CHAPTER X 



AN ADVENTURE WITH GERMAN PIRATES 



The submarine warfare on fishing vessels varied 

 strangely in intensity. The Germans had delibe- 

 rately avowed their determination to spare no effort 

 to drive these vessels from the sea, and their attacks 

 were marked by unmitigated ruthlessness and almost 

 incredible savagery. At one particular period, 

 August, 1916, there was an extraordinarily fero- 

 cious outbreak on the part of the Germans. On the 

 night of August 3 no fewer than eight fishing 

 boats, most of them small motor herring drifters, 

 were destroyed off the North East coast by a Ger- 

 man submarine. Some of the crews were landed 

 in the Tyne, and stories were told which showed 

 how deliberately the work of havoc had been planned 

 and carried out. 



At this period also other vessels, steam trawlers 

 and drifters, were destroyed, in many instances 

 sinking with their valuable cargoes of fish. The 

 Germans before destroying some of the vessels, 

 which they did by placing bombs on board, plun- 

 dered the craft, making a particular point of looting 

 the food and all the metal fittings. It was notice- 



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