The Hawaiian gazette., 1917-07-03
TANIALUSDODG[S
HUM SUBMARINE
BY CLEVER RUSE
Blue Funnel Vessel Arrives
Here After Trickino German
i ! Spies and Divers I
STOPS IN HONOLULU TO GET
I. SUPPLIES FOR BUNKERs
az 90 ia aHH.his ..s94,D
First Tramp Steamer TO Visit
This Port In Months Not
In War Trade

After q long voyage direct from Am.
sterdam, the English owned Dutch
steamer Tantalus arrived in port yes
terday afternoon at FIVE o o'clock TO
prove that while Hun submarines are
hard TO beat, il can be done.
This vessel, a typical "Blue funnel.
err and like the vessels of that famous
line, owned by the Alfred Hunt inter.
ests, has nevertheless been under the
Dutch nag for seventeen years. She
y notable in local shipping records as
being one Of the few tramp steamers
not m the war trade using this port for
a coahng station. While she is British
owned, she Is nevertheless a true neu.
trail and in neutral trade, being bound
for the Dutch East Indies. T.
( The Tantalus did two things on leay
ing Amsterdam on the voyage out. She
proved that the Germans have ears and
a tongue In every port. She also
proved that they haven I always got
brains, popular superstition to the con.
trary. a..-" y .".I@@s
. Before leaving the Dutch port the
muster publicly announced his sailing
date to- the town at large. He made
no secret of the fact that he was TO
sail on a certain day just before night.
faii and he went ahead with his sail
ing Preparations open to all.
81 And he sailed, too, exactly on the
minute that he had announced and
headed out for the North Sea in beau
.tiful contempt of all undersea murder.
eTs and their ilk. OF course, sailing
AZ the time he did, he soon was shroud.
ed in darkness and under cover of this
he put out his lights and turned back
TO port. ~
The red, white and blue Of the Dutch
cciors are painted brightly fore and
aft on the steamer and the words
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES" cover
her entire sides, but the master was
not counting on the regard Of German
submarines for neutral eolors or neu.
trail vessels, or for that matter, neutral
and innocent trade. He turned back as
aforesaid. just before daylight he
went out again on crooked course,
all power on, slipped through the Chan
mel and out into the Atlantic without
ever sighting U-boat.
He was spoken and examined by
one British vessel after another, as a
matter Of course.
From them no learned that two fish
ing vessels had been sunk at midnight
of the night they thought he sailed
exactly at the spot where he would
have been had he actually steamed out
instead of turning back.
The Tantalus was built at Greenock
in 1892, and is consequently twenty
five years of age, for seventeen years
of which she has been flying Dutch
colors. Her officers and crew are all
NetherlRnders. She is registered for
1882 tons net and is loaded with yalu-
able cargo for the East Indies. Her
ports there will be Samarang, Surabayo
and Batavia. ts9s..
Practically all freighters passing
through this port for coal for the past
three years have been war carriers
bound for Vladivostok loaded with Rus
sian supplies. There have been few
scattered vessels bound for Chinese or
Philippine ports, particularly from Tex
as, with case oil, but they have been
50 far in the minority that they have
raised the question as to whether most
of Honoluu's Panama Canal transit
trade will not disappear after the war.
Fhe Tantaius is one of the first not
passenger vessel bound for the Dutch
East Indies to make this port of call.
She will take two hundred and forty
tons Of coal and is expected TO leave
FOR the south this afternoon at three
o clock. H.,