Following is Weddigen's tale, supplemented by the
Admiralty Intelligence Department:
By CAPT. LIEUT. OTTO WEDDIGEN.
Commander of the German Submarine U-9.
I am 32 years old and have been in the navy for years. For the last five
years I have been attached to the submarine flotilla, and have been most
interested in that branch of the navy. At the outbreak of the war our
undersea boats were rendezvoused at certain harbors in the North Sea,
the names of which I am restrained from divulging.
Each of us felt and hoped that the Fatherland might be benefited by such
individual efforts of ours as were possible at a time when our bigger
sisters of the fleet were prohibited from activity. So we awaited
commands from the Admiralty, ready for any undertaking that promised to
do for the imperial navy what our brothers of the army were so
gloriously accomplishing.
It has already been told how I was married at the home of my brother in
Wilhelmshaven to my boyhood sweetheart, Miss Prete of Hamburg, on Aug.
16.
Before that I had been steadily on duty with my boat, and I had to leave
again the next day after my marriage. But both my bride and I wanted the
ceremony to take place at the appointed time, and it did, although
within twenty-four hours thereafter I had to go away on a venture that
gave a good chance of making my new wife a widow.
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