The daily banner. (Cambridge, Md.) 1897-2008, 1918-06-05

This is the second submarine cam
paign which Germany has conducted
on the coast OF the United States.
The first was that of the U-53, which
on Oct. s, 1916, held up CoastWlse
traffic off Nantucket and sank tour
British, one Dutch, and one Nor
wegian ship.
At that time Ambassador Gerard
was about to land in New York OH a
vacation trip home from Berlin, or
which, as is now known, he warned
the President that the party in Ger
many favoring an unrestricted sub
marine war was rapidly gaining the
ascendancy and that open violation
of the pledges not to sink passenger
ships Without warning, which haQ
been extracted from Germany in the
previous year, might be expected be
fore much time had passed. AS a
matter of fact, it came somewhat
less than four months later. 1t has
been considered that the activities
of the U-53 were designed as an at
tempt to terrorize the United States
Government by holding up the pos
sibility of a submarine campaign in
American waters.
The U-53, commanded by Lieut..
Capt. Hans Rose and mounting two
four-inch guns and four torpedo tu-
bes, appeared Off Newport on the af-
ternoon Of Saturday, Oct. Z, 1916.
She entered the harbor, where the
Atlantic fleet lay at anchor at the
time, and stayed somewhat more
than three hours While there her
commander paid formal calls on the
II nE "a naval n tinn and
of the fleet, and large numbers of
visitors were allowed on board. To
the first newspaper men to board the
boat the commander gave letter to
be mailed 10 Count Won BernstOrf,
the German Ambassador.
The U-53 left in the late after
noon, and on the following morning
began her campaign against British
and neutral shipping in the steamer
lanes off Nantucket. There had been
little warning, and the ships were
taken unaware. Those sunk were the
5000 ton Red Cross liner Stephano,
from Halifax 10 New York, with
eighty-three passengers, including
many Americans; the British freight
ers Strathdene, West Point, and
Kingston, inward bound; the Dutch
freighter Bloomersdijk, from New
York to Rotterdam, and the Norwe-
gian freighter kristian knudsen,
from New York TO London. The
American Hawaiian liner Kansan
was halted ana allowed to proceed
after examination of her papers.
In all these cases time was given
for the passengers and crews to leave
the ships and take to open boats.
The American destroyer fiotilla left
Newport as soon as the wireless calls
for help sounded, and rescued the
refugees without loss, the destroyers
actually being present when some Of
the ships were sunk. S--s====--------
Thfs-created tremendous excite
ment; there was drop in stocks, ,and
a submarine blockade of the Amer1-
can coast, with the result of serious
damage to shipments from this coun-
try to England and France, was pre-
dicted. For a time there was con-
siderable dislocation in shipping cir
cles, but most of the British liners
sailed as usual, and the U-53 did not
appear again after her one days
work, which was apparently intended
as a demonstration.
She had been preceded to this
country by the merchant submarine
Deutschland, which arrived at Balt-
more on July 8, 1916, from Bremen,
and went back after taking on car