CAPE COD - 1918

Sunken barge 

By Vinny Del Giudice

When World War One arrived on American shores, albeit briefly, the Coast Guard was ready.

Surfmen went to the rescue as German U-boat U-156 landed shells on the beach of Orleans, Massachusetts, on July 21, 1918, and ravaged the coastal tug Perth Amboy - sinking four barges in tow. Orleans is located on the eastern coast of the Cape Cod peninsula.

On the centennial of the attack, Ron Petersen of the Orleans Historical Commission lauded “the bravery and skills of the Coast Guardsmen of Orleans Station 40, who launched a rescue mission under enemy fire.”

Aboard a 26-foot surfboat, they went to the aid of the stricken tug – including a seriously injured crewman - after determining that the people riding on the barges were safely in lifeboats and headed to shore. Doctors credited Surfman William Moore with saving the arm of the stricken crewman, according to the historical commission.

Surfman Reuben Hopkins, in the watchtower of Station No. 40, said: “Perhaps a quarter mile from the tug, I could discern a submarine lying low and broadside to the beach. She was difficult to see because of the haze. I had barely taken all this in when I saw the flash of a gun on the submarine. The shell landed in the water aft of the tug, which by now had come to a dead stop. The tug then took a direct hit to the pilot house.”

The attack on Orleans was the only mounted against the continental U.S. during World War One and the first foreign shelling since the Siege of Fort Texas in 1846, according to Wikipedia. Aircraft from Chatham Naval Air Station dropped bombs on the U-boat in retaliation but they didn't explode. The raider submerged and return to its predatory patrol.

U-156 was credit with sinking 45 ships and inflicting damage on two vessels, Wikipedia said. The tables turned in September 1918, when the U-boat vanished returning to Germany, possibly the victim of a mine.

NEWPORT INCIDENT

Photo: U.S. Navy

German submarine U-53 at Newport, Rhode Island, October 1916

Seven months before the U.S. went to war, another U-boat surprised New England. 

U-53 arrived unannounced at Newport, Rhode Island, on Oct. 7, 1916 and its commanding, Hans Rose, paid a "courtesy" visit to the commandant of the Second Naval District. 

When Newport's harbor master raised the prospect of a quarantine, Rose and crew set sail to avoid internment, according to Wikipedia.

The next day, U-53 sank five ships - flying the flags of the U.K., Norway and the Netherlands - in the vicinity of the Nantucket Lightship.

With America and Germany at war 14 months later, U-53 - Rose still in command - sank the USS Jacob Jones, the first U.S. destroyer lost to enemy action, killing two officers and 64 men, off Cornwall, England, on Dec. 6, 1917.