The German Pirate

Extract from the book… James Rose, second hand, was on the deck of the British sailing trawler Trevone at half-past three in the afternoon of 30th January, 1917, when a German submarine suddenly appeared on the surface and opened fire. Her second shot hit the peak halyards, and the master and crew immediately took to their boat. They were ordered alongside the submarine and told to board her.

In attempting to obey, the master and cook were both washed overboard. These two men could casily have been rescued, but the Germans took not the slightest notice of them. The master was seen hanging on to the submarine's side, aft, for over ten minutes, but finally disappeared.

The remaining three hands were searched and relieved of their knives and money. They then had to write their names and ages upon a piece of paper, and were afterwards taken before the commanding officer, who examined them through a junior officer who spoke English.

The men noticed several chocolate-coloured bags hanging in the submarine, marked U55. They were given tea, and at 5 p.m. the U-boat sub-merged, and appeared to be stationary until 10 p.m., although the engines were kept running.

She then came to the surface and remained there all night. The men were given hammocks to sleep in, but could not sleep, so talked to the submarine's crew, who said they had sunk seven sailing vessels that day. At 9 a.m. next morning they had breakfast; at 10.45 they were ordered on deck, and received their knives back. The German officers kept eight shillings of their money.

Finally they were sent off in the boat of a French schooner, and were fortunate enough to be picked go five hours later.

The worst feature of this case is the callous disregard shown by the Germans when the master and cook fell into the sea. These two men were allowed to drown right under the eyes of the Germans. After all, the poor fellows were only trying to carry out the U-boat commander's order when they fell overboard, and the dictates of common decency would have caused any ordinary civilised man to have made at least some sort of effort to rescue them. No great effort would have been necessary: their own comrades could have picked up both men, if the Germans had allowed this.

Instead, the commander preferred to leave the master clinging to the side of the submarine until the icy winter water and his failing strength obliged the wretched man to relax his hold and sink to his death. It is a disgusting incident, which fills the mind with indignation against the man who could permit such a thing to happen.

Unfortunately, we cannot put these Germans down as exceptional types. From what happened afterwards, they appear to have been just ordinary members of the U-boat service. They did not, for example, ill-treat their prisoners while on board the submarine; and beyond the theft of a few shillings by the German officers, the trawler's crew had no ground for complaint. The whole incident shows the low standard of morality prevailing among German submariners. Two men allowed to drown; eight shillings stolen from the survivors. That is all, and apparently such trifling incidents are taken as a matter of course in the German submarine service. What can be said for such men? How can normal people understand their motives?

CREDIT: The German Pirate by Ajax