New-York tribune., 1917-11-11
Seeadler Hoodwinked British
And Destroyed l3 Ships
American Captain Captured German Raider Declares She
Roamed the Ocean at Will and Was Wrecked by Kun
ming Aground Grew Escaped in Another Seized Ship

said, was a Hollander, who hao been
taken off the first ship captured and
was kept aboard because he had made
an insulting remark TO the captain
about German money.
Runs Boat Aground
For about three weeks the raider
kept beating up and down, looking
for passing ships. Meeting none, 1t
went south to Mopeha on July 81, an
chored on the leeside OF the island,
and on August 2 the ship was driven
hard aad fast ashore. The three Amer
lean captains had gone ashore with the
German officers on a picnic, and the
prisoners were left on the ship. Cannon
were fired to tell the party the ship
was in danger, but when they returned
they found the propeller twisted on
the coral reefs and the vessel beyond
help. After working all afternoon, they
gaze her up as lost and took ashore
everything they could move, including
the boats, gear and wireless. The wire
less plant, a very powerful one, was set
up between two cocoanut trees. IL was
equipped with sending and receiving
apparatus, and without difficulty they
were able TO hear Pago Pago, Tahiti
and Honolulu.
On August %, Captain Smith related,
The German officers fitted up and armed
a small boat and started for the Cook
Islands or the Fiji Islands, where they
hoped to capture an American ship and
como back for the crew. Count Won
Luckner, the master. was IN charge.
They were never heard OF again at
Mopeha Island.
After their departure wireless mes
sages in code from Pago-Psgo TO the
American Consul were intercepted, and
the German crew believed the count had
been captured. On September French
trading schooner from Papeete, the
Lutece, put in at the island. First
Lieutenant King took motor boat and
machine gun and captured the ship.
She had large cargo of -four, salmon
and beef and a supply of water. King
and his crew dismantled the wireless
plant and left the island in the Lutece
that night, leaving forty-six souls, in
cluding the Americans. the crew OF the
French trader and four natives on the
island. Scant provisions, and bad at
that, were left them. Besides these
thev found a few cocoanuts, but the
stroyed them. There was plenty Of
fish and turtles.
Smith Reaches Pago-Pago
A small boat had been left behind
and the marooned men fitted 1t up. The
captain of the Manila, with a small
crew, started out in the boat for Tahiti
on September s. They failed to reach
Tahiti, and returned exhausted on Sep
tember Is. Captain Smith with three
men took the small boat and managed
to reach Pago-Pago ten days later.
Captain Smith said that after the
Seeadler was abandoned the Germans
used dynamite to destroy the ships
masts so that passing vessels might not
sight them. They were unable TO sink
the Manila, IS she was loaded with lum-
Der, and the derelict now probably is
menace to navigation. Although the
Seeadler may be a wreck, it is possible
that her guns still are in position to
use.
Forty-four persons still are on Mo-
peha Island, but Captain Smith said
they were not in immediate danger OF
starvation. There are turtles and nsh
on the island, he said, and the water,
while brackish. is not dangerous. The
cnly DANCE, he said, is of sickness.
One man had gsngrene when he left.
Some medicine was left, but he doubted
that the survivors knew how to use IT,.
Recent dispatches indicate that the
captain of the Seeadler and five of his
crew were captured on September II
eff the Fiji Islands by Fijian constabu-
larry. What became Of the men who left
Mopeha Island in the Lutece is not
known.