There were suspicions that she had put in for fuel,
or ammunition, or supplies. But nothing to justify these thoughts
occurred. The U-53 hung around through the daylight hours, and at
sunset, with a farewell salute, put to sea.
Did our naval officers think this was the last of her? Possibly, but
probably not. They knew enough of the Germans to realize, or to suspect,
that their minds held little thought those days of social amenities and
that such calls as were made upon neutrals contained motives which,
while hidden, were none the less definite.
The night brought forth nothing, however, and the Navy Department was
beginning to feel that perhaps after all the U-53 was well on her way to
Germany, when early the following morning there came to the
radio-station at Newport an indignant message from Captain Smith of the
Hawaiian-American liner _Kansan_. He asked to know why he had been
stopped and questioned by a German submarine which had halted him in the
vicinity of the Nantucket light-ship at 5.30 o'clock that morning. He
added that after he had convinced the submarine commander as to the
nationality of his ship, he was permitted to proceed.
This looked like business, and Newport became certain of this when
shortly after noon came a radio containing advices as to the sinking of
the steamship _West Point_ off Nantucket. Then at intervals up to
midnight came other messages telling of the sinking of other vessels
until the victims of the undersea craft numbered four British, a Dutch,
and a Scandinavian vessel, one of them, the Halifax liner _Stephana_, a
passenger-vessel, with Americans on board.
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