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Naval History and Heritage Command

Naval History and Heritage Command

Diary of Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels

JUNE                         MONDAY 3                   1918

Five ships torpedoed near Barnegat Light – one near mouth of the Delaware –1

_

Balloons, aeroplanes, Destroyers & Submarine chasers were sent out to locate

Met at Department at night-

Before Naval Affairs Committee today_2 Did not recommend the promotions in the Marine Corps-3

Source Note: D, DLC-MSS, Josephus Daniels Papers, Diaries, Roll 1.

Footnote 1: Barnegat Lighthouse is on Long Beach Island, NJ. The U-151 actually sank six ships off Barnegat. They were: passenger liner Carolina; small schooners Edward H. Cole, Jacob M. Haskell, and Isabel B. Wily; steamship Winneconne, and the small freighter Texel. The ship torpedoed off the Delaware River on 3 June was the oil tanker Herbert L. Pratt. Clark, U-Boats to America: 26-83 passim.

Footnote 2: In reply to a question from Chairman Lemuel P. Padgett concerning the U-151 attacks, Daniels assured the committee that the “navy’s defense plans were adequate” and that it would be unnecessary to recall warships from Europe. Ibid., 63.

Footnote 3: The Commandant of the Marine Corps, Maj. Gen. George Barnett, had been lobbying Congress on behalf of an amendment to the Navy Appropriations bill authorizing President Woodrow Wilson to promote the Marine Corps commandant and certain staff officers. Daniels, Cabinet Diaries: 305 and n, 306.