Voyage of the Deutschland; The First Merchant Submarine
New York: Hearst International Library Co., 1916. Presumed First Edition, First printing. Hardcover. Format is approximately 5.25 inches by 7.5 inches. xii, 247, [1] pages. Decorated front cover. Frontis illustration. Name of previous owner [John Lyman!!!] stamped inside front cover. Includes Introduction, as well as chapters on How Germany Got the U-Deutschland, and How the U-Deutschland Got Me; Trial Trip and Outward bound; The First Day at Sea; The U-Boat Trap; Head downward in the North Sea; Westward Ho!; In the Atlantic; Hell With the Lid on; America; Baltimore; Farewell to Baltimore; Breaking Through; Homeward Bound; Home Again; and How Germany Welcomed Us Back. Also includes 32 black and white illustrations. Paul Liebrecht König (March 20, 1867 – September 9, 1933) was a sailor and business executive. He is most known for two visits he made to the United States in 1916 as captain of the merchant submarine U-Deutschland. König was a captain in the German merchant navy. In 1916 during World War I, he became a reserve Kapitänleutnant in the Imperial German Navy. Later in 1916, König became commanding officer of the merchant submarine Deutschland. He took it on two patrols to the United States for commercial purposes. He arrived at Baltimore on July 10, 1916, with a cargo of dyestuffs. He later made a second voyage and putting in at New London, Connecticut. He received the Iron Cross 1st class the same year. König wrote a book called Voyage of the Deutschland, which was heavily publicized. König then became commanding officer of a Sperrbrechergruppe (group of blockade runners; 1917), and later was an executive at Norddeutscher Lloyd (1919–1931). Deutschland was a blockade-breaking German merchant submarine used during World War I. It was developed with private funds and operated by the North German Lloyd Line. She was the first of seven U-151-class U-boats built and one of only two used as unarmed cargo submarines. After making two voyages as an unarmed merchantman, she was taken over by the German Imperial Navy on 19 February 1917 and converted into U-155, armed with six torpedo tubes and two deck guns. As U-155, she began a raiding career in June 1917 that was to last until October 1918, sinking 120,434 tons of shipping and damaging a further 9,080 tons of shipping. Deutschland departed on her first voyage to the US on 23 June 1916 commanded by Paul König, formerly of the North German Lloyd company. On her maiden voyage, she carried 750 tons of cargo in total, including 125 tons of highly sought-after chemical dyes, mainly Anthraquinone and Alizarine derivatives in highly concentrated form, some of which were worth as much as $1,254 a pound in 2005 money. She also carried medical drugs, mainly Salvarsan, gemstones, and diplomatic mails, her cargo being worth $1.5 million in total. Deutschland waited a week at Heligoland after the announced sailing date to avoid enemy patrols. She submerged for only 90 miles (140 km) of the 3,800-mile (6,100 km) outbound voyage. She did not enter the English channel but took a northern passage around Scotland. She arrived at the Quarantine anchorage off of Marley Neck, Anne Arundel county, just outside of what was then Baltimore city limits, during the late evening hours on 9 July 1916 after just over two weeks at sea. During their stay in Baltimore, the German crewmen were welcomed as celebrities for their astonishing journey and even taken to fancy dinners and an impromptu volksfest in the southwest part of the city. American submarine pioneer Simon Lake visited Deutschland while she was in Baltimore, and made an agreement with representatives of the North German Lloyd line to build cargo submarines in the US, a project which never came to fruition when the United States declared war on Germany in early April, 1917. She stayed at Baltimore until 2 August, when she sailed for Bremerhaven, arriving on 24 August with a cargo of 341 tons of nickel, 93 tons of tin, and 348 tons of crude rubber (257 tons of which were carried outside the pressure hull). Her cargo was valued at $17.5 million, several times the submarine's construction costs. She had traveled 8,450 nmi (15,650 km; 9,720 mi), having been submerged for 190 nmi (350 km; 220 mi) of them. Deutschland made another round trip in November 1916 to New London, Connecticut with $10 million of cargo ($ 234,950,000 in 2021) including gems, securities, and medicinal products. At the same time the submarine U-53 also crossed the Atlantic to visit Newport, Rhode Island, and sank five Allied freighters just outside US territorial limits before returning home. She left New London on 21 November 1916, with a cargo that included 6.5 tons of silver bullion. Following his last voyage, Captain Paul König collaborated to write a book about the journeys of Deutschland, entitled Voyage of the Deutschland, the First Merchant Submarine (Verlag Ullstein & Co, Berlin 1916, and, Hearst International Library Co., New York 1916). The book was heavily publicized, as it was intended to sway public opinion in both Germany and the US. Condition: Good.
Keywords: Merchant Submarine, U-151 class, Cargo Submarine, North Sea, Transatlantic, Baltimore, German Lloyd, U-Deutschland
[Book #82353]
Price: $125.00