they lull so peacefully to sleep
the sailor in his eternal rest.

In this manner, on a fine March morning, we steered our course to the
English coast, to take an active part in the commercial war. Gently
the waves splashed around the prow and glided over the lower deck. Our
duty was to examine every merchantman we met with the object of
destroying those of the enemy. The essential thing was to ascertain
the nationality of the ships we stopped. On the following morning, we
were given several opportunities to fulfill our task.

It is well known that the English merchantmen were ordered by their
Government to fly a neutral flag, so as to avoid being captured by our
warships. We all remember how, on one of her earlier trips through the
war zone, the gigantic "Lusitania" received a wireless message to
conceal the Union Jack and to fly the Stars and Stripes of the United
States, but destiny after all overtook her at a later date.

All of us U-boat commanders were told not to trust to the nationality
of any flag we saw, and to stop every steamer on our path and to
examine her papers thoroughly. Even these might be falsified, and we
must therefore judge for ourselves, according to the appearance of
the crew and the way in which the ship was built, whether she were in
reality a neutral. Of course many neutrals had to suffer from the
deceptions practiced by the English, and although their colors were
painted on their sides and they were lighted at night by electricity,
yet this device could also be copied. Therefore, we were obliged to
detain and examine all the ships we encountered, greatly to the
inconvenience of the innocent ones.

I will describe the manner in which a warship undertakes the search of
a merchantman: Through flag signals the merchantman is bidden to stop
immediately; if he does not obey, the warship makes his orders more
imperative by firing blank shot as a warning. If then the merchantman
tries to escape, the warship is justified in hitting the runaway. On
the other hand, if the steamer or sailboat obeys the summons, then the
warship puts out a boat with an armed prize crew and an officer to
look over the ship's papers. These consist in certificates of
nationality, of the sailing port, and port of destination, and they
contain a bill of lading as to the nature of the cargo, also the names
of the crew and a passenger list if it is a passenger steamer. If the
ship is a neutral and her papers are satisfactory