Norwich bulletin., 1917-11-13

!t A GREAT SHOW! SEE IT
 Island by the master of the seeadier ! abandoned.
 l The Seeadler, formerly the Amer 1 ican ship Pass of Balmaha, belonged ] to the Boston Lumber Co.,, and was
 in the Nova Scotia trade before the | war. After the war broke out she
 was put under the American flag and was captured by British and a prize 1 ofhcer was put aboard her with in-
 structions to take her to Kiri>wan | Scotland. On the way, she was cap
 tured by a German submarine and I sent to Bremen, and fitted out as a
 raider: A picked crew was placed
 aboard, some of whom spoke Nor | wegian, and sent out into the At | lantic under the guise of a Norwegian 1 ship.
 ! The ruse worked so well that after | leaving Bremen on December 21 1916 | the Seead1er was held up by the Bri- | tish auxiliary cruiser Highland Scot examined and passed Sailors identi- l hcation books issued by the Norwe- gian government were furnished the
 1afkan men, fndhs although aa they probably were | sels and given to the men who seemed I to fit the descriptions given. These | together with pictures of Norwegian l kings and queens. gave the ship the | II.
 Captain Smith learned that. while i cruising in the Atlantic. thirteen ships l valued by the Germans at 60OOO 00G
 marks were captured, and four in the Pacific. the R. c. Siade, the American l schooner A. B. Johnson, the American
 schooner Manila and the French 1 schooner Lutece.
 l Relating the story of the capture o1 his ship, the Slade, Captain Smitf l said:
 l ..I left Sydney on Anri1 eA 1o1- and proceeded without any incident | until the evening of June II, wher 1 I was in latitude about north and | longitude 100 west. On the eyeninf end mate reported to me that a shiI was firing on us. I went on deck ard 1 looked aft. and instantly, as I came
 on deck. they fired again. and I saw l the shell fall short about miles. She was about 8 miles off. There was a i heavy squall starting to eastward 1 wind favorable to this time-and ] l thought it possible to get away and 1 kept holding on. But she kept fir I ing on me at intervals of about 5 to I 10 minutes, and was coming up on me fast.
 | 'The ninth shot, fired about 6 l poop and splashing water on the ship
 Then I concluded that there wasn't | any use, and I lowered down spanker l ciewed down topsaiI, hoisted Ameri- ! { | the raider was up alongside and asked ] what ship. I told him what it was and he told me to lower down eai!a | and stand by. and he would send a1 l officer aboard me. Shortly after, the prize officer came aboard and dfe- tor and about 10 men. These officers were in uniform. They told me to l leave the ship and to go on board the raider, and they would give me time l in the morning to pack my clothes oil raider except the cook. Next mornine 1 I went back on board with all my men 1 and packed up. We left the ship with our belongings, June IS. We were put after I saw from the raider that they cut holes in the masts and placed dynamite bombs in each mast and put 1 fire to both ends of the ship and left he. I saw the masts go over the side and the ship was burning from end se end, and the raider steamed away" Captain Smith said the raider was a full-rigged ship of steel or iron, about 2-3G0 tons. propelled by oil burning engines. Her captain was Felix Graf ant: the First Lieutenant, Alfred King; Prize Officer. Richard Pless There also was a chief engineer, a navigating ienutenant, a mate and 9 doctor All told, her completessent between decks. she carried two 4-ir1ch guns COS centimeters) and two ma
 chine guns. The name on her bow was Irma.
 When the men from the Shade ar
 rived oboard the raider they found
 nine prisoners from the American
 schooner A. B. Johnson. of San
 Francisco, captured three days before.
 On July 3, Smith stated. the schoon-
 CT Manila was captured and dyna-
 mited after the ten officers and men
 had been taken off. Aboard the See
 adler. he said. was a Hollander who
 had been taken off the first ship cap
 tured and was kept aboard because he
 had made an insulting remark to the captain about German money.
 For about three weeks the raider
 kept beating up and down looking for passing ships Meeting none, they went south to Mopeha on July 31 an. chored on the lee side of the island and on August the ship was driven hard and fast ashore. The three American captains had gone ashore with the German officers on a picnic, 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 gave her up as lost and took ashore everything they could move, including the boats. gear and wireless. The wireless plant tween two cocoanut trees. It was equipped with sending and receiving apparatus and without difficulty they
 were able to. hear Pago Pago, Tahiti, and Honolulu.
 On August 2s, Captain Smith re- lated, the German officers fitted up
 and armed small boat and started
 for the Cook Islands or the Fiji Is-
 lands. where they hoped to capture an
 American ship and come back. for the
 crew. Count yon Luckner, the master.
 was in charge. They were never heard
 of again at Mopeha Island.
 After their f7enarfysrN xuirelees ms