On October 7, 1916 the German U-Boat U-53 showed up unexpectedly at Newport Harbor, Rhode Island. World War 1 was raging, although the United States remained firmly neutral. The U-53 captain, Hans Rose, paid courtesy visits to local US Navy commanders, and in return had them visit his U-Boat. The visit was friendly and accommodating, if not a bit strang. Curious onlookers snapped photos and gathered their boats around the U-53. The next morning, the U-53 commenced sinking Allied ships, and within 24 hours the U-53 sank 3 UK ships, 1 Norwegian ship, and 1 Dutch ship. Seventeen US Destroyers were dispatched to rescue survivors, but, being neutral, did not fire on the U-53 and Rose slipped away. In total, the U-53 sank 70 ships from 1916 to 1918.
Special Guest: Jenn Sellitti of the DV Tenacious. Follow the DV Tenacious on Facebook @DVTenacious.
Full Transcript of this episode:
Photos
 The U-53 in Newport Harbor, Rhode Island  The U-53 in Newport Harbor with a few men standing topside. Group photo of the U-53 crew Photo of the crew posing for a photo standing on top of the U-53, October 7, 1916, Newport Harbor, Rhode Island The crew of the DV Tenacious. |  The crew of the U-53 poses for a photo in Newport Harbor. Photo of Hans Rose in uniform. Captain of the U-53. The USS Jacob Jones was the first American warship sunk by the U-53 during World War 1. |
Credits:
Thank you to Jenn Sellitti of the DV Tenacious.
Original theme music for Shipwrecks and Sea Dogs was written by Sean Sigfried. You can follow him on YouTube @SeanSecret, or on his web site at sean.sigfried.se.
Additional music:
“Man Down”
Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Those Wilhelmine Kapitans certainly looked formidable.