THE GERMAN SUPER-SUBMARINES

Auckland Star, Volume XLVII, Issue 207, 30 August 1916, Page 8

THE GERMAN SUPER-SUBMARINES

DEUTSCHLAND DESCRIBED.

The Baltimore correspondent of the "Xew York Independent,"' who boarded the Deutschland on her arrival, and interviewed her' captain, gave some interesting details of the vessel. Ho wrote: "The Deutschland has been thoroughly searched by the United States Treasury inspectors and by three submarine ex'pcrts' of the navy, and they pronounce' her -unmistakably a merchantman. She has no torpedoes or torpedo tubes, and does hot* even' carry "the light' rapid-fire"

guns allowed for defensive purposes on commercial vessels. The only weapons found aboard were the revolvers of the officers. "We could see every detail of the submarine's exterior—her two high masts of specially prepared steel known as 'Mannesmann tubes'; her whale-like hull, blue-grey to a couple of feet above water-line, but above that newly-painted sea-green; the queer-shaped bridge with steel steps leading up it; the circular "hatchways fore and aft; the five lifebuoys hanging around the bridge, red as a fireman's shirt, the only bits of startling'''*ol6^ry - y the" r- '' > name'" TJeutsohland,

I Bremen.' painted at three or four places along the sides. Little by little tho green-grey light of a rainy morning revealed the features of the crew, who, ; one at a time, had been coming up from below. They seemed very young; but I was told that none of them was under 21. They were talking and smoking as though their arrival was a mere matter of course. Many of them were wearing suits entirely of leather, with leather boots; others might have been stewards on an ocean liner, to judge from their white coats. "When I got close to Captain Koenig and saw the deep horizontal furrows on

his tanned forehead, the lines between the eyes, and the tired droop to his lips, 1 could see that he was nearly 50, and that, in spite of his high spirits, he had felt the terrible strain of this voyage, the first of its kind in the history of the world. 'She can submerge in exactly one minute,' he ... said. 'That. is "from tho moment of sighting danger to the time she is entirely under water. Just off the Capes, "about 7 o'clock last night, was the last time we dived. We sighted two ships. They looked innocent enough, but we were taking no chances. We were up again at 9; and half an hour after that we

I sighted Cape Henry.' Asked about the | British blockade he said: 'There isn't any. We've proved it.' "The Deutschland. like all the German submarines, is provided with a phonograph and a library. Grieg's 'Peer Gynt' suite was (according to Captain Koenig) the favourite music, and Mark Twain, Brete Harte, and W. W. Jacobs were the favourite authors. The Diesel engines consumed only 85 gallons of fuel oil in making the 3800 miles. The Deutschland carried over about 750 tons of dyestuffg and fine chemicals worth a million dollars, and, since these are light, 300 tons of iron ballast."