In this compelling presentation historian Eric Wiberg relates the story of two German submarines dispatched to evade a blockade and obtain valuable war materiel from the United States in 1916—when the U.S. was still officially neutral in the European conflict. One was highly successful, and the other not. The British and its allies had imposed a strict blockade in the Atlantic and around ports of the Central Powers. The privately-funded German cargo submarines Deutschland and Bremen were designed to evade this blockade. On its first voyage to America the Deutschland carried a mixed cargo valued at $17.5 million to Baltimore, while on the second she reached New London with $.25 billion worth of gems, securities, and medicines, returning to Germany with at least six-and-a-half tons of silver bullion. It was then converted to a warship by the Imperial German Navy, sank forty-two Allied ships and cut telegraph cables at St. John’s and Nantucket. The Bremen was not so lucky. En route to Norfolk in 1916 with funds to start a submarine-building program in the U.S., she is believed to have been sunk by the Royal Navy off the Shetland Islands. These are but two stories of seaborne warfare during World War I.
Eric Wiberg is a sea captain and maritime historian, the author of over 45 non-fiction books largely on World War II. He has over 40 years’ experience in maritime, aviation, and military history, and has worked with the national archives of Bahamas, Bermuda, USA, Germany, Norway, Australia, and many others. A former resident of Greenwich, he now lives and writes in Boston.