File No. 841.857M331/51
The Chargé in Germany (Grew) to the Secretary of State
[Received November 28, 10 p. m.]
4654. The following note relative to the sinking of the Marina has just been received:
Foreign Office, Berlin , November 25, 1916 .
The undersigned has the honor to inform Mr. Joseph Clark Grew, Chargé d’Affaires of the United States of America, in supplement to his note of the, 3d instant and in reply to the esteemed note of the 2d instant, Foreign Office No. 13985, that the investigation of the sinking of the British steamer Marina conducted by the German Government has led to the following results:
At 4.50 o’clock on the afternoon of October 28 last, a German submarine encountered a steamer about 20 nautical miles from the Skelligs in sight of land; steamer was painted gray, displayed no flag, and had wooden superstructures on deck for transporting horses. The commander of the submarine considered this steamer, which was identical with the Marina, a horse-transport ship in the service of the British Government which he could attack forth [Page 313] with according to international law as an auxiliary warship. He was strengthened in this view by his activity in the Mediterranean where he had often observed ships of this kind and ascertained that they were used as British transport steamers in the Dardanelles operations. In these circumstances he saw nothing objectionable in torpedoing the Marina without warning.
The assumption of the commander that he was concerned with an enemy transport seems correct since the Marina, as is known to the German Government from reliable sources, was actually used as a horse-transport steamer in the service of the British Government. Should this assumption prove, however, to be a wrong one according to the investigations of the American Government, the action of the commander would be attributable to a regrettable mistake and not have been in accordance with his instructions. In this event the German Government would not hesitate to draw the appropriate consequences. The American Government is therefore requested further to communicate the result of its official investigations in this direction.
The undersigned requests the Chargé d’Affaires to bring the above to the knowledge of the American Government and avails himself [etc.]