the crew blew up a German cruiser. Regulars, National Guardsmen, Customs Inspectors, and policemen aided in taking over the ships.

In most instances in New York Harbor the machinery of the seized German vessels was found to have been so badly damaged as to require six, nine or even twelve months for repairs, but Austrian ships in United States ports had not been touched. In Boston five ships, of a carrying capacity of about 77,000 tons, were taken over by marines from the United States destroyer Gresham. National Guardsmen in Baltimore seized three ships of a tonnage of about 20,000. Two vessels at Philadelphia, of a total tonnage of 16,000, were taken. San Francisco yielded three, of a tonnage of 8,000. In the Philippines were 23 German ships totaling 85,000 tons. The Willehad, a supply ship to the German summarine Deutschland, was seized in New London. Two companies of United States infantry, a company of New Jersey Guardsmen, and a squad of Customs officers and a score of Hoboken policemen participated in the seizure of the Vaterland, George Washington, President Grant, Kaiser Wilhelm II, President Lincoln, Grosser Kurfuerst, and other ships tied up at the Hoboken piers of the North German Lloyd and Hamburg-American lines. At 135th Street, New York, two destroyers were on guard: Five naval cutters moved in the waters of the Hudson at the points where the German ships were docked.

The seizure took place without spectacular accompaniment. United States agents were in possession of the boats within an hour after orders had been received from Washington. There was no disorder and no demonstration on the part of the German population in Hoboken, as they stoically witnessed the activities of the officers. Hoboken did not know at first what was taking place. Without warning a company of soldiers crossed the river by the Hudson tubes and silently marched to the Hamburg-American line docks. One of the Customs Guards standing on duty at the gate swung it open and the soldiers filed through. A few minutes. later some of the soldiers could be seen passing from the Hamburg to the Bremen line piers. Just then Collector Malone drove up with a military officer. About the same

time three revenue-cutters arrived and posted themselves near a destroyer which had been lying in the river for some days. A little later a boat of the Ellis Island service arrived and took position with the cutters.

On boarding the vessels Collector Malone sought the captains, who in most cases had been advised of the turn affairs had taken. The crews were sent to Ellis Island while the examination of their baggage was being completed. In all there were some 1,200 of the crews and 325 officers, the large majority of them reservists of the Imperial German Navy. The most notable figure among the German officers interned

One

These ships at the time of seizure were lying at piers in Hoboken. of them was the Vaterland, afterward known as the Leviathan, and used by the United States as a transport. She could carry approximately 10,000 men and could make a round trip in two weeks

on Ellis Island was Commodore Ruser of the Vaterland. He had been in the service of the line for many years and had formerly commanded the Imperator. When Collector Malone boarded the Vaterland, Commodore Ruser met him in person. The five German liners that had been interned for more than a year at 135th Street and the North River were seized at 5.30 o'clock. In a dismal downpour of rain, 214 officers and men lined up on the dock to hear the proclamation of seizure, received it stolidly, went back to the ships to pack their belongings and within an hour and a half marched

down the gangplanks and started for Governor's Island. It was 7 o'clock when the interned crew, carrying valises, bags and packages of all sorts, began to stream down the five gangplanks. The whole transaction was accomplished in silence except for an occasional low-spoken order. Besides merchant ships the commerce raiders Kronprinz Wilhelm and Prinz Eitel Friedrich were in Philadelphia, and several small war craft, including a light cruiser in Guam. Most of the German passenger-ships had been built as naval auxiliaries, with gun platforms, reinforced decks and other equipment for offensive purposes, together with naval reserve crews. Fourteen of the larger vessels now seized could together transport at one time about 40,000 troops. The American merchant fleet, available at that time, could carry only about half that number.

About a quarter of a mile of Hoboken's water-front was put technically under martial law on April 19. Military authority superseded civil authority along that part of the shore line occupied by the six big North German Lloyd and Hamburg-American piers. Armed sentries kept persons on the opposite side of the street from entering the yards. It was not primarily for safety that the piers were taken over, but for the purpose of preparing them for government use during the war. Three companies of regulars were landed. at these piers from a ferry-boat at night. Hoboken awoke next morning and found the big pier-yards, which since the beginning of the war had been cluttered with huge piles of empty beer-kegs, alive with khaki-clad American soldiers. The beer-kegs, which had waited for two and a half years for reshipment to Germany, were carted away, and moving vans filled with trunks and boxes belonging to officers appeared at the homes of the superintendents of the yards. Early in the day railroad engineers, in consultation with. army officials, were arranging to build spur-tracks from railroads to the newly-acquired yards, so as to establish direct connections with all parts of the country. With their seizure these yards came technically under the definition of "Government reservations for bases of supplies, and land to be used for war purposes.'

