The Goldfield news and weekly tribune. [volume] (Goldfield, Nev.) 1911-1947, 1916-02-05
STORY OF
DIVERS ESCAPE
COMMANDER OF SUBMARINE DE-
SCRIBES ACTION IN PERIL
OTIS SITUATION

BUDAPEST, Hungary. IAN. .
Naval Lieutenant Wenninger, com
mander of the German submarine
U-17 which torpedoed the French
steamer Craveline, gives the fol-
lowing description of how his sub
marine was caught in the net of an
English boat off the east coast OF
England and how under the most
difficult circumstances he succeed
ed in saving the boat and crew
from capture.
He said that they left their base
early in the morning and passed
into the North Sea, the boat being
under water with the periscope
awash. II looked through the peri
scope" he continued, land could
see a red buoy beside my boat.
When ten minutes later I looked 1
saw the buoy again, still at the
same distance behind us. I
descended deep into the water, but
still saw the buoy floating on the
surface above us. At last | dis
covered that we had caught the
chain of the buoy and that we
were dragging it along with us. At
this time I also saw through the
periscope that a strange small
steamer was steering a course di-
rectly behind us and the buoy. At
the same time my sounding appara-
tus indicated that a screw steamer
was in the vicinity. Observation
revealed that five enemy torpedo
boats were approaching from the
north. I increased the speed of
the boat in the expectation of being
able to attack one of them. The
five torpedo boats arranged them
selves in a circle. I sank still
deeper and got ready for eventu-
alities.
"At this juncture my boat began
to roll in a most incomprehensible
manner. We began to rise and
sink alternately, the steering gear
being apparently out of order.
Soon afterward I discovered that
we had discovered a wire netting
and were h~opelessly entangled in it.
We had, in fact, got into the net
of one of the hunters surrounding
uc.
"For an hour and a half the net
ting carried us with it, and al
though I made every effort to get
clear of it, it seemed impossible.
There was nothing to do but to
increase the weight of the subma-
rine as much as possible so that
I might try to break the netting.
Fortunately when we started I had
pumped in from five to six tons of
water, filling all the tanks.
7 increased the weight of the
boat to the utmost and suddenly
we felt a shock and were clear
of the netting. I then descended
as deeply in the water as I could,
the thermometer showing 80 meters.
We remained under water for IS
hours. When I wanted to ascer-
tain where we were I noticed that
my compass was out of order. For
a time I steered by the green color
of the water. but at last I had to
get rid of the ballast in order to
rise. I then discovered that the
menometer continued to register
the same depth and was also out
of order. I had therefore to be
very careful not to rise too high
and thus attract the attention of
the torpedo boats.
"Slowly the periscope rose abve
the surface and I Guild see the en-
envy in front of us, and toward the
left the east coast of England. l
tried to turn to starboard, but the
rudder did not work. In conse-
Quence I had to sink again to the
bottom of the sea, where I remain
ed six hours, at the end of which
time had succeeded in putting
the compass in order and also in
repairing the steering gear.
"But upon rising this time. we
We're detected by a torpedo boat,
which made straight for us, forcing
me to descend again. I remained
submerged for two hours, then
turned slowly outward and at a
distance of some so meters from
the leading enemy craft passed to-
ward the open sea. At 9 O'Clock in
the evening we were able to rise to
the surface in safety"
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