The Story of the U 91

In spring of 1918, a German U-boat, U 91, commanded by Alfred von Glasenapp, was patrolling the Irish Sea. The U-boat had left port at Heligoland on 10 April 1918 and was having a prolific run. By 25 April, she had already sunk five vessels. On 26 April, the U-boat encountered the ETHEL, a wooden schooner, 19 miles off the coast of Pembrokeshire, carrying a cargo of coal from Cardiff to New Ross. ETHEL’s crew spotted the U-boat and hastily abandoned ship, escaping into the lifeboats.
There were no casualties from the sinking, but on abandoning the vessel, in their haste, and in fear of their lives, the British crew left behind their ship’s dog. The German crew promptly adopted the dog and renamed her Lotte.
Lotte stayed with the submariners for the remainder of their successful patrol around Wales where they went on to sink the GRESHAM, WALPAS, ORONSA, DAMÃO and RAYMOND in quick succession.
Von Glasenapp and the crew of the U 91 went on a further two patrols, sinking yet more vessels and von Glasenapp ended the war a successful and decorated U-boat commander. He is ranked 24th out of 498 U-boat commanders in terms of number of ships sunk or damaged. The two U-boats he commanded sunk 52 ships and damaged a further six. He survived the war and died in 1958 aged 75.