Chapter 5
Frustrating Times
August 1915–March 1916
On August 19, 1915, seventy miles off Queenstown, Ireland, at about three in the afternoon, the German submarine U-27 halted the British mule steamer Nicosian. Acting in accordance with the rules of international law, the U-boat was waiting for the Nicosian’s crew to evacuate, when a vessel that appeared to be a tramp steamer, flying the American flag, approached. Once the oncoming vessel reached within one hundred yards of the submarine, it hoisted the English flag, opened fire, and immediately sank it. In reality the supposed rescue craft was a British “Mystery Ship” or “Q-boat,” a decoy ship named Baralong. Eleven German sailors were shot as they floundered in the ocean and sought refuge on the Nicosian. The Nicosian’s crew murdered the U-boat captain in the water while his hands were raised in surrender. Within ten days, several of the forty-five American “muleteers” on board the Nico¬sian revealed what had transpired.
“Isn’t this one of the most unspeakable performances?” asked Wilson upon hearing the news. “It’s horrible.” Lansing ruled Britain’s behavior “shocking,” though he did not lodge a protest, claiming that the affidavits of the ten or so American muleteers conflicted in some details. Such use of the American flag, the State Department maintained, had occurred during previous wars; the United States had engaged in this practice.
London quickly defended the Baralong’s action. The ship, it said, was merely a defensively armed steamer, although it possessed twelve-pound guns and was commissioned in the British Navy. Foreign Secretary Grey curtly remarked: “The British Government does not think it necessary to make reply to the suggestion that the British navy has been guilty of inhumanity.” Britain did propose that an impartial tribunal of American naval officers investigate the affair. Such a probe, however, must include three other incidents as well, one being the Arabic, another involving a German destroyer alleged to have fired on the crew of a British submarine off the Danish coast. The German government rejected the proposal. To Berlin, “playing by the rules” had proven futile.
