The news scimitar. (Memphis, Tenn.) 1907-1926, 1919-11-13
FROM RIGGER TO
ADMIRAL IN DAY
Such Is Experience of Baron
de Richter in Yard of
Ship Company.

NEW YORK, Nov. 10. tSpl1-From
ship rigger to the position of rear ad-
miral in the Russian navy, that is the
change which in one day came into the
life of an employee Of the New York
~Shipbuilding company at the Camden.
n. j. yard recently. 1t is as strange a
story Of the peculiar shifts which the
/ wheel Of fortune will take as was ever
written.
Baron othon de Richter, until recent
ly carried on the payroll of the New
York %Shipbuilding company as a ship
rigger, rate "A cents an hour, has sue
ceeded in joining the forces of Admiral
Kolchak and is now in active service
against the Red forces in Russia.
When the Lenine -Trotzky combina-
ton came into control OF Russia, de
Richter, a supporter of the opposition
forces, found himself stranded in the
United States, an admiral without a
fleet a man without a country and also
without a job. He had been sem to the
United States on a diplomatic mission
by the former government and while
here the change in power had taken
place.
There was nothing for him to do but
look for a job, Through former friends
ne got a job, bought a pair of overalls
and went to work.
The de Richters held high rank and
possessed great wealth in Russia under
the RomanOffs. In keeping with the
traditions of such noble families, whose
sons gave service to the army or navy,
Othon de Richter at the age of II en-
tered the Naval academy at Petrograd.
After his graduation he served with
the Baltic fleet n in 1899, on orders
from the Russian admiralty, came to
the United States as ordnance officer
In connection with the construction Of
the battleship Revizan and the cruiser
Variag for the Russian government In
the Cramp yards at Philadelphia.
During the Russo-Japanese war de
Richter was in command OF the squad
ron which defended the approaches to
Petrograd and Kronstadt. In the great
war he served through the Russian
campaign in the Baltie: During 1915
he commanded a battleship unit and
went down with his flagship in the
great fight with the Germans at Riga
bay.
He was rescued unhurt and continued
his service with the Russian navy. In
1916 he took command Of a squadron Of
four cruisers, 10 destroyers and a flotilla
of gunboats. With this fleet he estab-
lished a patrol Of the Gulf Of Finland,
the waters off Sweden and the Aland
islands and extending even to the shore
waters of Tornea, almost within the
Arctic circle.
In the summer of 1917 Prince Lvoff
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
Trotzky, seized the reins Of government
at P%etrograd, and de Richter found
himself a mar without a country. The
revolution OF the Reds had stripped
him. a
De Richter and his wife made their
home at 4521 Walnut street, Philadel-
phia, and early every morning, dressed
in his workman's clothes and disting-
uished only by his erect carriage, his
square shoulders and white hair, he
caught the crowded ferry TO Camden to
go to his work and carr his $S5 a week.
His fellow workmen knew him only as
a rigger OF exceptional skill, speaking
q broad experience at sea, and who car
ried his 40 years as lightly as though
they were only half as many.
Occasionally de- Richter and his wife
would make a trip to Washington to
meet Prince Lvoff and Boris Bakhme-
tieff, who maintained the structure Of
the Russian embassy, and through
them received such news as they were
able to obtain of affairs at home, and
finally his call to join the forces Of
Kolchak came.