Eventually the destroyer flotilla returned with their loads of survivors
and with complete details of the operations of the U-53 and, according
to belief, of another submarine not designated. It appeared that the
Germans were scrupulous in observing our neutrality, that their
operations were conducted without the three-mile limit, and that
opportunities were given crews and passengers to leave the doomed ships.
There was nothing our destroyer commanders could do. Even the most
hot-headed commander must have felt the steel withes of neutral
obligation which held him inactive while the submarine plied its deadly
work. There was, of course, nothing else to do--except to carry on the
humanitarian work of rescuing victims of the U boat or boats, as the
case might have been.
Later, it was given to many of the craft which set forth that October
afternoon to engage in their service to humanity, to cross the seas and
to meet the submarine where it lurked in the Irish Sea, the North Sea,
the English Channel, and the Mediterranean. One of them, the _Cassin_
was later to be struck--but not sunk--by a torpedo off the coast of
England, while the _Fanning_, in company with the _Nicholson_, had full
opportunity of paying off the score which most naval officers felt had
been incurred when the U-53 and her alleged companion invaded American
waters and sullied them with the foul deeds that had so long stained the
clean seas of Europe.
German diplomats were enthusiastic over the exploits of their craft.
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