White Bluffs spokesman. [volume] (White Bluffs, Wash.) 1907-1938, 1929-05-31

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count LUCKNERE
THE SEA DEVIL
DOUBLED. sss g. By LOWELL THOMAS


for our Norwegian" sailors, each set
totally different from the other.
OF course, the stolen log of the Ma
leta gave us lot of useful informa-
ton about her crew, and our fake let
tiers were made to tally with this In
formation. Women in the admiralty
and foreign offices who knew Norwe-
gian wrote them for us. We got old
Norwegian stamps and Norwegian
postmdrks of various ports the letter
were supposed to have been sent to.
Then we aged the letters In chemt-
picked as my officers men who
like myself had spent long years be-
fore the mast, who knew Norwegian,
and were of the right spirit. First Of
ficer King had been member of the
Filchner expedition, in which he had
distinguished himself. The officer
whom selected to go aboard captured
ships was former comrade of mine,
fellow of six feet four, whom met
by chance on dock. In response to
my question whether he wanted to ac-
company me, he asked:
'Is II one of those trips that Is like
ly to send you to heaven?"
"Yes,"
"Then I'm with you. My name Is
PRESS, and you are after prizes. So
I'll bring you luck"
My artillery and navigation officer,
Lieutenant Kircheiss, was a wizard
navigator. Engineer Krauss was our
motor expert The boatswain, the
carpenter, and the cook, the three
mainstays of voyage in sailing
vessel, picked with like care. OF the
men who were to 60 with me | only
needed twenty-seven with knowledge
of Norwegian. There we're just twen-
ty-seven aboard the real Maleta. In
selecting my men, interviewed each
candidate personally but gave him no
hint of why wanted him. tried to
read these mems souls in order to dis
cover in them the qualities of courage
and endurance that would be needed.
Now we needed name for our raid
err. We needed .one that she could
take for her official name as an aux
Hilary cruiser after running the block
ade wanted to call her the Albat-
ross out of gratitude to the albatross
was lad. But discovered that
there was already vessel with that
name, a mine layer. Then wanted
to call the ship the Sea Devil, the
name by which personally was after
ward to be called. My officers favored
some name that would suggest the
white wings of our sailship. So we
compromised on Seeadler, or Sea
Eagle.
On pitch-dark November night, the
SeeadIer, with a small emergency
crew, raises anchor and sails out OF
the mouth of the Weser into the North
Sea. There, some distance offshore,
we drop anchor
| AT a remote place along the docks
| at Wilhelmshaven, men appear one by
one. BY the light of dimly burning
lantern gather my crew.
Next morning a scow of lumber lay
alongside, and we stacked timber to a
height of six feet over all the deck,
and fastened 1t down with wire and
chains.
Every man had his role. Every man
must now prove his mettle as an actor.
| Officers and sailors were given the
names of officers and sailors aboard
the Maleta. They had to get used to
their new names. Fritz Meyer was
now Ole johnson, Miller became
Carlson, and they knew me only as
Captain Knudsen. We had long prac.
tice drills until the new names slid
off our tongues without getting stuck.
Each man also had to learn lot
about his native town that he never
knew before! had already assem-
| bled as much information as | could
| about the towns listed In the stolen
log book, and the rest we invented.
Each man had to learn the names Of
the main streets of his town, the prln-
| cpal hotels, taverns, and drug stores,
| as well as the names of the mayor
| and other officials. Much of this sort
of material had already been woven
into the letters we had prepared for
the sailors. Each man had to famil.
iarize himself with the set Of photo
graphs that had been allotted to him,
| and the names of them all, the con.
tents of his letters, and fix in his mind
| whole new past life, according to
the life of sailor of the real Maleta
| whose role he was to play.
| (TO BE CONTINUED.)