History > World War I

The S.S. Samaritan. – UTV, 38.

The likely historical source of the Samaritan incident is the so-called "Baralong incident" of 19 August 1915, after the capture of the British ship, the Nicosian, by the the German submarine U-27.

Image: Mittel-U class U-27 type U-boat, courtesy u-boat.net.

Q-ships

The Emden

Hugh too was scrutinizing the Gothic writing beneath the photograph: Der englische Dampfer tragt Schutzfarben gegen deutsche U-boote. 'Only on the next page, I recall, was a picture of the Emden', the Consul went on, 'with "So verliess ich den Weltteil unserer Antipoden", something of that nature, under it...' – UTV, 184.

Ger. "The English steamer carries camouflage against German U-boats"; "Thus I abandoned the world of our Antipodes".

For both quotations, Lowry's source, pictured to the left, is Felix Graf von Luckner's Seeteufel: Abenteuer aus meinem Leben [Sea Devil: adventures from my life] (K. F. Koehler, 1921).