veloped that his name was Clarence Reginald
Hodson, his father having been an Englishman, but he was born of a
German mother, had been raised in Germany, and was fully in sympathy
with the German cause. After a trial he was sent to prison for life,
the only man serving such a sentence in the United States on a charge
of piracy.

CHAPTER X

MINOR ENGAGEMENTS AND LOSSES

The beginning of April found growing discontent among neutrals against
the British blockade of Germany and the virtual embargo on many other
nations. Sweden especially demonstrated resentment. The United States
made new representations about the seizure and search of first-class
mail. All of this did not deter the Allies from pursuing their policy
of attrition toward Germany.

The opening day of the month saw the arrival in New York harbor of the
first armed French steamer to reach that port. The _Vulcain_, a
freighter, tied up at her dock with a 47-millimeter quick-firing gun
mounted at the stern. Inquiries followed, with the usual result, and
the advancing days found other French vessels arriving, some of the
passenger liners carrying three and four 75-millimeter pieces, the
famous 75's.

On April 5, 1916, Paris announced that French and British warships had
sunk a submarine at an unnamed point and captured the crew. In this
connection it should be said that many reports were current of
frequent captures made by the Allies of enemy submersibles. The
British seldom admitted such captures, seeking to befog Berlin as to
the fate of her submarines. But there was little doubt that numbers of
them had been taken by both French and British.

An Austrian transport was torpedoed by a French submarine and lost in
the Adriatic, April 8, 1916. Neither the loss of life nor the name of
the vessel was made public by Vienna.

Two days later a Russian destroyer, the _Strogi_, rammed and sunk an
enemy submersible near the spot where the hospital ship _Portugal_ was
torpedoed.

Reports from Paris, April 18, 1916, stated that the French had
captured the submarine that torpedoed the _Sussex_. It was said that
her crew and commander were prisoners, and that documentary evidence
had been obtained on the vessel to prove that she sank the _Sussex_.
The report could not be verified, but Paris semiofficially intimated
that she had indisputable proof that the _Sussex_ was a submarine's
victim. The two incidents coincided so well that the capture of the
vessel w