June 23:
Former President Theodore Roosevelt writes a letter to Oscar King Davis condemning President Wilson's policy regrarding the sinking of RMS Lusitania.
https://www.gilderlehrman.org/collec...6-829113211463
Air War: Anthony Fokker demonstrates the E.II prototype at Douai.
North Sea: Max Valentiner, commanding U-38, sinks Norwegian freighter SS
Truma, 1,557 tons, bound from Archangelsk to London with a cargo of wood. Valentinere then attacks a fishing fleet, sinking drifters
Elizabeth, 97 tons;
Four, 84 tons;
Josephine, 85 tons;
Piscatorial, 84 tons;
Research, 89 tons;
Uffa, 79 tons; and
Ugiebrae, 79 tons. This brings his total to 14 ships and 8,142 tons.
Hans Valentiner, in
UB-16, sinks British freighter SS
Tunisiana, 4.220 tons, travelling from Montreal to Hull with a load of grain. His score is now 5 ships and 7,445 tons.
Note: I have searched every source I can find, and there is no mention of any relationship between the two captains with the same last name.
U-40, under the command of Gerhardt Fürbringer, surfaces to attack the trawler
Taranaki. The British submarine
C-24, commanded by Frederick Henry Taylor, is submerged nearby awaiting an event like this. The captain of
Taranaki calls the captain of
C-24 on a cabled telephone connection to inform him that the German boat is only fifteen hundred yards off his port beam. As the British sub starts to maneuver, the tow-rope release jams. Captain Taylor calls
Taranaki to release the cable at her end. The cable snakes to the bottom, taking
C-24 down with it. Taylor regains control of his boat, but now the cable has fowled his propellers.
C-24 finally slips free and makes it to periscope depth. At 0955
C-24 fires a torpedo which sends
U-40 to the bottom. Only captain Furbinger and one petty officer survive.
German East Africa: At 1400 hours HMS
Mersey again holds gunnery practice.
Aboard HMS
Severn the crew spend the day putting up armour plate and painting the ship.