At the outbreak of World War I in 1912, the United States declared its neutrality, and it remained neutral until April 6, 1917. That neutrality didn’t equate to being absolved from indirect involvement in the War.

A SURPRISE VISIT

Likely as a means of collecting intelligence about Allied shipping from the United States, a German U-boat paid an unannounced visit to Newport Harbor in Rhode Island on October 7, 1916.

Germany had been engaged in World War I for about 2 years at the time the U-boat was detected off the shore of Rhode Island. The U-boat’s captain was not concerned about being attacked because the United States was still officially neutral in the conflict.  America was, however, producing and shipping military supplies to the countries engaged in the warfare against Germany.

Kapitanleutant Hans Rose, the skipper of the German U-boat, made a formal request to enter Newport Harbor and permission was granted.

An American submarine, the SS 18, accompanied the German U-boat to a location near the U.S. Naval War College, granting permission for it to anchor near the United States destroyer group in port at that location.  The U-boat was allowed to anchor near the USS Birmingham, the flag ship of Admiral Albert Gleaves.

The Ruse

Captain Rose while ashore invited U.S. Naval officers and their wives to tour his U-boat, the U-53, an invitation that was gladly accepted.  The German submarine was 212-feet long, capable of doing 15 knots on the water and 11 knots underwater.  It had two-fore and two-aft torpedo tubes along with two deck guns.  Of particular interest was the location of its ballast tanks that allowed it to carry more fuel, increasing its range to over 7,000 miles. The Americans noticed that the U-boat did not have an odor of oil or diesel fuel, normally expected in submarines of the time. And all observed the U-boat being very neat and clean.

While ashore, the German U-boat captain visited with U.S. Naval authorities and mailed a message to the German Ambassador in Washington.  Shrewdly, Captain Rose also obtained several local newspapers in which it was common practice to print shipping news, including departure and arrival times of cargo ships. No one objected — there was no censorship because of America’s neutrality despite President Woodrow Wilson’s nature to be unsympathetic toward Germany.  As one can imagine, the newspapers were a treasure trove of intelligence for the U-boat captain charged with orders to sink military AND commercial vessels transporting war supplies to the Allies in Europe.

German Audacity

The U-53 left its moorings at 5:30 pm the same day to return to its wartime hunting and raiding on the “high seas.”  The very next day, U-53, off the coast of the Massachusetts, sank several ships  south of the “Nantucket Lightship,” clearly outside the America’s territorial limits. (A number of “lightvessels” were used to mark the hazardous Nantucket Shoals south of Nantucket Island.)   U-53 sent six Allied ships to the bottom of the Atlantic in one day.   At that time, the rules under international prize law required the predator to notify a potential targeted ship of its pending doom, allowing those aboard to disembark in lifeboats.

The U.S. Navy dispatched ships, led by the USS Birmingham, to rescue the survivors from their lifeboats.  The U.S. Navy could not and did not attempt to stop U-53 because of American neutrality and that the ships were sunk outside American territorial waters.  All the U.S. Navy could do is watch in frustration.

Postscript

History reports that U-53 sank 80 ships, one an American destroyer.  The U-boat changed its hull number to U-61 and returned to Germany, passing through the English blockade.  When the war ended in 1918, U-53/U-61 was confiscated by the English and dismantled in Swansea, England.  According to the New England Historical Society, Captain Rose ended the war “highly decorated, after 15 years of navy service” and retired. “Rose finally passed away in 1969 at the age of 84.”