Chapter 44: Fame Spreads Far and Wide

  "We are American citizens, sir!" a young woman's voice choked out. "Can you take us to an American ship?"

  "For this somewhat naive question, Zhang Haino replied calmly: "I'm very sorry, madam! The United States and Germany are currently at war. If we encounter an American ship at sea, either we sink it or it sinks us - there is no third possibility!"

  The lady covered her mouth with a crying face, and as for the others, whether they were Americans, British or Canadians, no one asked any more questions.

  "Alright, now I'm announcing the first rule here!" Zhang Haino raised his voice, "Some of you may still be carrying knives, handguns and other weapons on your bodies. To ensure everyone's safety, please voluntarily throw these things into the sea. If later our people find out that someone is still hiding weapons, I'm afraid I'll have to ask that person to swim to England themselves!"

  After about half a minute, people started taking things out of their clothes and throwing them into the sea.

  Zhang Hainuo saw it very clearly, it was a small left-handed revolver.

  "Great, I hope others will follow his example!"

  Under Zhang Haino's instigation, two more men took out handguns or daggers from their bodies and threw them into the sea.

  "You can keep anything you carry with you, except for weapons!"

  Zhang Hainuo shouted again, and this time, another person threw away their weapon.

  "Is that all?" Zhang Hainuo looked around in the crowd, and this time no one else took anything out of their body.

  "Alright, since I've already spoken first, anyone who still has a handgun or dagger on them will be thrown into the sea without mercy once we discover it! Now, I announce the second rule here! Before you are transferred to the neutral country's ships, you will have two meals a day, breakfast at 10 am and dinner at 6 pm. No one is allowed to move around freely, if there's anything, just raise your hand and look for me!"

  It's easy to talk about, but looking at the number of civilians that is one and a half times more than the crew members, Zhang Hainuo still has some worries in his heart. However, what he is worried about is not whether these people will stay calm or not, but rather the unpredictable weather on the North Atlantic Ocean. At the end of spring and beginning of summer, it's already a season with relatively more rainfall throughout the year. The ocean is not as calm as the land, and strong winds and storms can occur at any time. Usually, when a submarine encounters such weather, it would only suffer some turbulence, but now there are people all over the deck, and one big wave could sweep some of them into the sea. No one wants to see that kind of tragedy happen.

  "Now, I'd like to know if there's a captain, first mate or anyone in charge of the ship you're on!" Zhang Hainuo deliberately cast his gaze at the several sailor-dressed men, and after a moment, one of the tall and thin young sailors raised his right hand.

  "Mr. Officer, the captain, first mate, second mate and chief engineer all failed to escape! I was in charge of clearing the anchor chain, cables and foredeck on the Newport!"

  "Newman Port..." Zhang Haino had never heard of this ship, and indeed, among the eighty or so cruise ships sailing across the Atlantic, a common liner that was less than 10,000 tons in size naturally didn't have much fame. Looking at the clothes of these survivors again, they were still some distance away from high society.

  "Alright, follow me into the submarine's inner cabin, I have some questions for you!"

  When he heard Zhang Hainuo's order, that person first looked at his companions, then followed Zhang Hainuo down with a nervous look.

  From him, Zhang Hainuo learned about the general situation of this cruise ship, including the name of the ship, tonnage and standard crew, but this low-ranking sailor did not know how many passengers were on board for this voyage, nor did he know how much cargo was carried or what the cargo contained.

  After clarifying the situation, Zhang Hainuo had his communications officer send a second encrypted telegram to Wilhelmshaven. The previous one was a report that U-171 sank an American passenger liner and rescued survivors on board. This time, in addition to reporting the situation, he also put forward his own opinions: either contact Danish ships to come and take away these survivors, or have U-171 send them directly to Iceland or the Faroe Islands under Danish rule.

  During World War I, the Kingdom of Denmark maintained strict neutrality.

  Four hours later, the power was restored in William Harbour. The Navy Department did not comment on Zhang Haino's rescue of the enemy sailors but informed him that the matter had been referred to higher authorities for a decision.

  Another request for high-level mediation!

  Zhang Hainuo was already somewhat disgusted with these few words, the strategic plan was submitted to the high-level decision-making body but was rejected, and the Wolf Group Plan was submitted to the high-level decision-making body but there was no news. He really didn't know what kind of "insight" the high-level would have this time.

  Anyway, Zhang Haino still ordered the submarine to head towards the Faroe Islands. After all, U171 also needs to take this route when returning to the North Sea from the northwest of Scotland. Since Germany declared unrestricted submarine warfare and designated the waters around Britain as a war zone, in order to avoid being mistaken for merchant ships transporting supplies to Britain and being sunk by German submarines, most Dutch, Danish, Norwegian and Swedish merchant ships have abandoned the northern Scottish route and instead take the route between the Faroe Islands and Iceland. (In fact, British warships often intercept them and force them to go to Scottish ports to sell their goods to the British government, in order to prevent these neutral countries from secretly transporting supplies to Germany.)

  For the next 12 hours, Zhang Haino and his crew felt almost forgotten as Wilhelmshaven Command fell silent after sending that telegram. By the evening of the second day, U171 had sailed to within less than 50 nautical miles from the Faroe Islands, but a telegram from the German Navy Department forced them to turn back towards Iceland.

  The reason was simple: according to reports from German spies lurking in the Faroes, a British destroyer flotilla was patrolling the waters around the Faroe Islands.

  U-171 had to make a big detour on the surface, Iceland is about 240 nautical miles from the Faroe Islands, this distance is not far, but at the cruising speed of the UBIII-type submarine, it must be walked for a whole day without stopping. When the food and fresh water on the boat were about to run out, U-171 encountered the Danish cargo ship Watna in the southern waters of Iceland, which came to "meet" them. A few hours later, all 41 civilian survivors from the "Neumünster" boarded that neutral cargo ship, and they would be sent to Iceland and then transferred to their respective destinations.

  Things didn't end there, as the captain of the Danish freighter refused to provide supplies to U-171 on grounds of neutrality, leaving Zhang Haino and his crew in a state of semi-starvation for the next two days. Perhaps no submarine crew had ever returned to Wilhelmshaven in such a wretched state.

  Four torpedoes were consumed, sinking one cargo ship and one passenger liner. Zhang Haino's voyage this time was not worth mentioning in terms of achievements. The Navy Department did not publicly reward or criticize his behavior of rescuing survivors, but he heard that his behavior still annoyed some high-level officials. A few days later, he was asked to drink tea by the Naval Military Police Department, and the officer there warned him informally that he would not be allowed to take similar actions without reporting to the Navy Department and obtaining approval in the future.

  Although the high command was extremely displeased, Zhang Hainuo received a title privately given to him by some naval generals: "Knight of the Sea". Soon after, American newspapers also reported on U171's rescue of the survivors of the "Newmanport", and they rarely gave criticism and praise together to a German officer.

  It so happens that the title they gave Zhang Hainuo is also related to knights, because the German Navy uses the Black Cross War Flag, and they call him "Black Cross Knight". However, the cartoon about him is somewhat comical and satirical: he is depicted as a big-bearded German captain holding a torpedo in one hand and flowers in the other, with his submarine transformed into a silly-looking shark under his feet.