The total tonnage seized by the United States reached 720,000, while Brazil, our ally now, had taken over 254,000

tons. Altogether, including the mercantile tonnage seized by Cuba, about 175 vessels, representing nearly 1,000,000 tons, had been added to the shipping resources at the disposal of Germany's foes. Should the fifteen vessels taken "in custody" by the Argentine Government be ultimately seized, another 76,000 tons would be lost to the Central Powers. Should the remaining South and Central American Republics break with Germany, about 600.000 more tons would be released to the Allies. There were 89 Teuton ships in the ports of Chile alone, aggregating 318,000 tons. The Teuton tonnage actually seized at this time was enough to offset the losses of two and a half months of ruthless subsea warfare, provided 400,000 tons were taken as a monthly average of submarine destruction. And that average as the season advanced steadily grew less.

There were now ninety-one German and fourteen Austrian vessels in ports of the United States, exclusive of the Virgin Isles. Under the terms of a joint resolution of Congress, each of these ships which was owned at the time it came under American jurisdiction "in whole or in part by any corporation, citizen or subject of any nation with which the United States may be at war when such vessel was taken," could be seized and operated in the service of the United States. If the vessels of Austrian register were owned in part by Germans, that ownership rendered them liable to seizure on the same terms as the German ships, regardless of our relations with Austria who so far had made no formal declaration of war. The gross tonnage of this fleet was 662,513. Of this gross tonnage all but 67,817 were of undisputed German ownership. Dr. Karl Helfferich had told the Reichstag main committee that the submarine campaign of ruthlessness had sent 1,600,000 gross tons of shipping to the bottom in two months. These figures had been disputed, but not disproved, and the agitation in England for more active measures against the U-boats confirmed the general understanding that the toll of shipping had been heavy.

In some German vessels the damage was much greater

5 They were declared at a joint meeting of Entente Admirals to be 40 per cent. too high.

than in others; in all it was sufficiently great to render the ships useless for weeks. The work of repairing was begun immediately on their seizure. Of the ships in custody 31 were now in New York harbor. Others were distributed among ports on the Atlantic, Pacific and Gulf Coast of continental United States, in Honolulu, Porto Rico, and the Philippine Islands. In the Philippines were 23, ranging from the 10,981-ton Princess Alice of the North German Lloyd to the 499-ton Wiegand of the Deutsche Sudseephosphat. The Elsass, another North German Lloyd boat, having a tonnage of 6,591, was at Pago Pago. The ships were of all sizes, from the 54,282-ton Vaterland in Hoboken, to the 499-ton Wiegand. Many were cargo carriers. The transformation of passenger-ships into transports or freighters was not difficult. The hardest task was to repair the machinery, which was built abroad, and for which parts had to be made to replace injured members. The total tonnage of these vessels was more than one-third of the steam tonnage under United States registry in foreign service in 1916, and a little less than one-seventh of the coastwise tonnage. The use of the seized ships for the transport of foodstuffs to Europe. as planned, would go far to counter-balance the losses of Allied and neutral shipping due to U-boat attacks. The utilization of this great fleet became one of the immediate duties of the Government. Before the summer was over, with expert machinists under naval supervision, several ships were ready for sailing. By the end of July the Vaterland, now the Leviathan, was at her Hoboken pier flying the Stars and Stripes.

Estimates showed that Germany would emerge from the war with a net loss of more than 50 per cent. of her merchant ships. It would, therefore, be many years before she could resume her place in the commercial world. The United States had acquired an opportunity of emerging from the war second only in merchant ships to Great Britain. Germany's total merchant shipping was accounted for as follows: Lost by mines or torpedoes, 152 vessels, representing a tonnage of 452,000; retained or captured by enemies, 267, with a total tonnage of 807,000; in the United States and neutral harbors, 621, with a total tonnage of