Americus times-recorder., 1919-07-13

OlAlE VI a snip S+ilN -AN''
for sea service.
Luck was with him and he found
place in the Camden yards of the
New York ShipbuiIding Company
through an old friend, worked at 1t
steadily and with willingness ana
skill tnat won him a regular berth,
and lived on the wages he earned.
Another Turn of Fortune
! Another spin of the wheel of for
tune established the counter revolu-
tionary government under Admiral
Kolchak in Omsk and de Richter re-
ceived a call to cast his lot with these
forces. That was at the end of April
and de Richter started at once for
VIadivostock. He travelled through
British Columbia and Japan in safety
and without delay, but the latter part
of his journey was accomplished with
great difficulty and at high personal
risk. At last, however, he gained
Kolchak's headquarters and was at
once reinstated as one of the highest
officers of the naval command.
De Richter's future is in the lap of
the gods, tied up with the fortunes of
the Omsk government, but no matter
what befalls him, he has Iived-lived
! in ease and wealth, in command and
power, in victory and defeat, as a
man without a country in a strange
land, in poverty, and as worker,
earning his daily bread by honest
and patriotic toll And his wife, who
shared the high honors of her hus-
band at the Russian capital, was his
companion and helpmate during his
days of toll as ship rigger in this
country.
The de Richters held high rank and
| possessed great wealth In Russia un-
der the Romanoffs. In keeping with
| the traditions of such noble families,
whose sons gave service to the army
or navy. Onthon de Richter at the age
of II, entered the Naval Academy at
Petrograd.
After his graduation he served with
the Baltic feet and in 1899, on or
ders from the Russian admiralty
anne to the United States as ordnance
office in connection with the con-
struction of the battleship "Retvizan"
and the cruiser "Variag' for the
Russian government in the Cramp
yards at Philadelphia. De Richter,
a senior lieutenant at the time check
ed up on armament of the "Variag''
with Andrew Calberg, then assistant
captain of the Cramp yard, and they
sailed together on ner trial trip.
Commanded Squadron.
During the Russo-Iaparese war
de Richter was in command of the
squadron which defended the ap-
proaches to Petrograd and Kronstadt
In the Great War he served through
the Russian campaign in the Baltic
During 1915 he commanded battle.
ship unit and went down with his flag,
ship in the great fight with the Ger.
mans at Riga Bay.
/ He was rescued unhurt from the
wreckage of his ship and continued
his service with the Russian navy. Ii
1916 he took command of a SQUAD
ron of four cruisers, ten DESTROYER,
, and a fotilla of gunboats. With thi,
Meet he established a patrol of the
Gulf of Finland, the waters off Swe
den and the Aland Islands and ex
tending even to the shore waters ot
Iornea, almost within the Arctic cir
Gle.
In the summer of 1917 Prince Vloft
sent de Richter to the United States
on a special mission, and while he
was still engaged upon the work that
brought him to this country. the
Reds, under the leadership of Lenine
and Trotsky seized the reins of COVE
ernment at Petrograd and de Richter
found himself for a time being a
man without country.
Not only was he a man without =
country, but man without lob and
without money or resources. The
revolution of the Reds had stripped
him. When he found that ship rig
gers were needed at the yards. he
thought of his old friend, Calberg.
and found him in the position of ward
captain at the Camden yards of the
New York Shipbuilding Company, and
Calberg put him to work.
Earned $35 Per Week.
De Richter and his wife made their
home at No. 4521 Walnut street Phil
adelphia, and early every morning,
dressed in his workmen's clothes and
distinguished only by his erect car
riage, his square shoulders and white
hair, he caught the crowded ferry to
Camden to go to his work and earn
his $35 week, His fellow workmen
knew him only as a rigger of excep-
tlonal skill speaking a broad expert
ence at sea, and who carried his 40
years as lightly as though they were
only half as many.
Ooao cinva1I,r