WORTH A MILLION

Evening Star, Issue 16559, 19 October 1917, Page 5

WORTH A MILLION

On July 14 some of the light British vessels, while patrolling tho North Sen, sighted a number^ of German steamers ahead. The signaPto stop and abandon ship was hoisted, ( and shots were flit \ across their bows io emphasise tho order, but it was disregarded. The enemy ships thereupon made tor the Dutch coast. The two rearmost 6hips reached the shove, having been badly damaged by cur guniiro. The other four ships were intercepted and captured. Theso were the Pellwovm (1,300 tons, belonging to the HamburgManchester line), the Brietzig (1.100 tons, belonging to the N.F.C. Arp, of Hamburg), tho Mane Horn (1,038 tons, belonging to J. C. Horn, of Lub-ec'lc), and tho Heinz Blemberg (1,280 tons, belonging to Leonhardt and Blemberg, of Hamburg). " It was tho finest sight I've seen in my life," said a man who was on board one of tho British cruisers. "It was just like seeing a number of ships approaching the danger zone. "We called to them to Ixjware. Four of them stopped, and our destroyers ran alongside, taking the Germans off and placing our own men on board to navigate the ships. There were not a dozen rounds fired altogether. It was an exceedingly rich prize. One of the cargoes is said to have been ' turps,' which is very valuable. I should say the whole capture is not far short of a* million. We could see the other ships run on tho beach. Of course, we could not go after them, but we simply hammered them from our guns, and there is little doubt that they were destroyed. One to drop rigfvt into the funnel of one of the . ships. A great volumo of smoke and fire shot up. A few other rounds must have settled Irf-r. I tell you we are all on jolly good terms with ourselves. I should like a trip like that every day." According fo a member of one of the crewa of the captured vessels, tho enemy mistook tho British vostih for a German convoy.