White Bluffs spokesman. [volume] (White Bluffs, Wash.) 1907-1938, 1929-08-02
CHAPTER TX
The Battle of the Falkland
Ia1anda

The Battle of the Falkland
Islands
Through an oily sea we sailed south
and west toward the Falkland islands.
Many time had passed this way
in the old days when bound for Cape
Horn. These islands Of the South At.
1antic have long been the base for
whaling schooners. But to every Ger
man the Falklands will be forever
memorable as the scene of a one-sided
naval engagement in which one of our
best beloved admirals was over
whelmed by British fleet.
Had you seen our deck as we sailed
south during these days, you might
have wondered what we were about.
Along with other plumber, we had loot
ed captured ships of several great
sheets Of iron. We had ripped them
from iron walls and roofs of fore.
castles and slowed them on our deck.
Now the mechanics Of the Seeadler's
motor crew got busy with acetylene
torches, and from those sheets of met
al they welded a great iron cross, ten
feet high.
We drew near spot on that lonely
ocean just a bit to the east of the
Oakland islands. My navigation Off
GER and figured out the point care
fully on our chart, and when our In
struments told US we were there,
called all hands on deck. Somewhere
far below on the floor of the ocean
were the bodies of hundreds of our
comrades and the battered hulks of q
once proud German fleet. 1t was in
these waters that our gallant Pacific
squadron under Count Won Spec sank
In three thousand fathoms. For here
it was that our light cruisers, the
Scharnhorst, Gneisenau, Nuremburg,
and Leipsic, with odds against them,
fought It out with more powerful
British squadron. -Frs,- ',,,.--.
With flag at half-mast, we stood at
solemn attention. The sky was gray
and melancholy. The sea rolled with
a gentle SWELL In our minds eye we
could picture that disastrous day
when, outranged by the guns of the
great British warships, our cruisers,
two large and three small, had fought
q losing and hopeless fight. One, a
scout cruiser, escaped. The others
went down. Pounded from the dis.
lance, they trembled under the blows
of the shells that rained down upon
them. Exploding projectiles raked the
decks and pierced the bulls of the Ill.
fated vessels. AS If in a last strug
gle, trying to keep ahoat for one more
shot at the \ enemy, they staggered,
lurched, and then, one after the other.
plunged into the depths, entering port
on their final voyage far below on the
ocean floor, eighteen thousand feet be-
meath the surface. Every man aboard
three of the ships was lost. A high
sea happened to be running at the
time, so the victors had little chance
to rescue the men from the doomed
ships. Two hundred and fifty mem
bers of the crew of the Gneisenau
were picked up and got to the Falk-
lands alive. --.~,hS....~-,.e,
y AS II IN a dream, thought OF the
last time ! saw my friend Count Won
Spec. 1t was in the days before the
Kiel was in gala mood. Every war
ship in the harbor had sent three hun
dred men. They stood at rigid atten-
ton while Won Spec and his staff
strobe by. Then he addressed them.
"By order of the emperor. l am to
take command of our cruisers in Chi
nese waters. My officers and men sail
with me tomorrow"
The sailors all give three cheers
They think the admiral and his men
are merely going for pleasant vaca.
ton to the Orient 1t Is In 1913. No
war is in sight. Yet darker note
lntrudes: Even then military and ma
val men were unable to escape the
thought of war:
1--WE are leaving home and country
for two years. We who part from
you tomorrow will do our duty, know
Ing that every man at home will do
his. If war should come we will be
across the world and you will be here.
We will be too far away to lend
hand to you, and there is little that
you will be able to do for us.
"Ours is q young navy, but we have
had a great teacher. When England
built her mighty fleet, she taught us
how TO build ours. The English have
great naval traditions, and both their
fleet and traditions have been our
model. If war should come before we