Unfortunately, we cannot put these Germans down as exceptional types. From what happened afterwards, they appear to have been just ordinary members of the U-boat service. They did not, for example, ill-treat their prisoners while on board the submarine; and beyond the theft of a few shillings by the German officers, the trawler’s crew had no ground for complaint. But the whole incident shows the low standard of morality prevailing among German submariners. Two men allowed to drown; eight shillings stolen from the survivors. That is all, and apparently such trifling incidents are taken as a matter of course in the German submarine service. What can be said for such men? How can normal people understand their motives?
The British steamer Eavestone left Barry Docks on the 1st February, 1917, for Gibraltar. On the 3rd February, she was 100 miles W. by S.W. of the Fastnets when she sighted a submarine. The German opened fire at 3,000 yards and soon found the range. Firing at the rate of a shot a minute, she struck the steamer repeatedly, and continued firing while the crew took to their boats. As soon as the boats had dropped astern of their ship, the submarine turned her gun upon them at short range, firing three shrapnel shells and striking both boats. The third shell killed the master, the steward, and a donkeyman, wounded two able seamen, and severely wounded the second officer in the right arm.
The submarine now called the first mate on board and questioned him, but no enquiries were made as to the Eavestone’s losses, and no help was suggested. The boats were picked up that same night by the Norwegian barque Regna.
Here is a typical case of the pirate as murderer. Having done his best to kill the steamer’s crew, while they were taking to their boats, he deliberately turns his gun against the open boats as soon as they are manned and clear of the vessel. Without any shadow of pretext, the pirate kills three men and wounds three others in this way. The number of men killed was of no interest to the German. He did not even enquire as to the result of his shrapnel fire, and of course it never occurred to him to offer the survivors any help.
On the 7th February, 1917, at 11.30 a.m., in squally weather the Vulcana sighted a German submarine on her starboard boom, about 1 mile distant. The U-boat at once opened fire. She found the range after firing half-a-dozen shots.
The skipper gave orders for the boat to be lowered, and while the tackle was being carried forward, he stood close by the engine-room door on the starboard side of the deck. The second hand was standing about 2 feet away from him at the time. Just afterwards a shell exploded close by. One piece struck the second hand’s boot and another cut his hand slightly. The skipper was struck on the top of the head; his head was smashed in and part of his face was blown away. The second hand heard him say: “Dear me,” and he fell to the deck, dead.
George King, the second hand, now took charge. Shells continued to burst about the deck; one passed through the galley and struck the trimmer, wounding him severely in the back. After the boat had been got out she capsized, and had to be righted before the crew could get in. The skipper being dead, they left him where he had fallen, and he went down with his ship. George King followed the crew into their boat, and soon after she had got clear the ship went down, about noon. The submarine then submerged and disappeared. The survivors were picked up by a patrol-boat at noon on the following day. The trimmer was taken to hospital, where he afterwards died.
The Vulcana was a British trawler, although, from the savageness of the German attack, it might have been thought that she was a warship. The lives of the skipper and trimmer were sacrificed to German blood lust. The trawler could have been sunk without any loss of life.
On the morning of the 7th February, 1917, the British steamers St. Ninian and Corsican Prince were within a quarter of a mile of one another. A U-boat torpedoed the Corsican Prince, striking No. 3 hold and bursting her engine-room bulkhead. The St. Ninian was then sunk. She went down in five minutes. Both ships were torpedoed without warning, the casualties being 15 in the case of the St. Ninian and one in the Corsican Prince.
The British steamship California carried 32 passengers and a crew of 171 hands; she was bound from New York to Glasgow. On the morning of the 7th February, 1917, the weather was fine and clear, the wind was N.E., and there was a heavy swell running. At 9.30 a.m., the master and two junior officers being on the bridge, a periscope was sighted about 250 yards away on the port quarter. The master at once ordered the helm hard aport and an S.O.S. signal to be sent out, but before the vessel had paid off 3 points a torpedo struck her on the port quarter, about No. 4 hatch, and the submarine was not seen again.