midnight
A flotilla of American destroyers convoyed it outside and calmly watched while the monster halted nine ships off Nantucket , graciously permitted their crews and passengers to take themselves , but no belongings , into open boats ; then torpedoed the vessels one after another . The destroyers of the United States Navy stood by like spectators on the bleachers , and when the submarine had quite finished the supply of ships the obliging destroyers picked up the fragments in the open boats and brought them ashore . And the U-53 went on unchecked , after one of the most astounding spectacles in the history of the sea . Charity Coe and other women waited on the docks till midnight arranging refuge for more than two hundred victims . It was a novel method for getting into Newport mansions . Even Kedzie took in an elderly couple . She tried to get a few young men , but they were all taken .