The Washington times., 1918-03-15
GERMANS USING
CAPTURED SUBS,
VICTIM ASSERTS

The U-boats are not sufficient, It
seems, for now the Germans are turn
| ing submarines of the British navy
| against British vessels. Through
British torpedo tubes German tor
pedoes are sliding to sink ships of
the United States, Great Britain, and
her allies.
This In effect Is the story told by
Private J. Walter Conley. Company
A, Thirty-seventh Engineers. station
ed at Fort Myer. He should know
something Of the German submarines,
he points out, as three times he has
had thrilling, but unpleasant and un-
profitable, experiences with them
Private Conley, who 10 now tinker
ing with engines for Uncle Sam 5
army, was q marine engineer before
he got into his khaki uniform, and
while he was twisting stop-cocks and
| trying steam gauges way down In
| the bowels of the ship" so often
mentioned In stories OF the sea, he
became acquainted with submarine
etiquette.
Twice TSrpeAsed.
Twice the ship on which he was
serving as second engineer was tor
pedoed and once was almost sunk by
U-boat shellfire. And besides this he
was wounded when buried In q Lon
don cellar during Zeppelin raid and
has served in the French army, as a
civilian engineer. And all this At the
age OF twentytwo.
~ that fhA GArrnan4 have
turned captured British submarines
against the British themselves came
out in Private Conley's story Of the
fate of the good ship Ramsholnl, which
was torpedoed off the coast Of Spain
May Z, 1917. Private Conley, speak
ing IN good Yankee-ese, tells the story
as follows:
I'VE were only about eight miles on
the coast Of Spain In the Bay OF Biscay.
when, without the slightest warning.
there was q report and a solid shell
sailed over our bows and pumped into
the water. We looked around. but the
only things in sight were several little
Spanish fishing vessels lying near.
Kept Our Course. -
I'VE kept on our course, trying to
spot the SUBJ for we knew. Of course.
that the shot must have come from one
Of the German divers.
pretty soon here comes another pop
on somewhere beyond US, and another
shot sails over Us. Then there was no
doubt, although, even then, we had not
been able to spot the German yet
The captain ordered all the engine
room crew below and gave the order
for fun steam ahead or course, that
meant that We had violated the rules OF
the sea and that the German submarine
commander had q right to 20 as far as
he liked with US In such little matters
as sinking US with shell ere or blowing
US up with torpedoes.
HE chose the latter course. Our cap
tain had ordered full steam ahead and
had pointed the nose Of the ship toward
the Spanish coast. eight miles away. He
was going to try to beat the Germans
to the shore and save the ship by beach
ing her.
"But It didn't work Those Germans
are too quick on the trigger. The Ger
man didn't have any trouble In the
world making a bulls eye shot At
range Of 1000 yards.
waited For ~FrttES
But I'm getting ahead OF my story
about the British submarine. Our
captain finally saw that there was no
use in trying to run, and we came
about and waited for the German TO
come up. He drew up alongside OF
us and sent an officer and several
men on board to look at our ships
papers.
"I was ordered to hold out a boat
hook to one Of the men on the deck OF
the submarine and help hold the little
devil steady in her position there.
81 wasn't more than a few feet from
the end of the thing, and I saw
plainly that the name 'E-35' had been
knocked off. The name had been put
on in steel bands of some sort, and l
could see where the Germans had
Just knocked the bands off with a
cold -chiseI and then painted the place
over, But II wasn't a good Job, and
I could see plainly that the name had
been ESQ
| Ordered to Boats
AFTER the German had had a good
peek at the papers we were told to
get into the boats. He drew off and
fired his torpedo and we rowed TO the
coast Of Spain. And that was all
there was to It."
"All the German subs ! ever heard
of were Of the u class The British
have a lot of 'E' boats. Some OF
them were lost In the Baltic a couple
of years ago. Then there was that
British sub that the Germans chased
into Swedish territorial waters some
time ago and finally forced onto the
beach. The Britisher was sheIled by
the Germans and the crew-well, the
crew, they just left.
Naturally. What became of the
submarine was never known as far
as know and there was talk among
. us that in the light OF the question
able quality of Swedish neutrality and
especially in the light of the altered
] name on the boat the one that held