An item referred to what an employee at Berlin, Germany reported about what the commanding officer of the German submarine U 16 captain Henssen happened around a year earlier.(1) A year earlier met a Spanish aristocrat Marquis X a young fellow claiming to be a Dutch sailor searching for work. He was jobbed as a first mate on board of the motorboat of the marquis lying in a bay at Algeciras, Spain. During six months there none complaints about him as a first mate, who also liked fishing in the Strait of Gibraltar and studying during several hours using the same motorboat. On a certain day he and the boat were disappeared, which was possible while he spoke sufficient Spanish at that moment. After some weeks the Spanish marquis received a letter from Hamburg, Germany including a cheque in which Henssen offered his excuses while writing that it was his duty to go back to his own country and to serve it.
Note
1. This must be the SM U 16, ordered to be built on 26 August 1909, laid down on 10 May 1910 and launched on 29 August 1911 at the Germaniawerft, Kiel, Germany, commissioned on 28 December 1911, which was sunk on 8 February 1919 at the North Sea underway to be handed over to the Allies. The right spelling of the name of her commanding officer was Claus Hansen (5 January 1883-24 September 1915 off the Scilly Islands while commanding the U 41) who commanded her between 1 August 1914 and 15 March 1915.
