Wireless to THE NEW YORK TIMES
BERLIN, Dec. 19. --The wartime logbook of a german submarine was offered today in support of the contention that sea monsters such as that recently reported seen in Loch Ness, Scotland, exist.
Baron von Forstner, commander of the U-28 during the war, and five of his crew say they saw such a monster in the Atlantic on July 30, 1915. They believe it was killed by the explosion of the British steamer Iberian, which was torpedoed by the submarine.
After the Iberian had sunk almost vertically stern first, there was an explosion at what Baron von Forstner judged to be a depth of about 3,300 feet. Shortly afterward, he and the members of the crew declare, a gigantic animal wriggling violently, came to the surface with pieces of the wreckage and was cast fifty feet in the air, but it disappeared ten or fifteen seconds before a picture could be taken.
Baron von Forstner and the chief engineer evolved a drawing of the monster and added it to the submarine's logbook. The monster was said to be about sixty-five feet long, had two legs in front and behind, all strongly webbed, and resembled a crocodile, so the crew named it "the . submarine crocodile." The Baron believes that the explosion that threw the animal out of the water must have killed it.
In addition to the commander and the chief engineer, the two officers of the watch, the helmsman and another member of the crew were standing on the conning tower. All six men say they saw the monster plainly and agreed in their descriptions of it, which correspond completely with the descriptions of those who reported seeing a monster in Loch Ness, except that no fins were visible.
Baron von Forstner believes that it is fully possible for the extreme depths of the see to conceal such animals as yet unknown and that it is possible one could have found its way into the shallower waters of Loch Ness gradually, thus accustoming itself to the altered pressure.
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