CHAPTER VIIITHE STORY OF THELUSITANIA

TheLusitaniawas, in the eyes of the German Admiralty, the symbol of Great Britain’s supremacy on the seas. The big, graceful vessel, unsurpassed in speed, had defied the German raiders that lurked in the Atlantic hoping to capture her and had eluded the submarines that tried to find her course. Time and time again, the Germans had planned and plotted to “get” theLusitania, and every time the ocean greyhound had slipped away from them—every time save when the plot was developed on American territory.

To sink theLusitania, the German Admiralty had argued, was to lower England’s prestige and to hoist the black eagle of the Hohenzollerns above the Union Jack. Her destruction, they fondly hoped, would strike terror to the hearts of the British, for it would prove the inability of the English navy to protect her merchantmen. Itwould prove to the world that von Tirpitz was on a fair way of carrying out his threat to isolate the British Isles and starve the British people into submission to Germany. It would be a last warning to neutrals to keep off the Allies’ merchantmen and would help stop the shipment of arms and ammunition to the Allies from America. It would—as a certain royal personage boasted—shake the world’s foundations.

Gloating over their project and forgetting the rights of neutrals, the mad war lords did not think of the innocent persons on board, the men, the women and babies. The lives of these neutrals were as nothing compared with the shouts of triumph that would resound through Germany at the announcement of the torpedoing of the big British ship, symbol of sea power. The attitude was truly expressed by Captain von Papen, who on receiving news of the sinking of theLusitaniaremarked: “Well, your General Sherman said it: ‘War is Hell.’”

So the war lords schemed and the plots which resulted in the sinking of theLusitaniaon May 7, 1915, bringing death to 113 American citizens, were developed and executed in America, through orders from Berlin.

The agents in America put their heads togetherin a room in the German Club, New York, or in a high-powered limousine tearing through the dark. These men, who had worked out the plot, on the night of the successful execution had assembled in a club and in high glee touched their glasses and shouted their devotion to the Kaiser. One boasted afterwards that he received an Iron Cross for his share in the work.

On the night of the tragedy, one of the conspirators remarked to a family where he was dining—a family whose son was on theLusitania—when word came of the many deaths on the ship: “I did not think she would sink so quickly. I had two good men on board.”

In their secret conferences the conspirators worked their way round obstacles and set their scheme in operation. Hired spies had made numerous trips on theLusitania, and had carefully studied her course to and from England, and her convoy through the dangerous zone where submarines might be lurking. These spies had observed the precautions taken against a submarine attack. They knew the fearful speed by which the big ship had eluded pursuers in February. They also had considered the feasibility of sendinga wireless message to a friend in England—a message apparently of greeting that might be picked up by the wireless on a German submarine and give its commander a hint as to the ship’s course.In fact, they did attempt this plan.Spies were on board early in the year when theLusitaniaran dangerously near a submarine, dodged a torpedo and then quickly eclipsed her German pursuer.

Spies also had brought reports concerning persons connected with theLusitania, and had given suggestions as to how to place men on board in spite of the scrutiny of British agents. All these reports were considered carefully and the conclusion was that no submarine was fast enough to chase and get theLusitania; that it was practically impossible to have the U-boats stationed along every half mile of the British coast, but that the simplest problem was to send theLusitaniaon a course where the U-boats would be in waiting and could torpedo her. The scheme was, in substance, as follows:

“Captain Turner, approaching the English coast, sends a wireless to the British Admiralty asking for instructions as to his course and convoy. He gets a reply in code telling him in what direction to steer and where his convoy will meethim. First, we must get a copy of the Admiralty Code and we must prepare a message in cipher, giving directions as to his course. This message will go to him by wireless as though from the Admiralty. We must make arrangements to see that the genuine message from the British Admiralty never reaches Captain Turner.”

That was the plan which the conspirators, aided and directed by Berlin, chose. Upon it the shrewdest minds in the German secret service were set to work.As for the British Admiralty Code, the Germans had that at the outbreak of the war and were using it at advantageous moments. How they got it has not been made known; but they got it and they used it, just as the Germans have obtained copies of the codes used by the American State Department and have had copies of the codes used in our Army and Navy. While the codes used by the British officials change almost daily, such is not the case with merchant vessels on long voyages.

