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
But this same submarine managed to do other damage. The American
steamship _Nebraskan_ was in the neighborhood on its way to New York.
The sea was calm and the ship was traveling at 12 knots, when some
time near nine o'clock in the evening a shock was felt aboard. A
second later there came a terrific explosion, and a subsequent
investigation showed that a large hole, 20 feet square, had been torn
in her starboard bow, not far from the water line. When she began to
settle the captain ordered all hands into the small boats. They stayed
near the damaged ship for an hour and saw that she was not going to
sink. When they got aboard again they found that a bulkhead was
keeping out the water sufficiently to allow her to proceed under her
own steam. In crippled condition she made for port, being convoyed
later by two British warships which answered her calls for help.
In spite of the sharp diplomatic representations which were at the
time passing back and forth between Germany and the United States over
the matter of the German submarine warfare, the craft kept up as
active a campaign against merchant ships as they did before the issues
became pointed. On May 28, 1915, there came the news that three more
ships had been sent to the bottom. The _Spennymoor_, a new ship, was
chased and torpedoed off Start Point, near the Orkney Islands. Some of
her crew were drowned when the lifeboat in which they were getting
away capsized, carrying them down. On the same day the large liner
_Argyllshire_ was chased and fired upon by the deck guns of a hostile
submarine, but she managed to get away. Not so fortunate, however, was
the steamship _Cadesby_. While off the Scilly Islands on the afternoon
of May 28, 1915, a German submarine hailed her, firing a shot from a
deck gun across her bows as a signal to halt. Time was given for the
crew and passengers to get into small boats, and when these were at a
distance from the ship the deck guns of the submarine were again
brought into action, and after firing thirty shots into her hull they
sank her. The third victim was the Swedish ship _Roosvall_. She was
stopped and boarded off Malmoe by the crew of a German submarine.
After examining her papers they permitted her to proceed, but later
sent a torpedo into her, sinking her.
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