THE DEUTSCHLAND.

Taranaki Daily News, 5 March 1919, Page 6

THE DEUTSCHLAND.

MERCHANTMAN AND PIRATE. The famous submarine "merchantman' 1 DeiiLacldand, which made two voyages to the United States, is among thoaa now in English hands. She was visited on the Thames, near the Tower of London, by. a newspaper ucporter, who wrote:-l-

Before becoming a sea pirate known as the U-155, the Deutschhind made two trans-Atlantic voyages in 1910, and there was much big talk in Germany of the German undcr-the-water mercantile marine which was to wrest the trident.froui Britannia's hards. But nothing much came of these commercial dreams. German seamen who brought the Deutschland to Harwich for the great surrender said that their submarine had teen responsible for the sinking of many craft, but chiefly in the Baltic. At the surrender she wa9 in a very dirty condition. A British crew is rapidly altering all that, and getting the boat ready for the admission of the public. But neither officers nor men have yet tackled the store of preserved foods which Kes in a cubby-hole below-decks. It will have to be cleared out soon, but no ona is anxious yet to disturb the unsavoury looKing collection of tins from which the labels have peeled in the close atmosphere.

A walk along the deck of the Deufcschland covers the 315 foet of her length. Visitors who remember the wonderful tales of life in his "great green whale" which were apun by Captain Paul Koenig on her first arrival in Baltimore, U.SA., will want to see first of all the control room. Here is the periscope. Near by is the marine co-jpar», an instrument which has been wonderfully developed to meet the special needs (if the modern submarine. The readjngs of this compass can be registered in different parts of the vessel. In his fairy tales for American consumption Captain Koenig drew pictures of himself anxiously watching on the diving gauge the progress of the dive which the Deutsohland was performing to evade British battleships. Here is the very gauge, and close by are the alarm gongs which sounded in the control room at the pushing of a button above decks, and sent the crew to their diving stations. The 17ft holds in which the Detltsehland carried her first cargo to Amerio were converted in the course of her later career info storing space for torpedoes. Two 21in torpedo tubes are now fitted into the forepart of the Deutschland, and on deck is still to be seen her wireless aerials.