ich had stopped up
the opening of the manometer. But the difficulty was overcome, and he
was able to pass under water between the British ships which were on the
lookout. His return home was a triumph. Hundreds of thousands of people
gathered along the banks of the Weser, filled with the greatest
enthusiasm. Poems were written in his honor and his appearance was
everywhere greeted with enthusiastic applause. The Germans felt sure
that through the Deutschland and similar boats they had broken the
British blockade.

Captain Koenig made a second voyage, landing at New London, Connecticut,
on November 1st, where he took on a cargo of rubber, nickel and other
valuable commodities. On November 16th, in attempting to get away to
sea, he met with a collision with the tug T. A. Scott, Jr., and had to
return to New London for repairs. He concluded his voyage, however,
without difficulty. In spite of his success the Germans did not make any
very great attempt to develop a fleet of submarine cargo boats.

The other German act which brought home to Americans the possibilities
of the submarine, the visit of the U-53, was a very different sort of
matter. U-53 was a German submarine of the largest type. On October 7,
1916, it made a sudden appearance at Newport, and its captain,
Lieutenant-Captain Hans Rose, was entertained as if he were a welcome
guest. He sent a letter to the German Ambassador at Washington and
received visitors in his beautiful boat. The U-53 was a war submarine,
two hundred and thirteen feet long, with two deck guns and four torpedo
tubes. It had been engaged in the war against Allied commerce in the
Mediterranean. Captain Rose paid formal visits to Rear-Admiral Austin
Knight, Commander of the United States Second Naval District, stationed
at Newport, and Rear-Admiral Albert Gleaves, Commander of the American
destroyer flotilla at that place, and then set out secretly to his
destination.

On the next day the news came in that the U-53 had sunk five merchant
vessels. These were the Strathdene, which was torpedoed; the West Point,
a British freighter, also torpedoed; the Stephano, a passenger liner
between New York and Halifax, which the submarine attempted to sink by
opening its sea valves but was finally torpedoed; the Blommersdijk, a
Dutch freighter, and the Christian Knudsen, a Norwegian boat. The
American steamer Kansan was also stopped, but allowed to proceed. When
the submarine began its work wireless signa