A U-BOAT IN THE THAMES SIR,—In " A Spectator's Notebook
" a April 27th, " Janus " remarks on a drawing of a U-boat lying in the Thames flying the Imperial German Ensign having been seen in a German house by Wing Commander Nigel Tangye. The apparent assumption by "Janus " is that the drawing is a fantasy and betrays the German people's failure to appre- ciate their guilt and defeat now and in 1918. I am sorry to have to debunk this, but the drawing is probably not a fantasy, as the following will show:
In May, 1916, the German submarine minelayer U.C.5 on a mine- laying operation went ashore on the shipwash shoal off Harwich. She was seen and challenged by H.M. Destroyer Firedrake,' the Germans surrendered and abandoned their vessel after scuttling her, but their attempt to blow up her unlaid mines .was unsuccessful. After about a month of hazardous and trying salvage work by the 'Racer' she was brought into Harwich and put in a floating dock. Some weeks later, her mines having been removed, she was sent round to the Thames and lay there on exhibition alongside the embankment below the Houses of Parliament. She flew the German Imperial Ensign, but " inferior " to the White Ensign. Several photographs and drawings of the U.C.5 appeared in our Press at the time, and these may have given the German artist his inspiration.—Yours very truly, Q. H. PATERSON, " Strathtullis," Helens burgh, Dumbartonshire. Capt., R.N. (Retd.).
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