Deutschland was a blockade-breaking German merchant submarine used during World War I. It was developed with private funds and operated by the North German Lloyd Line. She was the first of seven -class U-boats built and one of only two used as unarmed cargo submarines.
After making two voyages as an unarmed merchantman, she was taken over by the German Imperial Navy on 19 February 1917 and converted into U-155, armed with six torpedo tubes and two deck guns. As U-155, she began a raiding career in June 1917 that was to last until October 1918, sinking 120,434 GRT of shipping and damaging a further 9,080 GRT of shipping.
Construction
Deutschland was one of seven submarines designed to carry cargo between the United States and Germany, through the naval blockade of the Entente Powers. Mainly enforced by Great Britain's Royal Navy, the blockade had led to great difficulties for German companies in acquiring raw materials which could not be found in quantity within the German sphere of influence, and thus substantially hindered the German war effort.
Deutschland was built together with her sister ship in 1916 for the German Ocean Navigation, Deutsche Ozean-Reederei (DOR), a private shipping company created for the enterprise, a subsidiary company of the North German Lloyd shipping company (now Hapag-Lloyd) and the Deutsche Bank. She was constructed without armaments, with a wide beam to provide space for cargo. The cargo capacity was 700 tons (230 tons of rubber could be stored in the free-flooding spaces between the inner and outer hulls), relatively small compared to surface ships.
Britain and France soon protested against the use of submarines as merchant ships, arguing that they could not be stopped and inspected for munitions in the same manner as other cargo vessels. The US, under diplomatic pressure for supposedly showing favoritism while having declared itself neutral, rejected the argument. Even submarines, as long as they were unarmed, were to be regarded as merchant vessels and accordingly would be permitted to trade.
Only two submarines were completed according to the original design: Deutschland and Bremen, which was lost on its maiden voyage, also to the United States. Due to the United States' entry into the war, the other five submarine freighters were converted into long-range cruiser submarine (U-kreuzers), equipped with two 150mm deck guns and were known as the Type U 151 class.
Merchant service
First journey
Deutschland departed on her first voyage to the US on 23 June 1916 commanded by Paul König, formerly of the North German Lloyd company. On her maiden voyage, she carried 750 tons of cargo in total, including 125 tons of highly sought-after chemical dyes, mainly Anthraquinone and Alizarine derivatives in highly concentrated form, some of which were worth as much as $1,254 a pound in 2005 money. She also carried medical drugs, mainly Salvarsan, gemstones, and diplomatic mails, her cargo being worth $1.5 million in total ($ million in ).
Deutschland waited a week at Heligoland after the announced sailing date to avoid enemy patrols. She submerged for only of the outbound voyage. She did not enter the English channel but took a northern passage around Scotland. At about off the Virginia capes lookouts sighted a possible hostile ship so that Deutschland submerged, altered course back to sea and then approached submerged until about of the Chesapeake Bay entrance. At 1:20 a.m. on 9 July Cape Henry was sighted and contact made with the Eastern Forwarding Company tug Thomas Timmins which had been specially altered to tow Deutschland alongside and been waiting some days. At 11:00 p.m. on 9 July 1916 the two vessels reached Baltimore. She arrived at the Quarantine anchorage off of Marley Neck, Anne Arundel county, just outside of what was then Baltimore city limits. after just over two weeks at sea. A photograph by Karle Netzer was made the next morning, 10 July. (erreichte Baltimore Hafen 10 Juli 1916). During their stay in Baltimore, the German crewmen were welcomed as celebrities for their astonishing journey and even taken to fancy dinners and an impromptu volksfest in the southwest part of the city. American submarine pioneer Simon Lake visited Deutschland while she was in Baltimore, and made an agreement with representatives of the North German Lloyd line to build cargo submarines in the US, a project which never came to fruition when the United States declared war on Germany in early April, 1917.