From August, when war was declared and the Bomb Squad formed, through the fall of the year 1914, certain changes came over the waterfront. Great German liners of the Hamburg-American and North German Lloyd Lines, freighters of the Atlas Line, and a miscellany of other vessels flying the red-white-and-black lay idle in port when England’s fleet blockaded the seaward channels. Some eighty German vessels were tied up at their piers. They dared not move, for Germany’s only available convoys were in southern waters trying to dodge the British and prey upon shipping. The Hamburg-American Line and Captain Boy-Ed made several abortive attempts to supply the raiders, but the considerable merchant fleet caught in port by the war stayed in port. This dumped on the longshore population some thousands of ardent Boches. Meanwhile the great steamship lines owned by neutral and allied capital entered on a period of activity such as they had never seen before. The first ships from abroad brought purchasing agents and European money to barter for American supplies, for immediate delivery. Any man who owned anything that bore a speaking likeness to a cargo-boat suddenly found himself potentially wealthy. The whole United States began to pour into the New York waterfront a huge volume of supplies for the Allies—and for a time for Germany, via neutral Holland and Scandinavia—and out of the Hudson and East rivers flowed a steady, swelling current of this overseas trade.
By the arrival of the year 1915 the current was well under way. The piers were extremely busy and the facilities for trouble were multiplying. On January 3 there was an explosion on the steamship Orton in Erie Basin for which there was no apparent explanation. A month later a bomb was discovered in the cargo of the Hennington Court, but no one could say how it came there. Toward the end of February the steamship Carlton caught fire at sea—mysteriously. Two months passed, then two bombs were found in the cargo of the Lord Erne. We might have had a look at them, for that was the business of the Bomb Squad, if those who had found the bombs had not dumped them overboard rather hastily. A week later a bomb was found in the hold of the Devon City. Again no explanation. Nor any reasonable cause why the Cressington Court caught fire at sea on April 29. Our attention had been directed to each of these instances, and we had investigated, and folders waited in the files for the reports which properly developed would lead to an arrest, and the sum total of those reports was—nothing. Then our luck turned for a moment.
The steamship Kirkoswald, out of New York, laden with supplies for France, docked at Marseilles, and in four sugar-bags in her hold were found bombs. The French authorities commandeered them, and removed and analyzed the explosive charge. The police commissioner cabled at once to Marseilles requesting the return of one of the bomb-cases, together with the bag in which it had been found, and an analysis of the contents. No answer. So he cabled again. The bomb-case then began a journey back to the United States, presented with the compliments of the Republic of France by M. Jusserand to the State Department at Washington, and forwarded in turn to Mayor Mitchel of New York. Our study disclosed that it was of a new type: a metal tube some ten inches long, divided into two compartments by a thin aluminum disc. One compartment had held potassium chlorate, a powerful explosive, and the other had contained sulphuric acid. The acid had been expected to eat through the thin disc separating the compartments, and explosion was to have followed, but for some reason it had failed. The metals were of good quality, and the workmanship was thorough.
Here was our first clue on the case. Many policemen work on theory so determinedly that they exclude really important facts which do not fit comfortably into the theory. I have always believed in taking the evidence, building a theory upon it, and then trying to confirm or reject that theory as new facts appear. It was well that we followed such a policy here, for we had nothing but the bomb-tube itself to build our theory upon. What did it offer? First, we were fortunate in having a bomb to study, for usually the fire following an explosion leaves no trace of its origin. We had its construction and ingredients as real, if vague, clues. Second, we knew that the Kirkoswald had carried supplies to France, and that all of the vessels on which bombs had been found or fires had broken out, had also been carrying supplies to the Allies. The list, by this time, had grown, for there were three more ship cases of fires or bombs in May, one in June, and five in July. Our primary theory was, therefore, that the bombs were made and placed on the vessels either by Germans or their paid agents.
Copyright, by Underwood and Underwood, N. Y.
Lieut. Robert Fay (on right) and Lieut. George D. Barnitz after Fay’s arrest
Copyright, by Underwood and Underwood
From left to right: Fay, Daeche and Scholz, arraigned in Court