The next step of the conspirators was to arrange for the substitution of the fake message for the genuine one. Germany’s spy machine has a wonderful faculty for seeking out the weak characters holding responsible positions among the enemy or for sending agents to get and hold positions among their foes. It is now believedthat a man on theLusitaniawas deceived or duped. Whether he was a German sympathizer sent out by the Fatherland to get the position and be ready for the task, or whether he was induced for pay to play the part he did—has not been told. Neither is his fate known.

Communication between New York and the German capital, ingenious, intricate and superbly arranged, was almost as easy as telephoning from the Battery to Harlem. Berlin was kept informed of every move in New York and, in fact, selected the ill-fated course for theLusitania’slast voyage in English waters. Berlin picked out the place where theLusitaniawas to sink.

Berlin chose the deep-sea graves for more than one hundred Americans. Berlin assigned two submarines to a point ten miles south by west off Old Head of Kinsale, near the entrance of St. George’s Channel. Berlin chose the commander of the U-boats for the most damnable sea-crime in history.

Just here there is a rumour among U-boat men in Europe that the man for the crime was sent from Kiel with sealed instructions not to be opened till at the spot chosen. With him went “a shadow” armed with a death warrant if the U-boat commander “baulked” at the last moment.

BERLIN GIVES WARNING

The German officials in Berlin looking ahead, sought to prearrange a palliative for their crime. Their plan, which in itself shows clearly how carefully the Germans plotted the destruction of theLusitania, was to warn Americans not to sail on the vessel.

While the German Embassy in Washington was kept clear of the plot and Ambassador von Bernstorff had argued and fought with all his strength against the designs of the Berlin authorities, he, nevertheless, received orders to publish an advertisement warning neutrals not to sail on the Allies’ merchantmen. Acting under instructions, this advertisement was inserted in newspapers in a column adjoining the Cunard’s advertisement of the sailing of theLusitania:

NOTICE!

Travellers intending to embark on the Atlantic voyage are reminded that a state of war exists between Germany and her Allies and Great Britain and her Allies; that the zone of war includes the waters adjacent to the British Isles; that, in accordance with formal notice given by the ImperialGerman Government, vessels flying the flag of Great Britain or any of her Allies are liable to destruction in these waters and that travellers sailing in the war zone on ships of Great Britain or her Allies, do so at their own risk.

Imperial German Embassy.

Washington, D.C., April 22nd, 1915.

Germans in New York, who had knowledge that German submarines were lying in wait off the Irish coast to “get” theLusitania, sent intimations to friends before the sailing of the ship.

TheNew York Sunwas told of the plot and warned Captain Turner by wireless after the ship sailed. The German secret service in New York also sent warnings to Americans booked on theLusitania. One of the persons to receive such a message signed “morte” was Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt. Many other passengers got the same warning that the ship was to be torpedoed; but they all laughed at it. They knew she had outrun submarines on a previous voyage and tricked them on another voyage. Besides, before the horrors of this war, optimistic Americans firmly believed the world was a civilized place. It was only after the destruction of theLusitaniathat many neutral Americans could credit the atrocity stories of Belgium.

FATEFUL MAY 1, 1915

So when theLusitaniabacked from her pier in the North River on the morning of May 1, 1915, there was more than the average levity that makes the sailing of an ocean liner so absorbing. On the pier were anxious friends somewhat perturbed by the mysterious whisperings of impending danger. Mingling among them also were men who knew what that danger was, and who had just delivered final instructions to German hirelings on board. On the deck of the great vessel, as she swung her nose down-stream toward Sandy Hook, was not only the man who had promised to see that the false message in code reached Captain Turner, but there also were those two friends, good and true, of von Rintelen’s—men who, in the event that theLusitaniashould run into the appointed place at night, would flash lights from port holes to give a clear aim to the commanders of the stealthy submarines.

