After a brush with the U. S. S. Pastores, whose gunfire proved too hot to face, the U-140 proceeded several hundred miles north, keeping well out at sea, and was not heard from for a week. Then on August 21, after a gunfire contest, she sank the British steamer Diomed, and the next night attacked the Pleiades, an American cargo vessel, whose shots fell so close around the submarine that it was glad to get away.
That was the last experience, near our coast, of the U-140, which was already headed for Germany. She had been damaged, whether by our shells or depth-bombs, or from some other cause could not be ascertained. Her passage was slow until she was joined by the U-117, September 9. They proceeded in company toward Germany, the U-140 reaching Kiel October 25.
The U-117, a mine-layer of large type, commanded by Kapitän-Leutnant Droscher, had left Germany early in July, and her first exploit on this side of the Atlantic was a raid on the fishing fleet, near George's Bank, a hundred miles or more east of Cape Cod. In one day, August 10th, she sank nine little schooners of 18 to 54 tons. Coming nearer shore, she torpedoed and sank the Norwegian steamer Sommerstadt, 25 miles southeast of Fire Island. The torpedo made a circle around the vessel and returning, exploded, her master, Captain George Hansen, declared, saying:
The torpedo went about 1,300 fathoms on the starboard side; then it started to turn to the left. When I saw the torpedo start to swerve around, I gave orders for full speed ahead. After it passed the bow it made two turns, making a complete circle, and then struck our vessel aft on the port side exactly between the third and fourth holds, right at the bulkhead.
The next afternoon the Frederick R. Kellogg, an American tanker, was torpedoed 30 miles south of Ambrose Channel lightship. The torpedo struck in the engine-room, and the ship went down in fifteen seconds, her master, Captain C. H. White, stated. Two steel decks and a wooden deck were blown up, and a lifeboat was blown in the air. The engineer, his third assistant, one fireman and an oiler were killed or drowned. The ship sank in shallow water, however, and was later raised, towed to port and repaired.
The submarine sank the schooner Dorothy B. Barrett and the motor-ship Madrugada, and on the 17th sent down, 120 miles southeast of Cape Henry, the Nordhav, a Norwegian bark, whose survivors were rescued by the battleship Kearsarge. The U-117 had a long combat on August 20, with the Italian steamer Ansaldo III, the steamer escaping after a gun duel that lasted nearly three hours, and the next day had another running fight with the British Thespis, which was also unsuccessful.
The final exploit of the U-117 on this side of the ocean was the sinking of two Canadian schooners on August 30th. She then started across the Atlantic, ten days later joining the U-140.
It was not until early in August that the Deutschland, which had made two trips to the United States as a commercial submarine in 1916, left Germany for American waters. Her operations were mainly far out at sea or in Canadian waters, and she never came within 200 or 300 miles of the United States coast.
Renamed the U-155, the Deutschland began her activities on this expedition on August 27, 1918, when she attacked the American steamship Montoso almost in mid-Atlantic. It was at night, about 9 o'clock, when the Montoso and the Rondo and Ticonderoga, which were with her, opened fire. The submarine fired several shots, but the guns of our vessels drove it off.
Five days later the Deutschland attacked the U. S. S. Frank H. Buck, opening fire with two six-inch guns. Firing first with its 3-inch forward gun, then putting into action its six-incher, the Buck made a vigorous reply. Her shots were falling close to the "sub," but enemy shrapnel was bursting above the vessel and falling on deck. The Buck reported that one of her shots apparently hit right at the stern of the U-boat and another forward of the conning tower, under the water line. The submarine then disappeared. She seemed to have been damaged, but not enough to put her out of commission, for on September 2nd she sank the Norwegian steamer Shortind and on the 7th chased and shelled the British steamship Monmouth. Five days later she torpedoed the Portuguese steamer Leixoes, three of the crew being lost, one going down with the ship and two dying of cold and exposure in the lifeboats.