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10 And the War Came March–April 1917 On March 12, at 6:00 a.m., the German U-38 attacked the Algonquin, an American merchantman, sixty-five miles off the Isles of Scilly. A former lake steamer bound from New York to London, it carried $1.25 million worth of foodstuffs as well as copper, tin, machinery, and chemicals. The ship had just been transferred from British registry to the American Star Line. The vessel displayed Old Glory; the nation’s colors were painted clearly on its side. When the crew asked the submarine commander to tow them toward land, he refused, saying: “I’m too busy. I expect a couple of other steamers.”1 All twenty-six members survived in lifeboats, arriving at Penzance after twentyseven hours on the open sea. News reached the United States two days later. Hopes were dashed that Germany would modify its submarine operations. The public remained quiet, the Outlook and the American Rights Committee being almost alone in advocating war.2 Because the Algonquin had changed registry more than two years after war had broken out, no European naval power legally considered it a neutral. Seven other U.S. steamers had sailed since Germany’s pronouncement; all arrived safely in France. Admiral Holtzendorff soon clarified German policy. Writing to the Kaiser on March 18, he found restraint impossible. Submarines were at their stations and wireless was unreliable; it would take at least six weeks to reverse the orders for unrestricted U-boat warfare. To allow American commerce to continue unchallenged would merely undermine Germany’s new tactic. Wilhelm approved the document: “Now, once and for all, an end to negotiations with America. If Wilson wants war, let him make it, and then let him have it.”3 278 And the War Came 279 Three days later Bethmann defended the Admiralty’s course before the Reichstag, declaring that Britain had forced the issue. The chancellor denied that Germany ever intended to attack the United States; if, however, the submarine assault provoked an American declaration of war, he said, “we shall not have to bear the burden of responsibility for it.” Offering a dissenting view, Ambassador Bernstorff publicly expressed apprehension. While journeying back to Germany, he remarked: “If we sink an American ship we get war. If not, I suppose we avoid it.”4 The ambassador had reason to worry. On Saturday, March 18, Americans learned that the Germans had sunk three of their ships. Two days earlier , at 10:00 a.m., a U-boat attacked the Vigilancia. It belonged to Gaston, Williams & Wigmore, a firm that received financial support from J.P. Morgan ’s subsidiary Guaranty Trust. The vessel was bound from New York to Le Havre with a cargo of iron, straw, asbestos, and dried fruits. The event took place without warning 150 miles west of Bishop, a village located on Britain’s southwest coast. The submarine commander made no effort to ascertain whether the craft was carrying contraband before he torpedoed the vessel. The steamer sank in seven minutes; its captain never saw the attacking U-boat. It flew an American flag. Its name and home city were painted on port and starboard bows in letters five feet high and could be read at a distance of three miles. Of the forty-five–man crew, fifteen were drowned (six of them were Americans) while launching lifeboats. Here lay further evidence that most fatalities on merchant ships came not from torpedoes or shells but from drowning after the vessel went to the bottom. The survivors arrived in the Isles of Scilly two days later, suffering from exposure. The submarine followed the lifeboats until early the next morning but offered no assistance. The Vigilancia was the first American ship deliberately sunk without warning after Germany announced its new policy. Late in the afternoon of Friday, March 17, the German UC-66 sank the unarmed City of Memphis. The City was owned by the Savannah Line, the informal name of the Ocean Steamship Company. The young W. Averell Harriman, heir to a railroad fortune, held controlling interest. The ship had just dropped off 9,673 bales of cotton at Le Havre, France, and had begun its return voyage from Cardiff to New York. Its cargo: sheer ballast. Under traditional nautical rules, the total absence of freight would bestow immunity to the craft. The merchantman was struck thirty-five miles south of Fastnet. Like the Algonquin, the vessel sported on both sides the colors...

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