5000-MILE U-BOAT CRUISE.

Taihape Daily Times, 25 March 1918, Page 7

5000-MILE U-BOAT CRUISE.

Germany's first submarine hero in 1918 is Lieut.-Commander Kophamel, a U-boat captain who returned to a home port after a voyage of 5000 miles. His chief feat, however, consisted of bringing back with him 22 tons of copper for the German munition industry. Kophamel, who already had several remarkable U-boat exploits to his credit, has been given the Pour le Merite Order by the Kaiser for his latest and most successful achievement.

His 5000-mile cruise took him to the Cape Verde islands and back, a trip estimated by the German Admiralty at 2500 miles each way, "or about the distance across the Atlantic as far north as Canada." Kophamel's booty is said to have included a destroyer ("probably American"), 9 steamers, and 5 sailing ships. The cargoes of the merchantmen destroyed consisted of "at least 10,000 tons of munitions, in addition to coffee, leather, wheat, copper, steel, nuts and rubber.''

The Berlin Admiralty claims that both the U-boat and its crew "weathered the unprecedentedly long journey in first-rate form, thereby furnishing fresh proof both of the good training of the personnel and the seaworthines of our submarines."