GERMAN PRANKS AROUND IRELAND.

Taihape Daily Times, 3 January 1918, Page 6

GERMAN PRANKS AROUND IRELAND.

An American scribe accompanying the American flotilla in British waters recounts in a San FrafTcisco newspaper some grim humour indulged in by a Teuton captain of a certain murder craft. It appears that there is a German submarine commander who is known throughout the American flotilla, as “Kelly.” His real name is something quite different but the American sailors promptly dubbed him “Kelly of the Emerald Isle” and the name will stick In the songs and stories of the 'American Navy as long as the great war is talked about. “Kelly” earned his name by his display on several occasions of a rich vein of un-German humour. He had become the hero of numberless stories told in forecastle and on quarter-deck, Not all of these stories are true, and probably most .of them have grown in .the telling. All the American newspaper man can vouch for is that “Kelly” is a real individual, and that there is some foundation for the remarkable tale of his exploits. “Kelly” commands a mine-laying U-boat which pays frequent visits to the district patrolled by the American destroyers. When he has finished his appointed task of distributing his mines where they will do the most harm, he generally devotes a few minutes to a prank of some kind. Sometimes he contents himself with leaving a note, flyign 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 arc to be believed —was a trip which he made to Dublin, where he stayed two days at a leading hotel, afterwards joining his U-boat somew-here up the Avest coast. He is said to have informed the British of his exploit by leaving his receipted hotel bill attached to one of the boys. Still another of “Kelly's” more recent stunts, vras to plant the German flag on a rising of the coast line. It ''vas the first time that the British an d Americans knew just where he anti his men had set foot, and they shared the excitement of the village folk who awoke one morning to find a new hind of flag flying from their native soil. At first they could not make out just what it was. But when they made sure that it was the Ger . nmn eo ours they were furious, for it so happened, So the story gocg fisaezmen along this p articular t f of coast haa 7 „ F Offered much from-sub-marine raids. n . , , , °oats had shell A their coast boats, Gcr aaos had fiso-thcr only n,c ltls ol w ,. and .1,0,n CMP**,** week ' hard catch of ’ x- 7 x ai -ackerc_. These poor fishcr-foL: were Lbe 1 no ff id fmthis latest display of G Ctn ,„„ , so they, according to report, burned the flag, and set a “Kelly.” • •****" ■ ■ ■ A ■~ - - • •' - .