The Story of the Great War, Volume V (of 12): Neuve Chapelle, Battle of Ypres, Przemysl, Mazurian Lakes
History
The Story of the Great War, Volume V (of 12): Neuve Chapelle, Battle of Ypres, Przemysl, Mazurian Lakes
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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