The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-04-13
Will Make Formal Request for Repairs of United
 States Today
SHIP REPORTED IN
 BAD CONDITION
Captain Thierfelder Denies Com municaling With the prinz Eitel in American Port-Tclls
 of Voyage

l Newport News. April i2.-rhe Ger
 man merchant raider, i>ronprinx wn-
 helm. by orders of the Washington
 government. will not he permitted to
 go into dry dock nt the shipyard hero
 until Lieutenant Captain Thierfeider,
 her commander. has made formni re
 quest in writing fer time to complete
 such repnirs as hc deems necessary to make his weasel Scn~orthy.
 Captain Thierfeider told Collector of
 Customs Hamilton tonight chat he would
 make hs formal request as soon as possi-
 hle, but that he could not do SD before
 tomorrow. Meanwhile the kronprinz re-
 mains at anchor in the James river. W hen [, examined late today. experts from the Newport News Shpbuilding and Dry 1 Dock company found the ship was leak ing slightly. with her boilers in bad con-
 dtion. UnofficiauY it was learned that the vessel will require much attention be-
 fore she can be made seaworths. This
 was taken to indicate that the shlp eventually may be forced to intern.
 The German captain, however Is insist- ent that he must hasten 10 repair his ship and return upon the wol> commissioned
 him by the German government as Il mer- chant raider on the high seas.
 "I will decide upon repairs necessary
 to my ship as soon as it is humanly pos slble,s Captain Thierfeder said tonight, because it Is necessary that I proceed as soon as possible. It is of utmost inpor- iance that | resume the duties assigned ,t
 Officers Discharged
 The German commander discharged to- day officers and men of the British ships Tamar and Coleby. whom he brousnt 10 this port. and they were transferred to the
 British horse steamer Cassandra amid I the plaudits of their fellow countrNmen
 aboard ships in the harbor. Tonight they left for England, wondering how they I slipped through the allied warships of the | Virginia caDes That the escape was n
 nlra1nous ohe w8s attested to bY Sapr itain rf3affelaer hsmself toteisht In descfl- ing his experiehce after destroying the I Coleby March q last
 We started north from the equator I short of coal and provisions" said Captain 1 Thierfelder. "We also had sick sailors aboard. afflicted because of too much rico diet and Jack of fresh vegetables. When we started north we hoped and l,aa planned to meet up with German supply ships Unfortunately for us none of the supply ships We expected turned up- l What became of them do not know, ex- 1 eept we saw from the shelter or oVerhanS- 1 Ing clouds one collier we had expected be- ing chased by two British cruisers. which 1 fortunately could not sight us. and We made our escape.
 ><7nfortunately also on onr trip north i through the mid-Atiantc we did not meet up with any merchant ships from which | al nI n i situation 1t was necessary Tor us to get to port and also to dry dock. and l picked out Newport News as the place to come
 AS we came up we continually heard 1 the British warships talking 10 each other on the wireless It seemed on some l days and nights that there were as many as eight warships within radius of a few hundred miles But we kept on due north, running as rapidly as we could with our ship darkened at night. One night We heard the exchange ot news about the Prinz Eitel Friedrich being at Newport News. Thereafter we heard information about the llftel every | night But suddenly a few nights ago we got the news from the British wire 1 less that the Prinz Eitel had been in- l termed,
 Decides to Bolt
 1 "Immediately thereafter all this talk ing between the British warships ceased. We presumed from this that the fleet of warships was breaking up and on Saturday night We desided to bolt In Tor the Virginia capes. With all lights out we started at top speed, but had not gone far when we again picked up the wireless of the allied warships. | But we kept on As we got nearer the coast 1t seemed to us from the signals that there w<re as many as three Britt l ish warships and one French ship with | in distances varying from three to 70 al., ,l., 1 ly near as we approached the capes. At day yberak we were safe within the capes and took aboard pilot who steered us here.
 "One night on our way up We we're to have met German collier aud made i for her. There were low overhanging clouds about us. but in the distance a brilliant moonlight showed us our ship and there were two British warships after her. The clouds protected us and We escaped. We never heard of the col Her again"
 From other sources 1t was learned that this collier was believed to have been the Macedonia, which was reported to have put out from Las Palmas about | two weeks ago.
 Captain Thierfelder denied statements made by British prisoners aboard his vessel that the Kronprinz ever was in wireless communication with the Prinz Eitel while the latter was in port here or before that time. Official inquiry was made concerning these reports. The commander declared he had tried re- 1 peatedly after being commissioned as q merchant raider to establish communi- ! cation with the Prinz Eitel, but failed. He said that when the kronprinz Will helm left New York last August and was oyertaken by the German cruiser i Karlsruhe the commander of the latter gave him naval code at sea which was an old code. The Eitel. he explained. later was provided with d revised Ger man war wireless code. Thereafter, in view of tho differences in codes. Cap- tain Thierfelder declared every time the l Icitel heard the Wilhelm calling, Com | mander Thierichens thought he was be- ing lured by q British warship that had obtained the old German code and kept silent,
 1 investigation also is being made at Washington into the clearance of the hronprfnz Wilhelm from New York for Bremen. Officers of the ship declared !. the vessel was ordered to Bremen with | reSerVisfS.1 but that. without any Waru-