all further doubts as to
our efficiency. A few days after the sinking of the "Formidable" a
piece of one of the row boats was washed ashore at Zeebrugge, and now
adorns our Sea Museum as the only reminder left of the great ship.

We stood at last on the same footing as our dear old sister, the
torpedo boat, to whom we in reality owed our present development, and
from now on, in proud independence, we were justified in considering
ourselves a separate branch of the Navy.

Now that England felt obliged to withhold the activities of her fleet,
she instigated against us the commercial blockade and hunger-war; she
obliged neutrals to follow a prescribed route; and, by subjecting
their vessels to search, she prevented them from selling us any of
their wares. In this manner, she sought to redeem herself from the
paralysis we had brought on her fleet, and her unscrupulous treatment
of the right of nations and her interpretation of the so-called
"freedom of the seas" are only too well known.

We retaliated on February 4, 1915, by prescribing a certain danger
zone, which extended around Great Britain and Ireland and along the
north coast of France. By this interdict, public opinion was
enlightened as to the part our U-boats were going to perform in this
new commercial warfare, a part, I must admit, that few people had
anticipated before the commencement of hostilities. Of course, new
demands were to be made upon us; we should have to make long undersea
trips, and remain for some time in the enemy's waters, after which we
should have to return unperceived. The English called it German
bluff, but their tone soon changed after we had made our first raid in
the heart of the Irish Channel, and few of them now ventured abroad
except when forced by the most imperative obligations.

At the end of October, 1914, the first English steamer "Glitra" was
sunk off the Norwegian coast. It carried a cargo of sewing machines,
whisky, and steel from Leith. The captain was wise enough to stop at
the first signal of the commander of the U-boat, and he thereby saved
the lives of his crew, who escaped with their belongings after the
steamer was peacefully sunk. If others later had likewise followed his
example, innocent passengers and crew would not have been drowned; and
after all, people are fond of their own lives; but these English
captains were following the orders of their Government to save their
ships through flight. The English authoriti