The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1916-10-23
Deutschland's Most Exciting
Experience in North Sea.
Plunger Stood With Nose in
Mud During a Storm.
THE STERN UP IN THE AIR
And Destroyer Was Hot on the
Trail at the Time.
But First Diving Merchantmen
Came Thru All o. h.

How the merchant submarine
Deutschland dived like a plummet
and crashed bow-On to the floor
OF the ocean: then stood on her
head whirIing dIzzily while a furi-
Gus storm lashed the surface and a
British destroyer secured the sea in
search of her prey. Is narrated in
graphic detail by the U-boat's COM
mander. Capt. Paul Koenig in the
following article
The adventures of the first UNDER
sea merchantmen have formed the
subject of a book written by her
intrepid commander. one of the
chapters of which is herewith re-
produced for the first time in the
United states.
The book published in Germany
has caused a great sensation. The
publishers are Cnestain & Company
Herein Is the story of how the
Deutschland balanced herself on
her head on the bottom of the sea.
reached America. unloaded her
precious cargo. took on another and
returned to the Fatherland:
BY PAUL KOENIG.
We were early to learn the impor-
lance of test submersions and to find
out how infinitely necessary it is to
have the great. heavy boat firmly in
hand, with a keen and constant eye
on all the infinitesimal details.
1 had decided that in TIE following
night. between the darkest hours. be-
tween II and l o'clock, we would trav-
Ell submerged with the "E' engines.
In the dusk of a long summer day
we plunged downward, there was
only a little wind but the sea surEed
high. a sure sign that within a few
hours the wind would grow into a
storm.
About , O'Clock I gave orders to
rise. AZ the boat rose to the sur9
face, its movements became wilder
and wilder. which proved to me that
the storm had come and with it still
higher seas.
occasionally we made vertible leaps,
but we calmly blew out our lights and
got TO the surface in quite orderly
n amer.
we reached the periscope depth
I tried to look around: but it was still
ain Ost impossible to see anything for
every second or so the Ianky weeds
would cut into thick water mountains
Then. too, there was the dawn. which
Tade the waves appear even more I'M
canny and bigger thru the periscope
as they rolled on with their crushing
force
Up to Sur-ace
Then We came completely up to the
surface and 1 mounted the coming
tower to get a correct view of the wild
ly dancing sea
Fine weather this was!
All around us, in the misty dawn.
was a witch's cauldron of wave-bergs
with foaming crowns, toys of the wind.
which blew off their water dust and
sent it sizzling thru the air.
The boat worked hard: it was a
tough tussle. Frequently nutshell that
al To civ
the all-power legend. The whole deck
was flooded of course. Every minute
the sea dashed against the tower. and,
its force broken. trickled past me in a
dense spray rain I chung to the rim
of the "bathtub" and searched the
horizon curious horizon it was. a
mass of water mountains moving STEP
wise in and out one another.
I was just about to give orders to
put on the oil engines-alast What
was that? That dark strip over there,
wasn't that a smoke flag?
But it's already gone, hidden behind
the hack of a rising wave rising into
the dawn gray sky.
I waited and stared thru the gIas
till my eyes ached.
There it was again: it was a dark
smoke flag-and there looki mast
top, thin as needle. but I have ii in
my glass and now. now. bore my
eyes INTO the glass; what Is 1t that
comes out of the veil of waves. that
dark thing over there-the smoke
above it. four low tunnels
Donnerweter. it's a DESTROYER,
Down Quickly.
With one leap 1 am back in the
turret. have closed the tower hatch.
Alarm Submerge quickIy,'-
E'lutten"'-"Depth rudderl'-"Cfo 70
twenty metersi" The commands fol-
lowed one another as in breath. But