Instead, the commander preferred to leave the master clinging to the side of the submarine until the icy winter water and his failing strength obliged the wretched man to relax his hold and sink to his death. It is a disgusting incident, which fills the mind with indignation against the man who could permit such a thing to happen.
Unfortunately, we cannot put these Germans down as exceptional types. From what happened afterwards, they appear to have been just ordinary members of the U-boat service. They did not, for example, ill-treat their prisoners while on board the submarine; and beyond the theft of a few shillings by the German officers, the trawler's crew had no ground for complaint. But the whole incident shows the low standard of morality prevailing among German submariners. Two men allowed to drown; eight shillings stolen from the survivors. That is all, and apparently such trifling incidents are taken as a matter of course in the German submarine service. What can be said for such men? How can normal people understand their motives?
The British steamer _Eavestone_ left Barry Docks on the 1st February, 1917, for Gibraltar. On the 3rd February, she was 100 miles W. by S.W. of the Fastnets when she sighted a submarine. The German opened fire at 3,000 yards and soon found the range. Firing at the rate of a shot a minute, she struck the steamer repeatedly, and continued firing while the crew took to their boats. As soon as the boats had dropped astern of their ship, the submarine turned her gun upon them at short range, firing three shrapnel shells and striking both boats. The third shell killed the master, the steward, and a donkeyman, wounded two able seamen, and severely wounded the second officer in the right arm.
The submarine now called the first mate on board and questioned him, but no enquiries were made as to the _Eavestone's_ losses, and no help was suggested. The boats were picked up that same night by the Norwegian barque _Regna_.
Here is a typical case of the pirate as murderer. Having done his best to kill the steamer's crew, while they were taking to their boats, he deliberately turns his gun against the open boats as soon as they are manned and clear of the vessel. Without any shadow of pretext, the pirate kills three men and wounds three others in this way. The number of men killed was of no interest to the German. He did not even enquire as to the result of his shrapnel fire, and of course it never occurred to him to offer the survivors any help.