Naval Department Makes Public Interesting Account of Exploits of Kaiser’s Seamen on Board American Vessel Which Had Been Taken From English Prize Force While Sailing For Kirkwall
Washington, November 10.—The full story of the cruise of the German commerce raider Seeadler has been obtained by the navy department from Capt. Haldor Smith of the American schooner R. C. Slade, and three other mariners, who landed at Tutuila in an open boat September 29 after being marooned on Mopeha Island by the master of the Seeadler when the raider grounded and was abandoned.
The Seeadler, formerly the American ship Pass of Balmaha, belonged to the Boston Lumber company, and was in the Nova Scotia trade before the war. After the war broke out she was put under the American flag and was captured by the British and a prize officer was put aboard her with instructions to taKe her to Kirkwall, Scotland. On the way she was captured by a German submarine and sent to Bremen, and fitted out as a raider. A picked crew was placed aboard, some of whom spoke Norwegian, and sent out into the Atlantic under the guise of a Norwegian ship.
RUSE WORKS WELL
The ruse worked so well that after leaving Bremen on December 21, 1916, the Seeadler was held up by the British auxiliary cruiser Highland Scot, examined and passed. Sailors’ identification books issued by the Norwegian government were furnished the men, although they probably were taken from captured Norwegian vessels and given to the men who seemed to fit the descriptions given. These, together with pictures of Norwegian Kings and Queens, gave the ship the appearance of a Norwegian.
Captain Smith learned that, while cruising in the Atlantic, 13 ships, valued by the Germans at 60,000,000 marks, were captured, and four in the Pacific, the R. C. Slade, the American schooner A. B. Johnson, the American schooner Manila and the French schooner Lutece.
CAPTAIN TELLS STORY
Relating the story of the capture of his ship, the Slade, Captain Smith said:
“I left Sydney on April 24, 1917, and proceeded without any incident until the evening of June 17, when I was in latitude about 2 north and longitude 150 west. On the evening of June 17, about 5 o’clock, the second mate reported to me that a ship was firing on us. I went on deck and looked aft, and instantly, as I came on deck, they fired again, and I saw the shell fall short about two miles. She was about eight miles off. There was a heavy squall starting to eastward—wind favorable to this time—and I thought it possible to get away and kept holding on. But she kept firing on me at intervals of about five to 10 minutes, and was coming up on me fast.
“The ninth shot, fired about 6 o’clock, struck very close, passing the poop and splashing water on the ship. Then I concluded that there wasn’t any use, and I lowered down spanker, clewed down topsail, hoisted American flag, and hove to. About 7 o’clock the raider was up alongside and asked what ship. I told him what it was, and he told me to lower down sails and stand by, and he would send an officer aboard me. Shortly after, the prize officer came aboard, and a doctor and about 10 men. These officers were in uniform. They told me to leave the ship and go on board the raider, and they would give me time in the morning to pack my clothes.
“They took all our men aboard the raider except the cook. Next morning I went back on board with all my men and packed up. We left the ship with our belongings. June 18. We were put on board the raider again. Shortly after I saw from the raider that they cut holes in the masts and placed dynamite bombs in each mast and put fire to both ends of the ship and left her. I saw the masts go over the side and the ship was burning from end to end, and the raider steamed away.”
FULL RIGGED SHIP
Captain Smith said the raider was a full-rigged ship of steel or iron, about 2300 tons, propelled by oil-burning engines. Her captain was Felix Graf Von Luckner, active captain Iieutenent; the first lieutenant, Alfred Kling: prize officer, Richard Pless. There also was a chief engineer, a navigating lieutenant, a mate and a doctor. All told, her complement was 68 officers and men. Mounted between decks, she carried two 4-inch guns (10.5 centimeters), and two machine guns. The name on her bow was Irma.
When the men from the Slade arrived aboard the raider they found nine prisoners from the American schooner A. B. Johnson, of San Francisco, captured three days before. On July 8, Smith stated, the schooner Manila was captured and dynamited after the 10 officers and men had been taken off. On board the Seeadler, he said, was a Hollander who had been taken off the first ship captured and was kept aboard be cause he had made an insulting remark to the captain about German money.
SHIP GOES ASHORE
For about three weeks the raider kept beating up and down looking for passing ships. Meeting none they, went south to Mopeha on July 31. anchored on the lee side of the island and on August 2 the ship was driven hard and fast ashore. The three American captains had gone ashore with the German officers on a picnic, and the prisoners left on the ship. Cannon were fired to tell the party the ship was in danger, but when they returned, they found the propeller twisted on the coral reefs and the vessel beyond help. After working all afternoon they gave her up as lost and took ashore everything they could move, including the boats, gear and wireless. The wireless plant, a very powerful one, was set up between two cocoanut trees. It was equipped with sending and receiving apparatus and without difficulty they were able to hear Pago Pago, Tahiti and Honolulu.
On August 23, Captain Smith related, the German officers fitted up and armed a small boat and started for the Cook Islands ar the Fiji Islands, where they hoped to capture an American ship and come back for the crew. Count von Luckner, the master, was in charge. They were never heard of again at Mopeha Island.
After their departure, wireless messages in code from Pago Pago to the American consul were intercepted and the German crew believed the count had been captured. On September 5, a French trading schooner from Papeete, the Lutece, put In at the island. First Lieutenant King took a motor boat and machine gun and captured the ship. She had a large cargo of flour, salmon and beef and a supply of water. Kling and his crew dismantled the wireless plant and left the island in the Lutece that night, leaving 48 souls, including the Americans, the crew of the French trader and four natives of the island. Scant provisions, and bad at that, were left them. Besides these, they found a few cocoanuts but the great number of rats on the island destroyed them. There was plenty of fish and turtles.
A small boat had ben left behind and the marooned men fitted it up. The captain of the Manila with a small crew started out in the boat for Tahiti on September 8. They failed to reach Tahiti and returned exhausted on September 15. Captain Smith with three men took the small boat and managed to reach Pago Pago 10 days later.
DYNAMITED VESSEL
Captain Smith said that after the Seeadler was abandoned the Germans used dynamite to destroy the ship’s masts so that passing vessels might not sight them. They were unable to sink the Manila, as she was loaded with lumber, and the derelict now probably is a menace to navigation. Although the Seeadler may be a wreck, it is possible that her guns still are in position to use.
Forty-four persons still are on Mopeha Island, but Captain Smith said they were not in Immediate danger of starvation. There are turtles and fish on the Island, he said, and the water, while brackish, is not dangerous. The only danger, he said, is of sickness. One man had gangrene when he left. Some medicine was left, but he doubted that the survivors knew how to use it.
Recent dispatches indicate that the captain of the Seeadler and five of his crew were captured on September 21 off the Fiji Islands by Fijian constabulary. What became of the men who left Mopeha Island in the Lutece is not known.
The Birmingham Age-Herald, Birmingham, AL, November 18, 1917
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