The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1917-07-03
'U-BOAT. BASE IN :.
ship LANE FOUND
+ ON irish ISLAND
Six Ringleaders Put tc
Death-Many Others
In Plot.

An Atlantic Port, July 3.-From Off
|cers of an American steamship which
has arrivesd1 here it was learned yes
:terda.y that vessels of the British pa
|itrol fleet on duty off the North oftIre-
Hand discovered a German submarine
base on Tory Island two weeks ago.
This island is nine miles long, and
liz miles from the Irish coast, off the
sCounty of Donegal. The Americans
l.learned that six men, who were found
to have been the ringleaders in sup
Iplying u boats were shot. "A guam
tity of fuel oil was conhScated, to-
gether with provisions, and from talks
the British officers had with the is
landers it was believed German COM
n1anders also were getting from the
island reports Of the movements OF
British vessels.
|. MANY men and women We're SAID TO
have had a part in the supplying or
the IT boats, but most of them were
given to understand they were Amer
| Jean submarines The crews never
came ashore and the boats flew no
flags Some of the six men who en-
gineered the scheme rowed out to the
vessels in fishing dories with their
supplies. Almost invariably the sub
marines put in an appearance after
dark and disappeared before dawn.
! How long the base had been estab-
Hshed was not ascertained, but it was
believed to have existed for several
months.
| Many of the largest vessels torpe-
dloed have been sent to their doom off
Tory Island since the middle of April.
The island us on the lane of steam
ships entering and leaving the North
| Channel between Ireland and Scot
land. This channel has been used by
many vessels seeking the open Allan
tic of late, instead of going down the
| Irish Sea. around to the south of Ire
land as it was figured that once
through the short channel the vessels
would be in the open sea and have far
Hess distance to travel in submarine
waters than in the Irish Sea.
The toll of vessels off the north coast
of Ireland has been large lately, and
time and again steamships have been
sent into Tough Swiftly and Lough
Foyle upon the report of U boats be-
ing sighted, to remain there is groups
for days. ~
Many have been sunk shortly after
tthey left there upon receiving word
that the coast was clear. Many have
been caught by their hulls being out
lined in. the moonlight and others when
they were silhouetted by the setting
4 sun.
/ Because of the frequent operations
of u boats thereabouts, small patro
boats were sent into all the small bays
to ascertain if there was a base in any
Of them. After several days search, i
was learned that the boats had beer
to Tory Island. and a summary ques
tioning of the Inhabitants resulted il
the rounding up of the guilty six.
There is a, lighthouse on the north
west side of Tory island and the deer
j water between there and the main
land is known as Tory Sound. The 80,
inhabitants of the island are chief,
fishermen and ke1p gatherers. The.
elect their own king and did not pa!
rent or taxes for many years. In 1870
wholesale ejectment papers wers
served on the people.
The inhabitants retain many prtim
tive customs of tenure and social re
lationship. The original Celtic triba
customs also are in force. There is
strong mixture of Spnish blood still
traceable, due to descent from surviv
ors of the Spanish Armada wrecked
there about 1888.