A RARE BIRD

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 100, 21 January 1918, Page 6

A RARE BIRD

. « , GERMAN U-BOAT JOKER, Base of the American Flotilla in British Waters, October 16. There is a German submarine commander who is known throughout tho American flotilla as "Kelly" (writes the special correspondent of the American Associated Press). His real name is something quite different, but tho American sailors promptly dubbed him "Kelly of the Emerald Isle," aud the name will stick in the songs and stories of tho Navy as long as the great war is talked about.

"Kelly" earned his Irish name by his display on various occasions of a rich vein of quite un-German humour. He has become the hero of numberless stories -told in forecastle and on quarterdeck. . Not all of these stories are true, and probably most of them have grown! in the telling. All that I can vouch for is that "Kelly" is a real individual, and. that there is some foundation for the remarkable tales of his exploits. "Kelly" commands a mine-laying Üboat, which pays frequent visits to the district patrolled by the American destroyers. When he has finished his appointed task of distributing his mines whero they will do most harm, he generally devotes a few minutes to a prank of some kind. Sometimes he contents himself with leaving a note, flying from a buoy, scribbled in schoolboy English, and addressed to his American enemy. On other occasions he picks out a deserted bit of coast line at night, and goes ashore with a squad of his men for a saunter on the beach, leaving behind a placard or a bit of German bunting as , a reminder of his presence. His most audacious exploit, however—if the legends of the forecastle are to bo believed—was a trip which he made several months ago to Dublin, where he stayed two days at a leading hotel, afterwards rejoining his U-boat somewhere up the west coast. He is said to have informed tho British of his exploit by leaving hie receipted hotel bill attached to one of their buoys. Still another of "Kelly's" more recent stunts was to plant the German flag on a rising on the coastline. It was the first time that the British and Americans knew juet whore he and his men had set foot, and they shared the excitement of the village folk who awoke one morning to find a new kind of flag flying from their native soil. At first tliey couldn't make out what But when they made sure that it was tho German colours, they were furious, for it so happened, so the story goes, that the fishermen along this particular strip of coast had suffered much from submarino raids. U-boats had shelled their boats, Germans had stolen their fish—their only means of livelihood—and left them empty-handed after a week's hard catch of mackerel. These poor iisherfolk were in no mood for this latnst display of Gorman humour, so they promptly burned the flag and set a' watch for "Kelly."