Lieutenant Hans Rose, skipper of the U-53, tells the captain of an American freighter he has encountered on the North Atlantic that he considers the ship a legitimate target. The Housatonic, sent to the bottom by the U-boat, becomes the first U.S. casualty of Germany’s renewed submarine warfare.
February 3, 1917 – I find the vessel is laden with grain for London. It is my duty to sink her.
Chronology