By the end of July 1918, the nation was still trying to understand how the Germans could sink the armored cruiser USS San Diego just a few miles off Fire Island, N.Y., when it was faced with the ultimate humiliation, the shelling of the U.S. mainland. On July 21, Capt. Marsi Schuill was on a fishing trip off Cape Cod, Mass.

“We were about 5 miles off Orleans at 10:30 this morning, and the sea was as calm as a mirror.