El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1918-06-20

I hospital in very precaILOus c1A1--
I tion-
Officers Are Murdered.
No one doubted that the murders Of
] the four higher officers who had
/ taken part in the lash punishment
; ceremony. only the night before my
E arrival at CuZhaven, was the direct
I result OF such procedure. These -FOUR
] officers were shot by bullets Jnal
I came mysreriously from the direction
+ Of the barracks az which lne crew
+ OF many war vessels were stored dur
ms inaction. -Four shots fired from
/ amongs the 5000 men could not be
: located. Many of these 5000 common
] seameu knew the guilty persons IN
J their ranks but naturally could not
] be persuaded 20 voluntarily betray
/ their fellowmen- Besides such a be-
] trayal being considered highly dis
, honorable there was still stronger
] motive in their reticeuce- No be-
] trayer under suck circumstances
would survive the revenge Of the
the others So proclamation was
z issued that unless the men at the
barracks informed the authorities
/ secretly every seaman in the bar
racks would be subjected 10 SIX
/ lashes each The result was tnal
/ such tactics simply proved the stupid
+ ity OF the high ranking officials sta
toned at CuNhaVeu. No less than
four hundred names were reported
I secretly. under a secret ballot scheme
And even then. instead OF regarding
7 this as a good joke perpetrated az
their expense they summoned al
these men, and in groups, submitted
them TO severe examinations
The final result proved that the
] common seaman had little honor and
were anxious 10 Detray each otner
for the sake Of escaping from the
threatened six lashes 1t proved tnal
among the seamen there was not
D solidarity. Besides betraylng the
I four of their fellowmen who had
T mysteriously sniped at four officials
Of the punishment dignitaries. they
further betrayed nearly 50 DINERS
and testified against them, lnNolFlIls
them with plots Of serious uprislngs,
much Of which found credence only IN
their own imaginations. At the end
{ Of the investigation the naval auth
critics had few more than
so seamen in their hands who were
accused Of various crimes. bordering
on high treason These men were
given six hours 70 make complete
/ confession as 10 their parts in the
various plots. In two hours the
authorities had % men as candidates
/ for execution.
Fleet Prepares for Battle
While at Cuxhaven noticed how
F intensely busy our fleet was making
=
Battleships entered the inner harbJrs,
battleships left the harbOr, torpedo
boats Of all descriptions and destroy
ers of all sizes and types crulsed
hither and thither, while every meas
ure was being taken TO man our en-
tire reserve undersea craft with new
crews. Cuxhaven being the nearest
one OF our principal naval bases 20
the mouth Of the EieI canal on the
EIbe. it was natural that the in
tensity Of our naval movements was
most obvious at that region Near
the Modem sand where theTe is a
clear channel about six fathouis deep.
more than 20 mighty dredEes were
busy day and night. broadening the
waterway.
ships MysterIously Sunk.
Hundreds Of scientific divers were
engaged in removing certain vessels
mysteriousIy sunk at the channel. !
have heard many versions regard
ing the sinking Of these ships ] was
told, once by an officer ut CuNhaVen
since the war that eight ships Of
heavy displacement were sunk IN the
roadway. But nobody knew 10 a
reasonable certainty how many ships
went TO the bottom or how they went.
I am under the impression that there
has been some kind Of a serious dis
as TO the identity or the numoer OF
the suuken vessels only the very
highest officials knew the whole
truth
If it is true that such a serious
disorder took place it Is natural that
none OF the seamen taking part IN IL
would be available 20 tell the tale
But this much IS fact that during
my commission at CuXhaven hundreds
Of divers were at work mining OBJ
/ jects under water and mighty drecges
were employed in removing obstacles
t o
face. After every explosion 1ollOW-
ing the mining OF these oobjects IN
der water the surface Of the waters
would be covered with woodwork
that goes into the furnishings OF
ships interior Immediately a fleet
OF heavy bottomed drifters with wire
nettiugs would swtep the area be-
tween Platenerdau and CuXhaven.
width Of about nine or ten miles
Portions Of Yard Closed
It must be kept in mind that GER
tain inner portions Of the harbor,
repair dockyards, assembly docks and
experimental stations are closed to
all naval men in active duty The
officers on active sea duty are not
permitted TO know much. The rea-
son for such precaution is that in
case Of desertion OF capture by the
enemy these men would know very
little that is essential to impart 70
our enemies
But too many things are happening
at our bases TO be successfully kept
secret from the officers mess ROOM
For instance, one Of the divers en-
lpl0yed in mining certain sunken
vessel at the mouth Of the Elbe told
fellow-officer that the war vessels
that were sunk were the -W1ttel-
bach" and" Markgarf" The wood
work that came to the surface after
the mining Of the ships were the un-
controvertible evidences Of Identity
Yet every naval officer at any one
Of our bases knows, that two Of our
battle cruisers this very day bear
these names. The natural conclusion
is that Immediately after the destruc-
tiou Of the two war vessels that
originally bore these names our ad-
miralty must have named others with
these titles
JutIand Losses Heavy.
i is common knowledge among
the naval circles at our bases that
nearly as many Of our war vessels
that took part in the battle Of Jut-
land were lost TO us later as we're
admitted by our admiralty.
Therefore it is possible that it IS
some Of the vessels that made for
our home port after the battle Of
Jutland that sank in the waters Of
Weser-
During my short submarine COM
mission at CuNhaveu I was perfectly
aware of the fact that at any time an
order would transfer me TO another
commission. Once or twice I even
received intimation that I would be
sent TO Emden where I would be put
IN charge OF a station training raw
recruits in the under-sea service.
But instead, one day I received an