On board the vessel swinging out past Sandy Hook into the ocean lane were a notable group of passengers, many of them representative Americans of inestimable value to this country. BesidesMr. Vanderbilt, there was Charles Frohman, a talented theatrical producer, who had furnished by his artistic shows genuine amusement to millions; Elbert Hubbard, talented and inspiring writer; Charles Klein, writer of absorbing plays; Justus Miles Forman, novelist, and Lindon W. Bates, Jr., whose family had befriended von Rintelen. Merchants, clergymen, lawyers, society women, a large list of useful men and women in the 1,254 passengers.

These, added to the crew of 800, made more than 2,000 lives under the care of the staunch, blue-eyed captain.Of that number, 1,214 werebeing rushed over the waves to doom. And as the ship sped eastward, submarines leaving their bases at Cuxhaven and Heligoland clipped their prows under the waves, and made for Old Head of Kinsale on the south coast of Ireland, where they were instructed to pause, upon sealed instructions, and obey them to the letter.

Meantime, Berlin, counting almost to the hour when theLusitaniawould near the British Isles, prepared the exact wording for the false instructions to Captain Turner. This was sent to New York by wireless, where it was put into British code. The next step was to have this message substituted for the British Admiralty’s instructionsto theLusitania. The inside details of how this substitution was effected—can only be surmised. This secret is buried with the British Admiralty and with the Bureau in Berlin.

For such intricate action Germany had been preparing with infinite patience both before and after the war began. Prior to the outbreak, representatives of Germany had started the building of the wireless plant at Sayville, Long Island, by which aerial communication was established with Berlin. After the war began, the equipment of the station was increased, and instead of 35 kilowatt transmitters, 100 kilowatt transmitters were installed, the machinery for tripling the efficiency of the plant having been shipped from GermanyviaHolland to this country. Wireless experts, members of the German navy, also slipped away from Germany to direct the work of handling messages between the two countries.

Everything was in readiness at Sayville, consequently, to catch the directions that were flashed through the air. There was an operator specially trained to take the message coded for the deception of Captain Turner, and send it cracklingfatefully through the air. Everything was ready and only the request of the operator on theLusitaniafor directions south of Ireland was needed.All this was in violation not only of our neutrality laws, but also in disregard of American statutes governing wireless stations.

Meantime, the vessel had reached the edge of the war zone decreed by Germany in violation of international law, and Captain Turner sent out his call for instructions. Presently the order came. It was hurried to Captain Turner’s state-room.

Captain Turner, carefully decoding the message by means of a cipher book which he had guarded so jealously, read orders to proceed to a point ten miles south of Old Head of Kinsale, and run into St. George’s Channel, making the bar at Liverpool at midnight. He carefully calculated the distance and his running time, and adjusted his speed accordingly. He felt assured, because he relied on the assumption that the waters over which he was sailing were being thoroughly scoured by English cruisers and swift torpedo boats in search of German submarines.

The British Admiralty also received his wireless message—just as the Sayville operator hadsnatched it from the air, and despatched an answer. The order from the head of the Admiralty directed the English captain to proceed to a point some seventy or eighty miles south of Old Head of Kinsale and there meet his convoy, which would guard him on the way to port.But Captain Turner never got that message, and the British convoy waited in vain for the Lusitania to appear on the horizon.

TheLusitaniaheaded north-east, going far away from the vessels that would have protected her. Swiftly she slipped through the waves on the afternoon of May 7. Unsuspecting, the ship moved directly toward certain death. The proud, swift liner steered straight between two submarines, lying in wait.

The details of what happened after the torpedo blew out the side of the great ship have been told—told so fully, vividly, so terribly that they need not be repeated here. As Captain Turner heard the explosion of the torpedo he instantly knew that there had been treachery. He knew he had been decoyed away from the warships that were to escort him to his pier.

The manner in which the captain had been lured to the waiting submarines was made clear at the secret session of the Board of Inquiry thatinvestigated the sinking of the ship. Captain Turner told at the Coroner’s inquest how he had been warned, supposedly by the British Admiralty, of submarines off the Irish coast, and that he had received special instructions as to course. Asked if he made application for a convoy, he said:

“No, I left that to them. It is their business, not mine. I simply had to carry out my orders to go, and I would do it again.”

