Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, 1915, Supplement, The World War

File No. 763.72111 El 1/25

The German Ambassador (Bernstorff) to the Secretary of State

[Translation]

J. Nr. A 5629]

Cedarhurst, N. Y., September 16, 1915.
[Received September 18.]

Mr. Secretary of State: It appears from the contents of your excellency’s note No. 1564 of August 27¹ that the investigation set on foot by your excellency had not brought forth proof that the boats built and under construction at Greenport were intended for hostile purposes.

I will therefore try to furnish a few important data hereinbelow to your excellency for consideration as to whether the making and shipping of such boats lie within the bounds of the neutrality laws.

It is a fact that the Greenport Basin and Construction Company of Greenport, N. Y., and it is further asserted that the Elco Boat Company of Bayonne, Bergen Point, N. J., have orders for a number of boats of that kind a small part of which is already completed.

The enclosures give a closer description and a photograph of the boats.² I beg leave to draw your excellency’s particular attention to the construction of the iron wheelhouse. There is every indication that the boats will be armed with two small-caliber guns at their place of destination, two particularly strong props are built in fore and aft for that purpose.

Considering that an American building firm has taken large orders for speed boats which under the contract are to run 27 miles an hour, that it is said a premium will be paid for every mile exceeding the contract speed, that a French-speaking official (French or Russian) is supervising the construction at Greenport and is taking off the completed boats, that the building of the boats is carried on very strenuously and, on the other hand, as secretly as possible, that in contrast with the former practice of the Greenport works no outsider is allowed in the yard all these circumstances, together with the suspicious build, wholly unsuited for peaceable craft, seem to exclude any thought that the boats are intended for peaceful uses. Press reports of the last few days to the effect that the English are already using such boats in the Channel as scout ships against approaching submarines force the conclusion that the Greenport boats are also destined for that use.

According to a report that has come to me unasked, the Russian Military Attaché Mishtowt a short time ago had a sum of $144,000 for boats remitted to the Greenport Company. That a part at least of the Greenport boats is intended for the war purposes of the Russians or Allies seems to me the necessary inference from the foregoing.

I know from various earlier correspondence with your excellency about the German conduct of war at sea, how zealous are your excellency’s efforts to prevent the territory of the United States from being turned in any way into a base of operations for naval warfare. I therefore cherish the firm conviction that your excellency will use every effort toward ascertaining beyond dispute the ultimate destination of those boats and the case arising, prevent their delivery.

Finally I consider it to be my duty to remark that the German Government might find itself constrained to hold the American Government responsible for the damage that could be caused by the eventual delivery to belligerents and future use of the aforesaid boats.

Accept [etc.]

J. Bernstorff

[Enclosure—Translation]

New York, September 9, 1915.

Memorandum

The Greenport Basin and Construction Company of Greenport, L. I., has already completed quite a number of the said boats. They are numbered 216, 217, 235, and 236. Two of these are now ready to be shipped to Archangel.

The boats, which are 60 feet long and 10 feet wide, are run by three combustion motors and have three propellers. The motors are of about 150 horsepower each and are made in New London, Connecticut. One of the motors can also be used to run a dynamo which feeds an accumulator battery that is carried aboard. The fuel bunkers are built along both sides of the boat and hold about 1,400 gallons. Contract speed, 27 miles an hour.

The following was ascertained on a boat under construction at Greenport which is half finished.

The boat is divided into five compartments by four iron bulkheads. Compartment 1 is used as a chain locker; compartments 2 and 4 for quarters for the crew; compartment 3 for the engine room, and compartment 5 for a water tank. The planking of the boat is in ¼-inch strong cedar. The frames, with the exception of those at the hatches which are of iron, are also of cedar timber. The boat’s bottom is sheathed with copper sheets. Forward there is a strong anchor-raising contrivance. The body of that contrivance runs from the deck to the keel and is hollow. On the quarter-deck of the boat are a large manhole and two screwlids. As the upper deck near the fore and aft companionways consists of iron plates which are further reinforced by iron props below, correspondingly large guns may be mounted fore and aft by means of that arrangement. The wheelhouse is also made of iron plates.

The boats are provided with two rudders and at the trials made at Greenport on September 2 developed a speed of from 25 to 27 nautical miles.

The contracts for the delivery were drawn up at Greenport through one Mr. Bingham. Heretofore the deliveries were destined for Russia. It was only after the trial trip of September 2 that a large order was given by an English officer; work has already been started on six boats of that order. The ordered boats differ somewhat from one another in build, size, and style of construction.

1. Ante, p. 799.
2. Only one enclosure printed.