Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1914-08-12
BIG LINER SEEKS
SANCTUARY IN
AMERICAN PORT
Kronprinzessin CeceIie, With Car
90 of Gold and Many Pas
sengers, in Safety.
TURNED BACK IN MID0CEAN
Captain Feared Capture by Proving
Cruisers of Powers at War-Too
Rich a Prize to Be Overlooked
Had to Sail Through Fog
Without Lights.


Bar Harbor. Me-The Kronprinzes-
sin Cecelie of the North German Lloyd
line, with a cargo Of $11,000,0OO and
full list of passengers, arriye ed safely
in the harbor here, having crept in
under cover of fog and night, and
dropped anchor.
The liner, her stacks painted black
to resemble an English warship, every
portfolio blanketed to cover the lights,
returned to America after being halted
in midocean by wireless messages
stating that capture by English or
French warships was probable. She
feared to put in at New York or Bos-
ton. Capt Charles Polack made a
desperate run through the fog to es-
cape capture.
Was an EventfuI Voyage.
The following account of the voy-
age was written for the Chicago Ex-
aminer by Sewell Haggard, associate
editor of the Cosmopolitan Magazine,
who was a passenger:
The Kronprinzessin Cecelie, with
,454 passengers and cargo of SILL
100000 in gold and silver, sailed out
of New York harbor at ten o'clock on
the morning of July %. Her first port
of call was to be Plymouth and then
Cherbourg and then Bremen. The
war scare was on, and naturally the
majority of her first-cabin passengers
being English and German, there was
some speculation as to what would
happen to the ship should war be de-
clared while she was on the high seas.
Persons familiar with Spanish-Ameri-
can war precedents recalled that ships
leaving port after that war was de-
clared were in each instance released
by prize courts.
A Gay Voyage, but
So speculation died down and the
voyage became the usual uneventful
trip across the Atlantic. There was
dance each night; English, French
and German passengers fraternized in
the smoking-room and expressed the
hope to one another that way out
OF the difficulty would yet be found
The weather was good. We made 535
knots the first day, 534 the second, $40
the third, and we had made 233 on
the fourth, when
There was dance in progress on
deck, and there was the usual assem-
bly, in the smoking room. At few
minutes past ten some of the passen-
gers were startled by signs that the
ship was being turned around. They
announced this discovery to others,
only to be laughed at.
At 1920 Captain Polack entered
the smoking room. He carried his
huge bulk a little more erect; his
face appeared to be little more Sc
rious than usual
Gentlemen" he said, 81 want your
to make. War has broken out between
England, France, Russia and Germany,
and we are going back to America.
We have plenty of coal and think we
will get back safely. I want the gen.
tlemen to assist me in allaying the
fears Of the women"
News Shock
No one uttered a sound for what
seemed to be very long time
was seated at table with an English
man, a Bavarian and a Greek The
Bavarian, a kindly faced gentleman of
perhaps fifty, was the first to break
the silence. He arose; we all arose;
he grasped each by the hand, the
Englishman last, and as he grasped
the Englishmans hand he said, very
intensely, II am sorry very sorry"
Afterward it was learned that he
was Major General Kristof Kiefeber,
retired, of the German army The
Englishman makes his living selling
war materials. After the captain left
the smoking room an American ap-
were not possible to buy the ship, here
and now, and sail her under the Amer
lean flag. The captain did not think
this was possible.
That the situation might become
serious began slowly to dawn upon
the passengers. Did ever greater
prize sail the seas in time of war
than the Kronprinzessin Cecilie, with
her S11,500,000 of gold and silver con-
signed to France and England? Were
there any British and French war
ships near? Was it usual for British
nnor nF vAfAn TAI RnI Ano