Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1914-09-24
COAST PAPER
REPORISBATTLE.
ON THE PACIFIC

/
sunk Russian cruiser off the Pacific
coast of America, being herself severe
! ly battered in the action. with a loss
| of 6S officers and men killed, is the
story told in a letter received here
yesterday purporting to come from a
gunner on the kaiser's warship, says
the San Francisco Chronicle of Sept.
| Is.
According to the writer, the Leipzig
was in fierce encounter at some I'M
named place and time after she left
San Francisco and before August %,
in which she received 30 shells in her
bow, stacks, mast and deck. In addi-
ton to the 6S men killed, there were
many wounded
The letter was received yesterday
morning by Chief Steward Thomas
Dowd of the steamer Yale and was
signed by Joseph Won Dwucet, who
was second cook on the Yale up to
the time the Leipzig came into port
on August 18th to coal At that time
he disappeared from his berth ON the
coaster and nothing has been heard
from him until Dowd received his let
ter yesterday.
In the letter which was posted at
Guaymas, Maxico inz September the
exact date being undecipherable, Won
Dwucet, who was member of the Ger
man naval reserve, says he enlisted
on the Leipzig when she was at San
Francisco.
After discussing various personal
and business matters, particularly the
collection of weeks wages due, Won
Dwucet says:
Il am still alive. Pretty near was
the end of me after an engagement with
a Russian cruiser, which resulted in the
sinking of our enemy and on our boat
quite few dead and wounded. We
got thirty-two shots in the bow, masts,
smokestack and deck. am cut up on
my body by couple of grenades.
please excuse me for leaving you
without giving notice. And collect the
money which is coming to me and pay
the bills, as / ask and take the rest
to the German consul And If should
die, may God bless you for your fu-
ture life.
Received Wireless Reports.
I'VE received wireless reports every
day of the German march to Paris. We.
expect everything to be over in four
five months. / expect to be well OF
my wounds in two or three weeks.
After the battle the captain order
ed the band to play the national song.
We all stood up and saluted. | for
got all my pain and cried like little
baby. We all thought Of home and of
our dear comrades.
Tomorrow is the burial of our
dead heroes on the sea. sixty-eight in
number. The captain cried too. The
dead included about six officers.
In another part of the letter Won
Dwucet says he acted as a gunner in
the battle, and admits that his marks
was not very good. He asks
Dowd to save certain papers pertain
ing to aeropautites, which, he says. he
needs to obtain commission as a
Lieutenant in the German aerial corps.
Won Dwucet was understood to have
had an aeroplane at San Diego.
Ship of Mystery.
The Leipzig left San Francisco on
August 18th, and since her last and
only official reporting by the Catania,
August 18th off the Oregon coast, she
has been a ship of mystery. Rumors
have come from British Columbia
that the authorities there have positive
that the German vessel
had been removed from consideration
as a menace to shipping, but how or
when or where remains unreyealed.
The German Vice. Consul, Baron Z. |
H. Won Setback, said yesterday that
he did not believe the Won Dwucet
story of battle at sea. He added |
that he had no information about the
Leipzig In his opinion, he said, if the
Leipzig had had sixty-two men killed
she would have had many more wound |
ed, and would have been compelled to
enter some port to put them ashore.
Seven or eight days would have
been required by the Leipzig to steam |
from the Oregon or California coast
to Guaymas. However, the cancella- |
ton date of the Guaymas postoffiee on
the letter could not be deeiphered,
though the word September was plain.
The letter itself was dated August %. |
Bert Williams, the comedian. was
n. Ii - L.,