New Britain herald., 1929-11-01
SAILORS TRACKED
 INTO PRIVATE WAR
Become Grew Of PriYateer and
 Have Wild Adventure

Hamburg. Nov. 1 LPt-How two into becoming the crew of priva- teersman in an abortive revolution at Cumana. Venezuela, was related in two affidavits filed in the mari time court here. The case was that of the steamer Fake" whose at tempt early in August to land armed fllibusterers resulted in a demand by Venezuela that the ship be seized as pirate.
 The story of the expedition, read ing like a Richard Harding Davis tale, was told when the crew finally got back to this country. The first mate made an affidavit and the other was signed jointly by 4 members of the crew.
 The sworn statements reveal that the tars began to smell a hat when Frenchman. known only as NJ. Parisot. boarded the Falke as she was about to sail for DanZig to ship cargo for an unannounced South American port.
 At Danzig. however. the vessel was ordered to Gdynia, the new port Of Poland. where in the dead of ! night, 1240 cases were brought aboard The crew soon determined that these contained machine guns, rifles, pistols, bayonets and swords. To man, the sailors refused to 20 on with the voyage, but Capt. Zipplit quieted their fears by re- { marking quietly that the cargo had 1 been officially declared and that the rest was nobody's business. The following morning, the owner, Felix Prenzlau of Hamburg, came on board and when the crew repeated their objections declared the cargo to be a consignment by one government 10 another. For the possible danger of sailing with such an explosive cargo he offered them double wages besides a bonus To this the crew finally agreed. Then 20 passengers appeared, head ed by a Venezuelan calling himself Delgado.
 On the voyage, after having
  humber of cases were opened and [the passengers were armed with pistols and swords. Thereafter the deck and hatchways were closely guarded day and night. and a ma chine gun was mounted on the Eforecastle. Delgado was addressed by the others as president" and
 
 Etain Zipplit in the cabin swear al- 1 (legiance to the Venezuelan flag and |the Venezuelans give him the rank i Eof admiral By this time the crew no longer khad any doubts about the nature of 1 ffhe venture they were on, and they ! demanded of the captain to make i fdor the nearest port with 8 German 5consul. Again, however, the com- mander succeeded in quelling their 1 misgivings. On August 10 the "Falke" an- [chored off the Venezuelan island of Blanquilla, where part of the am- munition was put on a sailboat and 1 Tight additional men were taken on l board. The vessel then sailed to |! Negros Point on the Cumana pen nsula, where 400 natives were | Shipped. Of these 200 after being i Armed with guns left the ship again, Finally at a. m. on August II the i 'Falke" entered the harbor of Gu nana. As soon as the Fake" had an- ehored 150 insurgents entered the khips boats compelling the crew At the point of pistols to row them ashore. As the boats approached | he coast they were greeted by rife | Ire. Delgado was killed by the 5rst volley and a number of insur- Eents were wounded.
 The officers and crew of the i EFalke' returned to the vessel un- cathed with the exception of the hird mate, who was wounded and { fnce then has been missing. When | he insurgents saw that all was pst, the "Falke" steamed for Port >f-Spain, Trinidad, where the first bate reported the events 10 the German consul.