GERMAN SUBMARINE

Feilding Star, Volume XII, Issue 3022, 17 August 1916, Page 3

GERMAN SUBMARINE

ARRIVAL AT BALTIMORE

MESSAGE FROM THE KAISER

A TALKATIVE CAPTAIN

The arrival of the German submarine Detitficliland at Baltimore on July 9, from Germany, created great interest in America. The vessel carried a cargo of 750 tons of dyestufl's, valued at 1,000,000 dollars, but had on board more than dyestuJfs. She. carried a bundle of papers from the Foreign Olhco in Berlin sealed with the seal of the Foreign Office. It was intimated that in the bundle was some sorb of a communication from the Kait.cv to President Wilson. Bub, Capt. Koenig asserted, as did the representatives of the Deutsch Ozean Rhederei, of Bremen, owners of the craft, that she canned no message to the President. In fact, Captain" Koenig laughed heartily when that possibility was suggested, says an American paper, but the- rumour persisted 'that some sort of important communication was i nthe packet. A personal representative of the German Ambassador visited the vessel and took the packet away. In the course,-of an interview the captain at every turn tried to impress his hearers with the fact that he feared nothing in tlio world as long a.s he could dive. That was the sure nnd certain way to get away from the pursuers or from anybody else who threatened trouble. The captain could not remember how many times he had submerged, but he said the log would show. The'reporters wisely refrained from asking him to show the log-book. The last time he dived was comparatively a few miles off, the Capes, lhe cause of his diving was believed to be a fruit vessel from AVest Indies to New York. The rule. " Dive when you sight a vessel," was never devated from. The confidence that the captain had in his ability to get away from danger surprised his hearers. A question, about microphones elicited the information that the submarine had two aboard her, and they had been very useful. Captain Koenig said who iihe was six miles off the Virginia coast he had heard the whistling buoy in that vicinity. These microphones have a telephone attachment and the auditor who is using them can distinguish tlio churning noisu ot a ■propeller from the exhaust <>f a. gasolene engine. Generally speaking, they can detect and classify most of tlio .sounds that could bo heard by ati ocean-going craft, and it matters not whether they art) sub-surhice or above burlace. , One of the statements he made, and which was* received with much scepticism, was his ability to go down 3000 ft., of 30 fathoms, as he put it. "Or course, we did not go down that far," ho admitted. "We didn fc go down more than half of that." Submarine experts of the United States Navy consider the depth of 1200 feet, it is said, to be about the danger limit. At that depth tlio pressure is considered to bo about all the steel shells of the submarine can stand. The Deutschland left Brcnicrhavcn iwith ISO tons of oil, and she had in her tanks 95 torn-; on her arrival. Of the 20 tons of fresh water that she started witth only about 10 remained. It was quite apparent that the Dej.itHchiand meant to have enough fuel and equipment to bo able to return to Germany if anything happened to her while she lay on the American coast. But Captain Keenig insisted that there never was any danger.