assigned to him by the German General Staff. He had still other plans which will be set forth in the following chapter.

CHAPTER III
CAPTAIN VON PAPEN, BUYER OF PASSPORTS AND PROMOTER OF SEDITION

Three other phases of Captain von Papen’s campaigns against the Allies upon American territory as a base of operations remain to be set forth. They are his supervision of a bureau for obtaining fraudulent passports for German reservists ordered home to fight for the Fatherland, the fomentation of insurrections in the colonies of the Allies and of war between Mexico and the United States.