returned to her home at Bremen, Germany on August 23.11
Deutschland was in all aspects in 1916, a merchant vessel. She had no torpedo tubes and did not carry the deck guns associated with German U-boats. Her hull, however, was built along the same designs as were the heavily-armed U-boat cruisers that were creating havoc among allied merchant shipping during those first years of the war. These submarines were capable of speeds of fourteen knots on the surface and seven and one-half knots submerged, making them efficient for both commercial and military uses. With a diesel fuel-oil capacity of 240 tons, lengthy cruises of several thousand miles could be expected without refueling.
Was Deutschland’s trip to the U.S. purely commercial, or was she also testing the navigation route to America’s east coast, in anticipation of our entry on the side of Britain and her allies? Captain Koenig, commenting after his successful Atlantic crossing, was not providing any hints as to his true motives, but did complain about Britain’s restrictions on neutral shipping.
Great Britain cannot hinder boats such as ours to go and come as we please. Our trip passing Dover across the ocean was an uneventful one. When danger approached we went below the surface, and here we are, safely in an American port, ready to return in due course. I am not in a position to give you full details of our trip across the ocean, in view of our enemies…. Needless to say that we are quite unarmed and only a peaceful merchantman.12
The allied countries would have none of this, and in August, submitted a joint protest to the U.S. urging “neutral Governments to take effective measures [for] preventing belligerent submarine vessels, whatever the purpose to which they are put, from making use of neutral waters, roadsteads, and ports.” Their concern was that such vessels can navigate unseen and without any controls, and “that it is impossible to identify them and establish their national character, whether neutral or belligerent, combatant or non-combatant, and to remove the capacity for harm inherent in the nature of such vessels.” The allied countries were concerned that neutral ports would effectively become “a base of naval operations” for German submarines operating under the guise of a merchantman.13
At a time when this country was still attempting to keep pressure on Germany to restrain from their relentless submarine warfare against merchant ships, the neutral U.S. was reluctant to distinguish a commercial submarine from a warship. The official reply, sent on August 31, a week after Deutschland had returned to Germany, notified the “Governments of France, Great Britain, Russia, and Japan that so far as the treatment of either war or merchant submarines in American waters is concerned … [the United States] holds it to be the duty of the belligerent powers to distinguish between submarines of neutral and belligerent nationality …”14
Late in September, another submarine was en route from its base at Wilhelmshaven on Germany’s North Sea coast, passing north of the Shetland Islands and down the coast of Newfoundland. It would take seventeen days for this well-armed naval submarine, U-53, to reach the coast of southern New England, where she was sighted three miles east of Point Judith, Rhode Island. At 2:00 p.m. on the seventh of October, U-53, accompanied by the U.S. submarine D-3, entered Narragansett Bay and proceeded to the Naval Station at Newport. When asked about the reason for this unannounced visit, U-boat captain Hans Rose stated that the visit was simply intended “to pay his respects, that he needed no supplies or assistance, and that he proposed to go to sea at 6 o’clock.” American naval officers were invited on board for tours of the vessel and given unexpected access to the submarine’s capabilities. The German officers spoke excellent, or at least understandable, English, and politely answered the American visitors’ questions.15
As promised, U-53 was underway after remaining at the Naval Station less than three hours. The cordial nature of this brief visit ended abruptly the following day when U-53 sank two British ships less than three miles from the Nantucket Lightship.16 Later that day a Norwegian, Dutch, and another British ship fell victim, as this U-bout remained briefly on the east coast before returning to Germany by the first of November.
U-53 during a port visit at Newport, Rhode Island, October 7, 1916. (Courtesy Marist College; Lowell Thomas Archive)
After Deutschland‘s very successful commercial venture across the Atlantic in June, she set out again for America on October 10 … this time headed for New London, Connecticut, again carrying dyestuffs and chemicals. She arrived on the first of November, the same day U-53 had returned to Germany. Leaving on November 17 with a cargo of copper and 360 tons of nickel purchased from Canada in 1914, Deutschland accidentally struck and sank the American Steamship T. A. Scott, Jr. near Race Rock Light, causing her to return to New London for repairs. She finally returned to Germany on December 10.17
The following spring, Deutschland would return to sea as U-155, now fully outfitted with torpedoes and heavily armed as a long range cruiser, operating off the west coast of Spain and around the Azores. During her initial cruise, which lasted 103 days, U-155 sank eleven steamers and eight sailing vessels, including the American schooner John Twohy. In January, 1918, U-155 returned to the waters between the Azores and Spain; during her 108 days at sea, U-155 netted ten steamers and seven sailing vessels. In August, this former merchant submarine returned to America … now a predator.18
Germany’s mercantile submarine Deutschland during her visit to New London, Connecticut, November, 1916. (NHHC NH 43610)
Refitted as U-155, she returned to the east coast of America with a much different mission during the summer of 1918. (NHHC NH 111054)
By the time Deutschland visited the east coast in 1916, the ground war in Europe had raged for two years. German submarines had sunk hundreds of merchant vessels, and it was becoming increasingly obvious to all countries involved that America would soon enter the war effort. This had been a concern for the German hierarchy, and after the sinking of Sussex, had resulted in a reduction of submarine predation on commercial shipping. By the end of 1916, however, increased pressure on politicians forced Germany to relent to the wishes of the navy and acknowledge that the only winning strategy was to return to a policy of unrestricted submarine warfare on commerce. If Germany couldn’t beat the allies in the trenches, then they would starve Britain into submission. If that brought America in on the side of the allies, the war would be over before she could mobilize and begin transporting troops and materials to Europe. It was a strategic gamble.
Germany knew that sending a fleet of battleships to engage the U.S. Navy was not possible; the only alternative would be her long-range cruiser submarines operating along the east coast. Mine fields would be needed across the primary transit lanes from the strategic port of New York and along the Atlantic seaboard as far south as Chesapeake Bay and Cape Hatteras. Knowing full well that the flow of men and materials could not be stopped, Germany hoped to slow the process, forcing a starving Britain and a war-weary France into capitulating before America could become fully involved.
With two successful Atlantic crossings by Deutschland and one by U-53, U-boat commanders could expect a transit time of less than twenty days. Much of the voyage from the protection of their Heligoland base to the coast of America was beyond the reach of allied submarine hunters, already stretched to their limit protecting the British Isles, France, and the Mediterranean. In spite of the loss of Bremen, sister ship of Deutschland, probably after striking a mine, much had been learned. The crossing could be accomplished almost entirely on
