Dutch: Bloomersdijk, 4,850 tons.
Greek: George M. Embiricos, 3,636 tons; Massalia, 2,186 tons; Germaine, 2,573 tons.
Rumanian: Bistritza, 3,668 tons.
More interest than ever before in submarine warfare was aroused in this country when the German war submarine U-53 unexpectedly made its appearance in the harbor of Newport, R. I., during the afternoon of October 7, 1916. About three hours afterward, without having taken on any supplies, and after explaining her presence by the desire of delivering a letter addressed to Count von Bernstorff, then German Ambassador at Washington, the U-53 left as suddenly and mysteriously as she had appeared.
This was the first appearance of a war submarine in an American port. It was claimed that the U-53 had made the trip from Wilhelmshaven in seventeen days. She was 213 feet long, equipped with two guns, four torpedo tubes, and an exceptionally strong wireless outfit. Besides her commander, Captain Rose, she was manned by three officers and thirty-three men.
Early the next morning, October 8, 1916, it became evident what had brought the U-53 to this side of the Atlantic. At the break of day she made her reappearance southeast of Nantucket. The American steamer Kansan of the American Hawaiian Company bound from New York by way of Boston to Genoa was stopped by her, but after proving her nationality and neutral ownership was allowed to proceed. Five other steamships, three of them British, one Dutch, and one Norwegian, were less fortunate. The British freighter Strathend, of 4,321 tons, was the first victim. Her crew were taken aboard the Nantucket Shoals Lightship. Two other British freighters, West Point and Stephano, followed in short order to the bottom of the ocean. The crews of both were saved by United States torpedo-boat destroyers which had come from Newport as soon as news of the U-53's activities had been received there. This was also the case with the crews of the Dutch ship Bloomersdijk and the Norwegian tanker Christian Knudsen.
On December 20, 1916, the German admiralty announced that the total losses inflicted on Allied and neutral merchantmen by submarines and mines during November, 1916, amounted to 191 vessels of 408,500 tons. Of these 138 ships of 314,500 belonged to Great Britain and her allies, and 53 ships of 94,000 tons to neutral countries.
On November 13, 1916, the Norwegian steamship Older, on passage from Newport to Gibraltar, was captured by a German submarine, which placed a prize crew on board her. For a time the submarine remained in company. Eventually, however, the Older separated from the submarine, apparently with the intention of making for a German port. She was intercepted by a British ship of war, recaptured, and brought into a British port, and the prize crew were made prisoners of war.
The losses of Allied and neutral merchantmen sunk by submarines and mines during the month of December, 1916, according to the New York "Journal of Commerce," totaled 134 vessels of 251,750 tons, of which 53 vessels of 157,217 tons belonged to Great Britain and her allies, and 81 vessels of 84,533 tons to neutrals.
Among the largest of these were the following British boats: King Malcom, 4,351 tons; Reapwell, 3,417 tons; Luciston, 2,948 tons; Moeraki, 4,392 tons; King Bleddyn, 4,387 tons; Couch, 5,620 tons; Tanfield, 4,358 tons; Avristan, 3,818 tons; Strathalbyn, 4,331 tons; Ursula, 5,011 tons; Bretwalda, 4,037 tons; Westminster, 4,342 tons.