Andy South - UNDER SIX FLAGS: A HISTORY OF THE MERCHANT SUBMARINE & U-CRUISER DEUTSCHLAND-U155 (Warships of the Great War.)

UNDER SIX FLAGS

A HISTORY OF THE MERCHANT SUBMARINE & U-CRUISER "DEUTSCHLAND-U155"

ANDREW J SOUTH

A NOTE ON THE COVER PHOTO.

The U-Deutschland, during her seven years of existence, was to hoist six national or regional flags. These emblems symbolise her passage through her brief, but dramatic career.

The German Merchant ensign, flown during her existence as the U-Deutschland.

Bremer Landexflagge (The civil flag of Bremen, her home port). This too was flown whilst she was a commercial vessel.

The USA Stars & Stripes, flown during her arrival in the US ports, and on her entries into her home port of Bremen.

Reichskriegsflagge, (The Imperial Navys Flag, flown during her service as the U-155 ).

The White Ensign, the flag of the Royal Navy. This was flown above the Imperial Navy flag in 1918 to denote the Deutschlands surrender. It was hoisted from her time in Harwich, until at least the conclusion of her first exhibition in London.

The red-duster' or the British merchant shipping flag. This was hoisted during her period of time under the ownership of Horatio Bottomley.

Copyright 2022 Andrew J South

All rights reserved
The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.
No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.
ISBN-13: 9781234567890
ISBN-10: 1477123456
Cover design by: Art Painter
Library of Congress Control Number: 2018675309
Printed in the United States of America

Contents

A PLEA FROM THE AUTHOR.

F irst, let me say THANK YOU for deciding to purchase this book, or at the very least, to download a sample.

While I am not a professional historian or writer, I have had a passion for all things naval since, well lets just say too many decades ago, (a half century makes me sound and way too old!) The fact I am a naval-hobbyist (a word of my own creation) is reflected in the price you paid (or might be paying if you decide to purchase beyond the sample). But hobbyist or not, the content of the forthcoming pages are FULLY researched and the finished book, correct I believe in its telling.

This volume is born from a fascination I have held for the Deutschland for most of my life. The unique mix of cargo and war boat grabbed my attention in the 1970s and has never really let go. I have spent the last two years focused in an in-depth research of the Deutschland and have made my way through thousands of web pages, on the more reliable websites that do exist online. The sheer volume of archived material is amazing, and the tens of thousands of newspapers stored in the US Congressional website was the core to my research for the Deutschland.

The digital research went hand in mouse with all the printed books I could find. I have listed the volumes I read as research within the bibliography.

A third angle of research was the National Archives stored at Kew, London. While small in number, one file unveiled an in-depth allied perspective on what was a brief moment in just one of the U-155s patrols. I have no doubt you will spot the material from the Kew file when you come to the section.

I have proofread the draft six times and may yet a seventh before I press publish, but I am not naive enough to believe that either Words editing function, or myself, found all the grammatical errors. So, I apologize in advance and hope they dont distract from the content too much.

The factual content itself I have taken great effort to ensure is accurate and drawn from reliable sources. The German Wikipedia site is listed in my bibliography, but it only served to signpost my path through the German web pages, and not as a content source.

So, all that said, if you find errors, please dont post a bad review, but email me care of andyuknaval@gmail.com, and tell me where they are. I will then amend them. This work is the result of hundreds of hours of my time and is a labour of love.

So again, please, contact me before you post a poor review. Ill take a good review with no contact!

I hope that at the very least, you get a small percentage of the buzz I gained from the facts in the following tale. Maybe if Im lucky youll get more, that would be amazing and make my day.

Andrew

FINANCIAL EXPLANATION

P rior to 1971, the United Kingdom employed a currency which today is known colloquially as pre-decimal'. It was not a system that in hindsight, was easy, but as you progress through the Deutschlands tale, you will encounter it. So allow me to have a stab at explaining both pounds, shillings and pennies, (never pence, always pennies I was told as a school boy) ....

A shilling equated to 12 pennies.

Within a pound there were 20 shillings.

(I shall for the sake of our sanity, avoid guineas, bobs, tanners, crowns and many others, as they dont feature within our tale).

The pound symbol remained unchanged post 1971 (i.e.,). A shilling was noted as /-, (the slash sign symbol originated from the older style of a long s for solidus", whatever that is (or was). A shilling could also be abbreviated as s. The ' was to denote a 0', meaning "zero pennies". The penny was abbreviated as d', which apparently originates from the Latin word for the coin, denarius.

So .... 12 pounds, 6 shillings and 10 pennies would be written as 12, 6s, 10d. In turn 12 pounds, 6 shillings and nil pennies would be written as 12, 6/-.

Simple? Fifty one years on it sounds insane, but its the currency I grew up with, and it seemed perfectly normal a half century ago...

Having made the coinage of 1920s Britain as clear as mud, you will encounter such sums within the coming chapters. But the succeeding one hundred years since the events of the Deutschland has seen costs spiral ever upwards. What in 1915 would have cost 1 would now retail at between 58 and 59. In an effort to make the sums more relevant to both the reader (and myself), after each sum, I have included a 2021 bracketed comparative but approximative figure, i.e., 1 [58].

For any American readers, a 1915 $1 apparently equates today to $28.66, an inflation of 2765.8%.

Next a note on the images I have used throughout the coming volume. As I rummaged through digitalized newspaper archives, I stumbled onto images relating to the Deutschlands life, (that as far as I am aware), have never been published before. The quality was abysmal but the contents fascinating. I could not let them slip back into obscurity, so I have included them within my work. I ran each one through an editing program, and as poor as they are now, they were far worse before. The images are discernible (I believe), but the contents I think make the squinting and head scratching worth while.