2nd October, 1939. 

Will you tell me, Mr. Christy, all you can about the sinking of your ship?

I had just come off the bridge, and I saw the submarine's conning tower out of the water about 5.25 GMT. Our position was approximately W.N.W. 22-23 miles from St. Kilda, in about 125 fathoms of water. The submarine was approximately 200 yards from us then. I went on to the bridge, and told the Bosun to turn out the crew who had just gone below. By this time the submarine was well out of the water, and had her two guns manned. As soon as the crew got on deck I told them to start to get the boat out. There was a slight hitch, so I stopped the engines, and went to lend a hand myself. At this time the submarine was slowly manoeuvring round us. I saw one of the men on the conning tower hold his hand up. He was manoeuvring towards our starboard bow, and some one sang out "Get your boat on board" the boat then being in the water. He then sang out "Get your gear away drop your wireless aerial and follow me". He was manoeuvring round us whilst I was carrying out his orders, and we then started our engines and got under way and followed him. He let us towards the NANCY HAGUE and at this time the LORD MINTO was within about 4½ miles of us, the three trawlers then being in a triangle, the NANCY HAGUE being to the S.W. and the LORD MINTO about W.

The submarine increased its speed and when we got about half way to the NANCY HAGUE he hauled off about 4 points to starboard and fired his after gun across the bows of the NANCY HAGUE, who was at this time lying broadside to us, hauling in her gear. We were then about a mile away from the NANCY HAGUE and the submarine circled her. While she was manoeuvring round the NANCY HAGUE I estimated the submarine to be 160 ft. in length in comparison with the length of the NANCY HAGUE. He waited until we got up to the NANCY HAGUE and then steamed off to the LORD MINTO, which was then about 3 miles away. When he was about half way between the LORD MINTO and us he pulled up to starboard with his beam to us and fired a shot at the LORD MINTO.

After I had seen the LORD MINTO lower her boat, the Captain of the submarine morsed to us "Set your boat adrift, and come on board to me". We were under way still following the submarine so we stopped the engines and got the boat out. I was going to go alongside the port side by the LORD MINTO's boat, when some body sang out "Come alongside the starboard side'"

DISTRIBUTION. 

Commander Denham, N.I.D. D.T.D. 

Mr. Roger Winn. FILE. 

Mr. C.J. Radcliffe, K.C. FILE. 

Vice Admiral G. Campbell V.C.

This part of the narrative is continued by the master of the S.S. LORD MINTO.

During this time the Master of the LORD MINTO said that he was hauling in his gear, but had not sighted the submarine. He heard a report of a gun, and after hauling in the gear, started to steam to the E. The crew of the LORD MINTO scattered about to keep a good look out for the submarine, and we saw him close to the starboard bow. We immediately turned out stern, and steamed to the W at full speed. The submarine then morsed to us "I command you to stop", but we kept going and he repeated that signal. At this time we were getting the boat. I obeyed the second command and stopped the engines, and the submarine came right up close to us, and lay broadside to our port side. While we had been steaming to the W. I told the operator to send out a distress signal. The submarine shouted out to us "Is your wireless working?" and we said "No" He said "Get in your small boat and bring me the ship's papers" So we got the boat into the water and rowed towards him. I handed him a couple of the ship's papers and he asked me if I was the Captain. I replied "Yes" and he then told me to go on board. When I stepped on board the submarine the Officer who I think was the 2nd Officer came up to me and said "You must come and See the Commander" I walked towards the Commander who saluted me, and held out his hand to shake hands, and said I think "How do you do" or words something like that. He then said "When I catch three ships or more, I make it a rule to sink 2 of them and let one go". By this time the Captain of the ARLITA was alongside, and the Commander asked him to go on board. 

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The following description of the submarine is given by the two Masters jointly, after discussion between themselves during the interview of the various points arising, and except where otherwise indicated represents their agreed views.

The length of the submarine was about 160 ft. from bow to waterline astern. The bow seemed to be about 4 ft. out of the water. The Captain of the LORD MINTO considers that the bow was "Snippy" i.e. raked back from the foremost point downwards towards the water line. The Captain of the ARLITA is of the opinion that the bow line was practically vertical. She was not perceptible down by the stern, as the portion of the aft deck on to which the Skippers climbed was in their judgment 3 ft. above the water line, but the shape of the hull astern of the point where the Skippers climbed on to the submarine was concealed by the water as they mounted her only just ahead of the water line at the aft end of the superstructure.

