Josephus Daniels to Woodrow Wilson

As bearing upon your inquiry in the Cabinet meeting, you ought to know that on the day the German sailors were taken from the Kronprinz Wilhelm and Prinz Eitel Friedrick, Capt Russell at Philadelphia Navy Yard made thorough inspection. He found that the engines of both ships had been recently disabled. Small arm ammunition found on both ships. Fifty automatic revolvers - about 50 - found on the Kronprinz and a new breech block was found in a barrel. Capt. Russell also says he found the distribution of inflammable material about both vessels in close proximity to cans of kerosene varying in size from one to five gallons and the fact that small open cans had been distributed at different points indicated that complete arrangements had been made to destroy both ships by fire. Evidently they reasoned that when the ships burned they would set fire to valuable shops in the Navy Yard - I breathed freely for the first time for days when those sailors had been sent to forts in Georgia.