Aftermath
Isolationist United States Senator Gerald Nye, blaming Britain for sinking Robin Moor, said he would be "very much surprised if a German submarine had done it because it would be to their disadvantage" to torpedo the ship.[13][14]
On 11 June, The New York Times, reporting several different rumors pointing to German blame, also said there may have been Italian submarines in the area, and quoted a German source that said the reports were "confusing, unclear, and contradictory."[15]
Nye withdrew his comment on 14 June 1941, stating "The evidence that the Robin Moor was sunk by a German submarine is too complete to permit my declaration of yesterday noon, to the effect that the boat might have been sunk by Britain, to stand", through the America First Committee.[16]
President Roosevelt later stated in a message to Congress regarding the sinking that the survivors were "accidentally discovered and rescued by friendly vessels. This chance rescue does not lessen the brutality of casting the boats adrift in mid-ocean."[17] Senator Theodore F. Green (D-RI) stated "I don't think the sinking will have any more effect than the sinking of The Panay by Japan. An act of war is bilateral, not unilateral." Also speaking about the Panay incident, Representative Melvin J. Maas (R-MN) said "Japan... not only failed to rescue survivors but machine-gunned them afterward and we didn't go to war."
Senator Pat McCarran said "It is nothing to get excited about". Senator Ralph O. Brewster said "The effect of the sinking depends on the attitude of Germany whether it is a determined policy or an accident". U.S. Representative John William McCormack said "It was very unfortunate but there is no reason now to get unnecessarily excited over this incident". Representative Andrew J. May, chairman of the House Military Affairs Committee, said "We ought to convoy with battleships and let the shooting start and see who shoots first and who can outshoot".[18]
While Roosevelt responded to the sinking with strong words, the strength of his administration's actions was disputed. His message to Congress described Germany's decision to sink the ship as "a disclosure of policy as well as an example of method." His message concluded:"In brief, we must take the sinking of the Robin Moor as a warning to the United States not to resist the Nazi movement of world conquest. It is a warning that the United States may use the high seas of the world only with Nazi consent. Were we to yield on this we would inevitably submit to world domination at the hands of the present leaders of the German Reich. We are not yielding and we do not propose to yield."
German assets were frozen on 12 June, then on 14 June[13] the State Department required Germany and Italy to close all of their consulates in the United States except for their embassies, prompting Germany to issue the same directive to the United States in return. The US also demanded damages and reparations from Germany, without success.
In Congress, isolationist Senator Burton K. Wheeler (D-MT) claimed that 70% of the ship's cargo constituted the kind of materials meeting both German and British standards for contraband, defended the legality of Germany's right to destroy her, and characterised Roosevelt's message as an effort to bring the United States into the war. Others, such as Senator Claude Pepper, urged their colleagues to require the arming of merchant vessels.
In October 1941, federal prosecutors in the espionage case against a group of 33 defendants known as the "Duquesne Spy Ring" adduced testimony that Leo Waalen, one of the 14 accused men who had pled not guilty, had submitted the sailing date of the Robin Moor for radio transmission to Germany, five days before the ship began her final voyage. Waalen and the others were found guilty on 13 December 1941.
