On the High Seas

WAR & PEACE

It was 4 o'clock in the morning, a grey dawn on a grey sea, when the Robin Moor first saw the signal lights blinking. They signaled: "Send over a boat." The captain came up on the bridge in his pajamas. A boat was lowered and four seamen at the oars rowed the chief officer through the lifting dawn toward the long, low shape awash in the water, a mile and a half away.

The submarine was a Nazi U-boat with the word Lorricke or Lorickke and a picture of a "laughing cow" painted on her conning tower.

The Robin Moor's mate clambered aboard, met her captain waiting on the deck. Said the German, "Where are your papers?" The mate said: "You didn't ask me to bring them." Then the two officers disappeared down the hatch. Ten minutes later the mate was back. Said he: "They're going to let us have it. . . ."

The submarine's commander gave the Robin Moor half an hour to abandon ship. The passengers were roused. Three more boats were lowered. As the sun rose, after the boats were in the water, the submarine fired a torpedo into the Robin Moor amidships, shelled her for 23 minutes. She went wearily down by the stern.

The submarine circled about the captain's boat. A Nazi sailor gave the men four tins of ersatz bread, two tins of butter. Said the Nazi commander: "I'm sorry, but you were carrying supplies to my country's enemy." The German promised to radio the Robin Moor's position. Then he slid away into the sea.

Thus, one morning last month, 750 miles off the British port of Freetown, Africa, the U.S. freighter Robin Moor met her end. The Robin Moor had carried a crew of 38. eight passengers (three women, one child).

The Robin Moor carried no munitions, no material of a military character. On her side, the U.S. ensign was clearly painted.

For five days, through torrential rains, high seas and blazing sun, the four lifeboats stayed together. Then they separated, headed into a fresh wind toward the Brazilian coast. Late on the 18th day after the Robin Moor went down, one of the boats sighted a ship on the horizon. The men signaled across the water with flashlights. The Ozorio halted, picked them up: one British passenger, a mate, two engineers, seven seamen. For seven days the U.S. believed that the rest of the Robin Moor's passengers and crew were lost. Then from Capetown came word that they had been rescued by a British ship bound for Africa.

The fact that no lives had been lost somewhat salved U.S. feelings. But at no point had U.S. feelings run very high. The U.S. was not even greatly stirred when a Nazi spokesman in Berlin defiantly announced that Germany intended to continue such sinkings.

But if feelings were not aroused, the sinking of the Robin Moor had nonetheless brought a crisis on the U.S. The Robin Moor had not been bound for any war area, was far even from the huge war zone which Germany herself laid out--an area extending from Norway to Greenland, almost to Spain. If such sinkings continue, U.S. ships bound for other places remote from fighting fronts, will be in danger.* Henceforth the U.S. would either have to recall its ships from the ocean or enforce its right to the free use of the seas.

* To help prevent future sinkings of both U.S. and British ships, Western Union this week said it had discontinued its ticker service (to newspapers, shipping offices) reporting ship movements in & out of New York Harbor. Reason: the ticker ''was giving information to the enemy."

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