The Web

by Emerson Hough

Naturally, also, the German spies on this side of the water would do everything in their power to learn precisely the facts which our Government sought to conceal—the number of troops going over, the times of sailings of the transports, and so forth. Naturally also, our system of espionage—the divisions of Military Intelligence, Naval Intelligence, Department of Justice, and the auxiliary work of the American Protective League—would do all they could to prevent German espionage from attaining its own purpose in regard to this knowledge.

When the Government seized the Port of Embarkation at Hoboken, much interest was shown in the former Hamburg-American and North German Lloyd line steamers located there. There were numerous rumors that these boats were to be blown up by the Germans. Of these, the largest was the Vaterland, which was re-christened Leviathan.

All this section, along the Jersey Palisades, near Hoboken, is strong in sympathy for Germany. Nearly all of the population is from Germany or of German parentage and here was this steamer, the biggest of all the boats, and long the pride of the Germans. It was not to be expected that the New Jersey Germans would feel pleasant about its present status. These local Germans boasted that they had been through these boats after our Government took them over. They told stories of what the Government was doing with them and what they were going to do themselves so that the boats would never sail or never get across. The history of other ships which took fire in mid-ocean, or were blown up by concealed explosives is referred to elsewhere. It always was sufficient to make the sailing of any transport a matter of great uneasiness.

An A. P. L. operative wanted to know what these Germans were doing regarding the Leviathan. Of course, the boat was supposed to be absolutely guarded against entry by any stranger. This man, however, went to the gate and asked for the Commandant by nickname. The guard supposed he must be a friend of the Commandant, because of his familiarity, and naïvely let him through. The operative walked up and down the pier wondering how he could get on board, for he saw guards at the gangway. There was a pile of mailbags on the dock, so the operative stole over that way, picked up a mail sack and threw it over his shoulder. Near the gangway there was a group of soldiers and sailors engaged in an argument. As the operative approached, they separated, and he went through. He was dressed in civilian clothes, and had on a derby hat, but these did not seem to be suspicious facts. The operative walked on up the gangplank unmolested, and roamed all over the boat from top to bottom, still carrying the mailbag. Having done what any German could have done in the same circumstances, he started out, but near the gangway was stopped by a man who wore a watchman’s badge, and who spoke with a noticeable German accent. This man stopped the operative, who, upon being asked where he was going, replied that he was going off the boat. The watchman told him to get off in a hurry. He was still carrying his U. S. mail sack, which he replaced on the pile where he had got it. After that, he strolled out to the street again, satisfied that the guard around the Leviathan might have been a trifle more airtight.

As a matter of fact, while the sailing dates of the Leviathan were jealously guarded, bets were made by the Germans on her sailing time out and back. Word came to an A. P. L. man that the Leviathan was going to sail at 12:15 the next day. As this came from German sources, it seemed a useful thing to have the Government alter the sailing hour. The operative in this case strolled around in the vicinity of the Leviathan’s pier and talked with sailors, who freely told him the sailing hour. Then, in order to mystify the Government officers, the operative called up a certain Department and said over the ’phone that he was an Intelligence official of the Imperial German Navy, and wanted to know if it was true that the Leviathan was to sail at 12:15 the next day. This caused some excitement. The operative then told whom he was, explaining that he had got that knowledge himself the previous evening. As a result, the sailing hour was changed several hours, and the Leviathan got off safely.

Again, there were a great many rumors regarding the numbers of troops carried by this big transport. We did not want Germany to know how many men we really were shipping, and we rather thought that no one ever could know. An A. P. L. operative was able to make a very close guess under rather singular circumstances. Since he could have done so, perhaps a German spy might have done as much had he an equally sharp wit.

This instance really started in a practical joke. The jokers suggested to a certain young husband, who had to sit up late several nights with a crying baby, that he might pass the time counting the cars of troop trains which passed in front of his house. In all seriousness, the young man did do this, checking each car by the bumps it made on the railroad frogs. He really counted in this way with very fair accuracy the number of cars carrying troops for the Leviathan’s sailing. As everyone knew about how many troops were in each car, this operative figured that there would be about 12,000 troops. This was reported to the Government, but was never checked out, so that A. P. L. still wants to know whether they were good detectives or not.

There was a member of the Division who sold automobile tires. A Naval officer came to him to buy a tire, and wanted to know if the tire could not get to the boat that afternoon. This salesman suggested the next morning at noon. The officer innocently said that he would have sailed by that time. He also named his boat, the Leviathan. This salesman asked how it would do to have the tire ready when the ship came back, and asked how long it would be. The officer said sixteen and a half days—which tallied with the former Leviathan record of seventeen days. The salesman also learned that the stop at Bordeaux was from forty to seventy-two hours. Incidentally, he also learned that the boat carried 12,000 troops, had five hundred officers and a crew of fifteen hundred.

This figure of 12,000 troops checks perfectly with the A. P. L. estimate made by the baby-carrying member. This tire-hunting officer of the boat also told a great many things which he ought not to have told anyone. He told the means used to protect the Leviathan against U-boats, saying that the ship depended mostly on her speed. He said the ship drew only forty-two feet of water, so it had not been necessary to dredge the channel at Bordeaux. The operative then asked the officer how late he could receive the tire, and was told about two hours before sailing. “You can refer to your local newspapers and figure on fifteen minutes after the tide begins to go out,” he said. This, of course, was so that the boat could get the benefit of the ebb tide in warping out.

From these facts, both the Military and Naval Intelligence were able to stop such leaks of information, and stiffened up the guarding of ships and cargo, besides giving, in many ways, a far greater degree of protection to the task of embarkation. It is thought that the League investigations caused recommendation to be made regarding more secrecy in regard to embarkation. The Armistice cut off these matters. Sufficient has been shown here, however, to indicate how an enemy might sometimes get information.