The Hawaiian gazette., 1917-02-06
army AND navy
TAKE over SHIPS
Steamers On Water Front Now
Under Guard Of Unole Sans
Forces On Oahu
Men Of Gunboat Geier Marched
Away To a Sterner Form
Of Internment
Continued From Page y

yond doubt that this was done in nc.
eordanee with orders given 10 the com.
manders Of the German vessels.
Reported Smoke On Geier y
Last Thursday morning The Adver-
tiser stated on the previous day smoke
had been seen coming out Of the fun
neIs Of the Geier and the other German
vessels and that they were being close.
ly watched by the naval authorities to
prevent the commission Of any overt
act.
II became evident yesterday that the
fires in the furnaces of the German
vessels were not for the purpose of
getting up steam so they could be
moved, but were for the purpose Of de-
stroying the boilers. For the furnaces
were fred with no water In the boil
ers. In those Of the Geier combpstibles
had been placed, in an effort TO make
the fire hotter and the damage greater,
The crews Of the, vessels had also,
for four days previous to yesterday,
been hard at work running the engines,
with the result that they are all out of
commission and probably will be use,
less for months.
When the FIRE on the Geier was dis
covered, the naval tug Navajo rushed
over TO her side and -the commander
Boatswain Percy, said he was going
70 yank the Geier out into the stream
where she would not endanger the Pom
mern and Locksun and the wharf. But
he didn T.. No line was putS aboard.
The vessel remained in possession of
her German captain and crew, the Ger
man consul, Georg Rodiek, having
warned Percy that for him to slip on
board the cruiser would be "a hostile
act. -
For five hours companies Of soldiers,
sailors aud marines stood on the wharv.
es and along the waterfront and. watch
ed the smoke pour from the interior of
the Geier and charred bits of paper, In.
dicating the destruction of her official
papers, log and code books, float from
the tops Of her tunnels. No move was
made to board the vessel
Pire Department Idle ~ K,
The engines Of the fire department
stood idle in the street in front of Pier
2, but no line was run aboard the
burning vessel. Local military aud
naval authorities were awaiting in
structions from Washington before max.
ing a move Of any kind toward saving
the vessel or placing her officers ana!
crew under arrest,
The first soldiers to reach the wharf
about ten-thirty in the morning, where
the Geier was lying were the First
Company, Coast Artillery Corps, which
came on the double from Fort Arm.
strong, under command of Captain
Perkins. The men were commanded to
arrest and disarm any Germans at.
tempting to leave the Geier, Locksun
or PommerD, but none left the vessels.
At eleven o clock three companies of
Coast Artillery moved into and took
possession of the galleries Of Pier q.
The telephones along the waterfront
were seized by the military authorities.
Guards were stationed along the street
and all civilians were forbidden to ap.
proach the wharf. III ~
One company of soldiers swarmed
over the big navy coal pile across the
street, mounted several machine guns
ON il and mounted guard there, their
machine guns commanding the German
vessels. Ets.s. = .tr-"f,f fsn
Pinkham Held Up IN
Governor Pinkham drove up and tried
to board the Geier, but was summarily
stopped by armed guards. Later per;
mission for him to 60 aboard the vessel
was obtained but he had changed his
mind, for by that time the ship was in
a bag of smoke. .i... n, !,
!, GeoTg Rodiek, German consul. was
also stopped when he tried TO board the
cruiser. He, also, was permitted 20 20
aboard later, and conferred with Cap
tain Grasshof. When he left the vessel,
he was pale and plainly worried. For
more than an hour he was present dur
ing debate between Captain Grasshof
and Commander Hart as to who had
the authority TO put out the fire which
was burning merrily all the time in the
engine room.
The formal surrender of the Geier
took place at half-past one. Following
a conference in the captains cabin
between Captain Grasshof and marine
and naval oificers, Captain GrasshOf
walked amidships and sallted Com
mander Hart. Then he stood, dazedly
and with his hat OF and his arms fold
ed, while several of his officers aud
crew passed before him and saluted.
He nodded at each salute but did not
raise his bowed head until the boat
swain gave the order to sound for mus
ter. Then the men began TO pack their
bags.
Geier surrenders FIX Il
The German cruiser Geier had been
formally surrendered to the United
States. .nnn
Before surrendering his ship Captain
Grasshof, Il is reported, made an en-
deayor to destroy some of his papers.
A quantity of letters, books and papers
were seen to be thrust out from cabin
port holes and fall into the water.
Soldiers stationed on the Pommern
along side were ordered TO slide down
a rope into . launch and pick them up.
One that was rescued was a black book,
rum0red to be a code book. Following
this act, none of the Germans was per.
mitted TO 20 below without a guard
accompanying him. Z
Shortly previous to the surrender OF
the Geicr the fires that had been con
Stunning her interior burst out and her
upper works started to blaze The Ger.
mans stood aud watched them burn,
making 40 effort to extinguish them