At the official inquiry, the captain produced the orders which he had received, directing him to proceed south-west of Old Head of Kinsale. The British Admiralty produced its message which had directed Captain Turner to go by an utterly different course. It produced also orders which had been issued to the convoy to meet theLusitania. The orders did not jibe.They showed treachery, and further investigation pointed to Sayville.

The indignation and the revulsion of Americans against Germany because of the destruction of theLusitaniawith the appalling loss of life was a surprise to the Kaiser and his war staff. They apparently had believed that the warningcontained in the official announcement of Germany, declaring the waters about the British Islands a war zone, and the advertisement published would be sufficient excuse, and that their act would be accepted calmly by America. They were not prepared for Colonel Roosevelt’s invective stigmatizing the act as piracy, or the editorial denunciation throughout the country. Their effrontery was displayed by one of their agents, who announced that American ships also would be sunk. But this agent’s removal from the country and mob violence threatened other agents was emphatic proof of America’s state of mind.

Immediately Germany turned as a defence to the argument that theLusitaniacarried munitions of war and other contraband in violation of the United States Federal statute. But the American laws were quoted to Ambassador von Bernstorff to prove to him that cartridges could be transported in a passenger ship. That argument proved of no avail.

Secretary Bryan’s note, written by President Wilson, and forwarded to Berlin, demanded a disavowal of the sinking of theLusitania, an apology and reparation for the lives lost. But Germany sought to parley with a reply that would lay the blame on Great Britain, and assertingthat theLusitaniahad been an armed auxiliary cruiser, requested an investigation of these alleged facts, and refused to stop her submarine warfare until England changed her trade policy. But this note again aroused the wrath of Americans.

German secret agents began to manufacture evidence to support the Kaiser’s contentions. Here a hireling of Boy-Ed looms as an obedient servant of the naval attaché, whether he knew all the facts or not. It was Koenig, who, using the alias of Stemler, obtained from Gustave Stahl an affidavit to the effect that he had seen four fifteen-centimetre guns on the decks of theLusitaniabefore she left port on her ill-fated voyage. There were three other supporting affidavits. All these documents were handed to Boy-Ed on June 1, 1915, and the following day were in the hands of von Bernstorff, who turned them over to the State Department in Washington.

It required but little work on the part of Federal agents to establish the untruth of Stahl’s affidavit. Stahl, a German reservist, appeared before the Federal Grand Jury, where he again repeated his lies. He was indicted for perjuryand upon a plea of guilty was sent to the Federal prison at Atlanta.

It was Koenig who had hidden Stahl away after the latter had made his affidavit, and it was Koenig who, at the command of the Federal authorities, produced him.

So here again Germany’s efforts to deceive and to justify her piratical act came to naught, and left her even more damned before the world. Time came within a few days for President Wilson to reject forcibly the flimsy defence made by Germany, but before that note was drafted, the United States authorities by a thorough investigation of Sayville, and a scrutiny of the German naval officers employed there, discovered that the fake code message that drove theLusitaniato her grave in the sea had been flashed out from neutral territory; that the conspiracy had been developed in America, though the details were not obtainable at that time as they are presented here.

President Wilson was determined to demand absolute safety for Americans at sea. Though Bryan resigned, Mr. Wilson sent a note, asserting that theLusitaniawas not armed, and had not carried cargo in violation either of American or international law. The action of Bryan weakened the position of America in demanding a cessationof Germany’s submarine warfare. It gave encouragement to Austria, after Germany had promised to obey international law, to try a series of similar evasions. It gave impetus to Germany’s plans to make a settlement of the submarine controversy and to try to divide Congress on the issue.

The loss to America was 113 lives and a great amount of prestige; to Germany, a tremendous amount of sympathy. But through it all stand out the pictures of secret agents, boasters, schemers and reckless adventurers, one of whom, having aided in the sinking of theLusitaniaand the drowning of hundreds of her passengers and crew, had still the audacity to dine on the evening of this ghastly triumph at the home of an American victim. One agent high in international affairs, overcome by the force of the tragedy done in answer to the Kaiser’s bidding, had still enough decency left to remark:

“Oh, what foul work!”

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