Читать книгу Kelly Miller's History of the World War for Human Rights - Kelly Miller - Страница 192

The submarine is the sudden and amazing problem of the naval world. While naval men assert with confidence that it can never win the mastery of the seas, in the same breath they will admit that it may easily prevent the older and better known types of ships from establishing the mastery that was once theirs. It is an anomaly in warfare.

Many are the tales of horror told by survivors of ships which have been torpedoed by the undersea boats of the Teutons. The lordly Lusitania, on board of which were some of the leading lights of literature and some of the world's wealthy men, was sent to the bottom without the least warning. Neutral shipping has been devastated, and men, women and children have been murdered by the hand of the Kaiser, as exemplified in the lurking submarine.

One of the dastardly tragedies of the war was the sinking of the Lars Kruse, a ship flying the Danish flag and which had been chartered by the Belgian Relief Commission. This was sunk in the early part of February, 1917, and the crew of nineteen men, together with the captain and other officers, with the exception of the first mate and Axel Moeller, the first engineer, perished in the bitter cold sea. No warning was given by the attacking submarine; indeed, no sight of it was had by the crew. Delivering its torpedo as it lay submerged, it silently stole away into the night after the murders had been done.

In the maritime court in Copenhagen Mr. Moeller tells of the sinking of the ship. Dressed as the regulations of the German autocrat demanded, with the balloon, flag and bunting displayed at each of the mastheads, together with other marks of identification, the ship was steaming along in the bright moonlight when she was struck, according to the testimony of the engineer.