The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-01-26
CAUGHT BY NETS
CREW OF U-BOAT
EFFECTS ESCAPE

Budapest, Hungary, Jan. 26-NavaI
Lieutenant Wenninger, commander of
the German submarine U-17, which
torpedoed the French steamer Grave
line, gives the following description Of
how his submarine was caught in the
net of an English boat off the east
coast of England and how under the
most difficult circumstances he sue
ceeded 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. 81
looked through the periscope," he
continued, land could see a red buoy
behind my boat. When 10 minutes
later I looked I saw the buoy again.
still at the same distance behind u.s.
I steered to the right and then to
the left, but the buoy kept on follow
ing us. I descended deep into the
water but still saw the buoy floating
on the surface above US. At last I
discovered that we had caught the
chain of the buoy and that we were
dragging it along with US. At this
time also saw through the periscope
that q strange small steamer was
steering a course directly behind US
and the buoy. At the same time my
sounding apparatus 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 eventuaIittes
cat this juncture my boat began
to roll in a most incomprehensfb Bile
manner. We began to rise and sink
alternately, the steering gear being
apparently out of order. Soon after
wards discovered that we had en-
countered a wire netting and was
hopelessly entang1ed in it. We had,
in fact, got into the net Of one of the
hunters surrounding US.
For an hour and a half the netting
carried US with it, and although
made every effort to get clear of it,
it seemed impossible There was
nothing to do but to increase the
weight in the submarine as much as
p ossible so that I might try ITO break
the netting. For tunate1y when we
started / had pumped in from five
to six tons of water, filling all the
tanks. I increased the weight of the
boat to the utmost and suddenly we
felt a shock and were clear Of the
netting. then descended as deeply
in the water as could. the menome-.
ter showing 80 meters. We remain
ed unde- water for 18 hours When
wanted to ascertain where we were,
I noticed that my compass was out
of order. For a, time steered ~
the green color of the water, but at
last [ had to get rid of the ballast
in order to rise. I then discovered
that the thermometer continued to reg
lister 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
above the surface and could see the
enemy in front of me, and towards
the left the east coast of England. I
tried to turn to starboard, but the
rudder did not work In Consequence
I had to sink again to the bottom of
the sea where remained for six
hours, at the end Of which time I had
succeeded in putting the compass in
order and also in repairing the steer
ing gear. But upon rising this time,
we were detected by a torpedo -boat
which made straight for US, forcing
me to descend again remained sub
merged for two hours, then turned
slowly outwards and at a distance of
some SO meters from the leading enc
my craft passed towards the open sea.
AT O. clock in the evening we were
able to rise to the surface in safe
fV 4