WHERE THE HUN PIRATE IS HATED

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3144, 24 July 1917, Page 7

WHERE THE HUN PIRATE IS HATED

AMONG THE IRISH 'FISHERMEN - ; Nowhere is Dip Hun more hatrd now than among thp. fishermen of Ilio south, and south-west of Ireland. U-boats havebeen trying to destroy their fleets nnrl one story oftlin piratw'. methods, in particular, has worked a completn revulsion, of fooling. Pro-German leanings have- gone by (he board. It is the story of. a careful fisherman, who Uhcl raved up to buy a motor-boat. She, was a beauty and won tho admiration of her crew and Iho 'onvy of felloK-fishernion. With fabulous prices and Rood catches hor owner's: prediction Iha I she would eoon pay for herself was rapidly being fulfilled. Then camo the pirate. Laden with fish, she was "speeding homeward, when a. riflo shot rang oul. Tho arm of tho nwD at tho tiller, the owner's son, spurted a stream of blood, and a German submarine appeared. "I'll leach you to 6top whon you are told," eaino in brutal tones' from the deck of tho submarine.. "Wo heard no order given to stop," was the . reply. The. owner, .quickly recognising that ho was engaged in a desperate. gHine of Iw.ard. decided lo piny his trump card, "We are ..Irish; wo are doing nothing to you." "I do not care- what you are. Thn nest, time you are ordered lo slop, do. so,'" said the submarino commander. Purt.fior, "You are feeding our Onoruies, the English, with thus fish and your member of Parliament is complaining that owing to lack of quick transit a lot of iish Is rotten by (he time it .reaches London. This fish, however, will not bo bad when it {rots, there." Fto ordered some of his craw to (also what they required-of , the fisli and pitch the rest overboard. Alcanwhilo tho commander searched tho motor-boat, and, finding some valuable, lines and » sail, Wmllcil thorn overboard weighted, Then ho got a. hammer/ and, assisted, by another of his crew with a pledgo-lmiiimer, broke the sparking-plug and other parts of the motor-engine, telling tho owner that ho would not then smash up tlio boat itself as he hud further uso .for it". Returning to. the submarine, lie disappeared, but with little delay emerged again through the conning-tower. followed by a. number of 'Irian] fishermen whom lie had previously captured. The prisoners wore ordered on board the damaged motor-boat, and tho o.wuer was peremptorily 'told to uso i a pair of "sweeps" to row them ashore.' This was gallor-sltivu work, but had to be done. An intensity of hatred of tho murdering pirates has now replaced any other feeling that the Irish in the district may ever have had. It was oarly in. May" that U-boats, of tho latest pattern began to work havoc in the Irish fleet oft" Baltimore, County Cork..Tho loss to tho fishermen and their families amounts to thousands of-pounds. Tho Germans boasted that they had sunk , , tho Kinsale fleet ami the W'aterford fleet. They declared they would have, wery Irish fishing boat at the bottom (if the sea before a month, and one of tho pirates said they were going to .shell the villages on tho coast shortly. The iiitonse feeling .of • the Irish fishermen is shown in a Baltimore skipper's appeal to tho iSkibbereeu Press to nisiko the facts known. "Tell, all America," he said, "that the Germans arc the worst savages on earth, thtit this is the most cowardly blow yet, 'and that we hope, and h'usf, with tho aid of our kith and kin In America, the arcb-fiemls will soon lie swept off the face of the earth."