The Story of the Great War, Volume 3: History of the European War from Official Sources
History
The Story of the Great War, Volume 3: History of the European War from Official Sources
World War, 1914-1918
The _Kronprinz Wilhelm's_ career as a raider ended on April 11, 1915,
when, like the _Prinz Eitel Friedrich_, she succeeded in getting past
the British cruisers and slipped into Newport News, Virginia. How this
former Hamburg-American liner had slipped out of the harbor of New
York on the night of August 3, 1914, with her bunkers and even her
cabins filled with coal and provisions, with all lights out and with
canvas covering her port holes has already been told. From that date
until she again put in at an American port she captured numerous
merchant ships, taking 960 prisoners and doing damage amounting to
more than $7,000,000. She kept herself provisioned from her captives,
and it was only the poor condition of her plates and boilers that made
her captain give up raiding when he did. Her movements had been
mysterious during all the time she was at large. She was known to have
reprovisioned the cruiser _Dresden_ and to have taken an almost
stationary position in the South Atlantic in order to act as a
"wireless station" for the squadron of Admiral von Spee. But when the
latter was defeated off the Falkland Islands, she resumed operations
as a raider of commerce. When she came into Newport News more than 60
per cent of her crew were suffering from what was thought to be
beri-beri; she had but twenty-one tons of coal in her bunkers and
almost no ammunition.
The total damage inflicted on the commerce of the Allies by the
_Emden_, _Karlsruhe_, _Kronprinz Wilhelm_, _Prinz Eitel Friedrich_,
_Koenigsberg_, _Dresden_ and _Leipzig_ amounted, by the end of May,
1915, to $35,000,000. Sixty-seven vessels had been captured and sunk
by them.
In the Dardanelles the naval operations were resumed, to some extent,
during the month of May, 1915. For a number of weeks after the allied
fleet had made the great attempt to force the Dardanelles on March 19,
1915, their commanders attempted no maneuvers with the larger ships,
but the submarines were given work to do. On April 27, 1915, the
British submarine _E-14_, under command of Lieutenant Commander Boyle,
dived and went under the Turkish mine fields, reaching the waters of
the Sea of Marmora. In spite of the fact that Turkish destroyers knew
of its presence and hourly watched for it in the hope of sinking it,
this submarine was able to operate brilliantly for some days, sinking
two Turkish gunboats and a laden transport. Similar exploits were
performed by Lieutenant Commander Nasmith with the British submarine
_E-11_, which even damaged wharves at the Turkish capital.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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