THE EMDEN'S CAPTAIN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVIII, Issue 17755, 14 April 1921, Page 5

THE EMDEN'S CAPTAIN.

HIS DEATH REPORTED.

SHOT IN UPPER SILESIA. Reuter. BERLIN. April 12. The adventurous career of Captain Von Mueller, the famous commander of the raider Emden, is believed to be closed. It is reported that he was shot at Gleiwitz after having wounded three Upper Silesian policemen. Von Mueller had been concerned in the formation of a secret armed force for the purpose of securing Germany's retention of Upper Silesia. The exploits of Captain Karl von Mueller in command of the German cruiser Emden in the first three months of the war wifl nowhere be more vividly recalled than in New Zealand and Australia, which had so close and anxious an interest in his amazing raids on Pacific shipping. The resource of Von Mueller showed itself from the first moment of the war, when he contrived to escape with the Emden from Kiao Chau under the very eyes of the Japanese. Shortly after leaving the anchorage he fell in with a Japanese armed cruiser, but his ship was no longer the three-funnelled light cruiser Emden under the German man-of-war ensign ; to all appearances she was a vessel with four funnels flying the British white ensign, whosS crew, as she steamed by the Japanese, lined the rails and gave three hearty British cheers. In something under six weeks the Emden had captured nearly 20 steamers, always contriving to pick up a collier among them, so that she was able to keep her bunkers replenished. It was Von Mueller's invariable practice to sink his prizes, reserving one in which to send all the crews and passengers to por.t, and the daring and ability he displayed in his three months of piracy were not sullied with the blood guilt that the later type of German pirate incurred. On September 22 the Emden bombarded Madras, and a month later, in the guise of a British steamer, she surprised and sank the Russian cruiser Semtchug and the French destroyer Mousquet off Penang. The end of the Emden and the close of Von Mueller's war career came on November 9, 1914. Von Mueller had brought his ship to the Cocos-Keeling Islands, in the Indian Ocean, for the purpose of destroying the wireless station there, which had greatly hampered his movements. The work of destruction accomplished, he was steaming away when he fell in with H.M.A.S. Sydney, which, with H.M.AS. Melbourne, was convoying Australian and New Zealand troops to Egypt. After a running fight, which lasted for two hours, the Emden grounded on North Keeling Island, and later in the day surrendered. Captain Von Mueller was taken to Sydney, and was subsequently interned in England. Three of his officers and 40 men furnished a romantic sequel to the drama of the Emden. Seizing the 70-ton schooner Ayesha from North Keeling Island, they made their way to the coast of Arabia, and thence, travelling overland through Arabia and Asia Minor, eventually reached Constantinople and Berlin.