Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2015L01389:body:0:p49
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2015L01389
Segment Type: other
Provision Reference: 
Character Range: 144054–146743

the southern atoll, its difficult landing area and the absence of a reliable freshwater supply have combined to preclude any possibility of permanent settlement. Nevertheless, Cocos-Malay boats have paid occasional visits to this island almost every year since the early days of the occupation of the southern atoll. These hazardous voyages were usually made to collect coconuts, timber and seabirds (Bunce 1988).
Late in the 19th century, beri-beri sufferers lived on the island in small camps for short periods. Malay graves near the southern shore of the island mark the final resting place of a woman and a girl who succumbed to this dietary deficiency, and a man (also suffering from beri-beri), who died in an accident (Bunce 1988).
During World War I, in November 1914, Captain Karl von Müller sailed the German light cruiser SMS Emden to the Cocos (Keeling) Islands on a mission to destroy the Eastern Telegraph Company wireless station at Direction Island to cripple Allied communication in the Indian Ocean. The Emden was challenged by HMAS Sydney and, after an unsuccessful battle with the more powerful Australian light cruiser, the Emden was run aground on the windswept southern reef of North Keeling Island.
German losses were 131 dead and 65 wounded. Around 50 German crew members who landed on Direction Island to destroy the station's radio tower and equipment were able to escape to Sumatra on a commandeered sailing vessel, the Ayesha. Captain von Müller and the rest of his crew on the Emden were taken prisoner; however, not all of the ship's survivors were prepared to give themselves up, and a handful hid on North Keeling Island. In October 1915, a work gang from Home Island found a number of their skeletons, which they buried on the shore of North Keeling near the wreck (Gibson-Hill 1948).
From October 1915 to January 1916, the islanders salvaged what they could from the German ship. Anything detachable and portable was removed and transported to the landing area by trolleys that ran on narrow railway lines. The stripped hulk later slipped back off the reef into deeper water after a cyclone (Gibson-Hill 1948). In 1950, a Japanese salvage company removed as much of the hull of the Emden as they could and shipped it back to Japan (Bunce 1988).
What remains of the Emden lies approximately 100 metres off the southern end of the island in three to nine metres of water. The Emden is listed under the Historic Shipwrecks Act 1976 and has marine archaeology research potential.
Between World War I and World War II, groups of Cocos-Malay workers were stationed on North Keeling Island for up to two weeks at a time, harvesting coconuts, ironwood and birds.