The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1916-02-07
BERG TELLS OF
PIRATE RAIDINC.
Captain Kidd Has Mighty Little
on the MOewe Crew.
Captured Eight Ships Before
Selling the Appam.
ONLY ONE PUT UP FIGHT
Short RatiOns Began to Worry
German Commander.
Declares EngliShmen Were
Most DOciIe Entire Trip.

Newport News, Va, Feb. TT
am willing to tell you all about our
trip as far as military interests will
permit" today declared Lieutenant
Hans Berg, German commander of
the captured British steamship APP
pam, to an I. N. S. representative.
The name of our boat is the
Moewe, which means sea gull Where
this bird came from is a secret"
From reliable stources it was learn
ed the Moewe came from iKel within
a comparatively short time. Shewas
fast merchant vessel converted into a
cruiser.
Never mind the Moewe's former
name" continued Lieutenant Berg
she is a good bird no matter what
her name. She captured eight ships
in short time before we left her. AL
though we are all happy to have
reached an American port safely, if
we had our choice we would rather be
back on her again. Maybe she has
made more captures. .,,a.-
Sighted the Appam.
1--WE were not far from Madeira
when we sighted the Appam We
hoisted our war flag and signalIed her
to stop. She failed to heed our sig
nal, although we gave plain evidence
OF our character as a German war
vessel before going into action. The
Appam tried to get her gun ready
when we started to fire. But she
soon gave up resistance.
The sailors who handled the guns
and their officers were taken as pris-
oners of war and carried over to the
Moewe, about 20 men in all. The
crews of the first six boats which we
took and sunk tried no resistance
whatsoever We put explosives on
board and sent them to the bottom af-
ter all hands were safe
THE only ship that fiercely resisted
was the Clan McTavish. She fired sew
eral shots but none of them hit the
Moewe. At first we fired a blank shot
at her and signalled her to slow down,
which she did not do. She continued
on her course as fast as she could and
kept firing. We scored several hits
and finally one of our shells burst the
main steam pipe, compelling the cap
tain to stop the ship.
10 tots Shot on Clan MeTavish.
Z Personally, 1 don't know how
many were killed on the Clan Meta
wish, but l heard there were about ten
to fifteen casualties. Not a single man
of the crew of the Moewe was killed
or injured The remainder of the Nc
Tavishs crew were taken aboard the
Moewe, where they remained.
THE trip across the Atlantic wa
very quiet. Our prisoners behaved
nicely and slept soundly every night
when off duty. OF course, we had
bombs placed so we could sink the
ship at moments notice in case of
mutiny
Our rations became rather short.
During the last few days we had no
potatoes and very little meat, but we
could have held out longer if neces-
sary without suffering hunger
Il want to pay my compliments to
the American officials and officers
who came on board. They were anx-
ious to release our passengers as soon
Is possible and we ourselves did every
thing to help them. Having released
several hundred men in two days and
with all the tiresome formalities over
with. is not so bad after all"