Turning his attention to the lifeboats of the Russian ship which he had just torpedoed, the captain of the submarine promised to tow them to the French coast. He had been towing them but two hours, however, when he came below and told Moeller that he had sighted a French destroyer, and that he would have to make his escape. He gave the engineer his choice of staying on the submarine, in which case it would be fourteen days before he touched port, after which he was promised his freedom, or the privilege of getting aboard one of the lifeboats, and taking his chances of rescue by the destroyer.
Electing to take his chances in the lifeboat, Moeller was fitted out with new clothing, the outfit being topped off with a fur-lined overcoat. It turned out, however, that the captain had taken this clothing from the stores of the Russian steamer before sinking her, and the engineer learned when he got into the lifeboat that he was wearing the greatcoat of one of the shivering Russians.
Just before submerging the U-boat set off a couple of red-light bombs, for the purpose of attracting the attention of the crew of the destroyer, and submerged. The drifters were picked up by the destroyer, which steamed for France. The captain of the U-boat had promised Moeller that he would not attack the destroyer, although he had been trailing her for two weeks. The U-boat was sunk before she reached port, and all perished.
An American importer who, because of his German name and the intimate relations he enjoyed with certain important men in Berlin, had been taken to the hearts of some of the leaders, became a factor in pro-German activities in Cuba. He was taken into the confidences of many of the officials and learned the plans of the Tirpitz group.
Deciding that his allegiance was American, he returned to the United States. In his possession were many of the inner secrets of the German Government, and these were given to the officials in Washington. His information with reference to the submarine has been of great value to the government.
For the sake of convenience we will call the man Johann Schmidt. This is his story:
THE U-BOAT TYPE OF SUBMERSIBLE.
Germany's most successful and highly developed class of submarine has been, of course, the U-boat type of submersible. These are the terrors of the sea which have succeeded in crossing the Atlantic, and have been developed both as the fighting and as the commercial U-boat.
Herr Schmidt reported that Germany was constructing submarines 25 per cent larger than anything the United States had ever seen or heard of. His information was to the effect that Germany had a building capacity for ten submarines a week. The ability to produce these boats with such rapidity is due to the process of standardization—the practice of modern efficiency which has made it possible for American factories to turn out such big quantities of automobiles in a limited period.
All parts of the German U-boats are made in standard sizes and from the same original pattern. Consequently, these parts are turned out by machinery in replica, and the building of the finished boats is merely a matter of assembling them at points to which the various parts have been shipped. The Diesel oil engine, which is regarded as the ideal power-producing engine for submarines, has been developed to its highest state of efficiency by Germany, and is made at the famous Krupp gun works, the great engine works in Augsburg, Emden and Nuremburg, and other less well-known places in Germany.