The s.s. Elmsgarth was torpedoed without warning at 7.15 p.m. on the 29th September, and abandoned a quarter of an hour afterwards. A U-boat then appeared and fired a shell between the life-boats. The master’s boat was then hailed alongside the submarine in order that he might be questioned by the commander. The master pointed out that his boat was half full of water, and asked for a baler, but this the commander refused to supply, adding that his duty was not to save life, but to destroy it.
Before the boat shoved off from the submarine, a Mexican fireman, Daniel Vaca by name, jumped on board the U-boat and claimed protection as a neutral. The Germans’ response to this appeal was to deprive the man of his passport and order him back into the life-boat. Good fortune favoured the boats, which made for the Irish coast in safety.
[THE PIRATE AS BARBARIAN.]
A Selection of Cases.
| s.s. AMIRAL GANTEAUME | 26th Oct., 1914. |
| Relief-ship HARPALYCE | 10th April, 1915. |
| s.s. LUSITANIA | 7th May, 1915. |
| s.s. ARABIC | 19th Aug., 1915. |
| Relief-ship ASHMORE | 12th Sep., 1915. |
| s.s. PERSIA | 30th Dec., 1915. |
| Relief-ship EUPHRATES | 22nd Jan., 1917. |
| Relief-ship LARS KRUSE | 3rd Feb., 1917. |
| s.s. THRACIA | 27th March, 1917. |
| Hospital-ship LANFRANC and s.s. DONEGAL | 17th April, 1917. |
| s.s. ADDAH | 1st June, 1917. |
| s.s. MARISTON | 15th July, 1917. |
| s.s. VANLAND | 23rd July, 1917. |
| s.s. BELGIAN PRINCE | 31st July, 1917. |
[Chapter III.]
THE PIRATE AS BARBARIAN.
“We Germans represent the latest and highest achievement of European Kultur.”[D]—Professor A. Lasson.