The sides of the hull came out in a kind of a blister between the aft end of the super structure and the conning tower beginning at a point rather narrow to the conning tower, then to the aft end of the superstructure and running alongside the conning tower. That part was painted black, whereas the general colour of the hull was a light silvery grey.

The conning tower appeared to be of uniform colour with the greater part of the hull. On each side of the conning tower the Master of the ARLITA saw painted in white an incomplete double circle in the shape of the letter C which he does not think was complete so as to make an O, but cannot be quite definite that the circle was not rounded off. There was no net cutter. From either side of the conning tower to both stem and stern there were wires stretched, one on either side of the submarine about 1 inch in circumference.

There were no stanchions surrounding the decks nor hand rails of any description. There was a stanchion running up on the port side of the conning tower from which a small wire similar in thickness to our aerial wire was seized i.e. fastened down with wire at the after end of the deck. There was also another stanchion on the starboard side of the conning tower on which there was a flag with the Nazi ensign.

The conning tower was longer from fore to aft than in beam perhaps 12 ft in length fore to aft, and its shape was oval. The sides seemed to be straight up and down and it seemed that they had some wooden rail or wooden cover on the lip which the men were resting their elbows on as they looked at us. There were heads looking over the side of the conning tower up to 20 in number. There was no platform aft of the conning tower, nor were the bulwarks cut a way on its aft side, but seemed to run at one level to the deck, conning tower, and stanchions already mentioned. Definitely there was no appearance of a half way level or open aft portion of the conning tower as is shown in photograph 6. There were two guns one forward to the conning tower, on a swivel with a shoulder butt which did not seem at all large, and the other aft of the conning tower which was manned by 6 men whereas only one man was on the forward gun, but the aft gun was not seen to be aimed or pointed up in the air at any time. It had a large wheel on it as though for training it, but the view of it was obscured by the men standing round it. The aft gun was definitely larger than the forward gun. The length of the barrel apart from the recoils is estimated at 5 ft. There were a number of men on both fore deck and after deck as well as the men in the conning tower, and the Captain of the ARLITA puts the total as high as 60. But the Captain of the LORD MINTO does not put the number quite so high.

The Officer who spoke to the Captain of the LORD MINTO and told him he must come and see the Commander spoke good English with a slight foreign accent. He was a young fellow about 25, thin faced, clean shaven, but had not shaved that day, but had no heavy growth. He was fair complexioned not noticeable light coloured hair. He was wearing a blue tunic, double breasted and a blue cap. No rings or stars were noticed.

The Commander i.e. the Officer to whom the Captain of the LORD MINTO was taken after embarking on the submarine, was rather older, his age being estimated at about 35 and he was round faced about 5 ft. 9" in height, rather fairer than the other officer mentioned. He was clean shaven, but also needed a shave. He was wearing a suit of a kind of grey gabardine of thin weight. He had a kind of epaulette which appeared to have carried gold at some time, but what the marking had been was no longer decipherable. The general impression made by this suit was that it might have been an old army tunic, and it was noticed that each leg across the back of the thigh had been stitched across as though the suit had been patched or made good after becoming worn. In the tunic there were four pockets one on each breast, and one large pocket at each side. The Commander spoke very good English, noticeably better than the Officer already mentioned. He had a scarcely perceptible accent. Both officers were very polite and pleasant.

One other man in a blue jacket was noticed by the Captain of the ARLITA with a chevronne on his left sleeve, over the elbow.

The paint work of the submarine was in excellent condition, and the lower part of the hull was entirely free from grass or any kind of marine growth or barnacles. The under water portion was painted black. The deck on which we stood along which we were not allowed to go even so far forward as the aft gun was iron grating, and was painted black. One of the sailors had a ribbon on his cap which bore the letters THORSDEUTH.

Q. What was the colour of your ship?

A. Black hull with white fo'c'sle head, brown casting on bridge work, and red funnel with black top. The small boat was brown grey. The LORD MINTO was exactly the same.

Q. You made no attempt to pretend that you were neutral?

A. No.

One of the crew offered some fish to the men on the submarine and was told that they had no money with thej, and being good Germans they always paid for anything they took, and therefore declined the fish.

The time that we saw the LORD MINTO sinking was about 8.30 p.m. GMT.