DEPARTMENT OF STATE.

File No. 300.115C42/3.
SUBMABINE WARFARE. 275
Consul Putnam to {he Secretary of State.
[Telegram.]
AMERICAN CONSULATE,
Valencia, November 29, 1916.
November 29, 1916, 10 p. m.
Preparing affidavits crew. Master Chief Mate state
Chemung bound Genoa from New York. Cargo included
metals, machinery, codfish, cotton, lubricating oil, staves,
benzoil, malt, six hundred cases blasting caps. Thirtysix
thirty-seven north, one fifty-five west, heavy westerly
swell November twenty-six, ten twenty in the morning.
Received warning shot, stopped immediately, hoisting
signal "Am stopped" and ensign, distinguished submarine
approaching on port quarter. Ten forty submarine
mile to westward fired solid shot, hitting water
in line of ship just short port bow. Immediately dispatched
chief mate in boat with ship papers. Submarine,
under Austrian flag, examined papers, informed
chief mate would sink ship, making Master prisoner.
Asked location six hundred cases explosives loaded aft,
stated would bomb ship forward. Submarine steamed
toward ship, signals at eleven twelve to abandon
ship instantly. Crew clear of ship eleven twenty-two.
Eleven twenty-four at three hundred feet fired three
shots, only one taking effect on right quarter above the
water line ten feet from the stern. Fired torpedo eleven
thirty taking effect after hatch among the explosives,
instantly sinking ship, debris endangering boats and
submarine. Master not imprisoned. Boats towed to
point five miles off the coast where were picked up by
a Spanish steamer.
File No. 300.115C42/3.
PUTNAM.
The Secretary of State to Ambassador Penfield.
[Telegram—Paraphrase.]
No. 1436.] DEPARTMENT OF STATE,
Washington, December 2, 1916.
Mr. Lansing states that the Department had been
advised that the United States steamship Chemung had
been sunk by torpedo and gunfire from an Austrian submarine
on the 26th of November, 10.20 a. m., at 36° 37'
north, 1° 55' west. The vessel had a mixed cargo and
was bound from New York to Genoa.
The Embassy is instructed to bring the case to the
Foreign Minister's attention, and to ask for an immediate
investigation and report upon this sinking of an American
vessel.