GEIER'S ESCAPADE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 16965, 29 March 1917, Page 6

GEIER'S ESCAPADE

CHASED BY CRUISERS.

FINALLY DISABLED AT HONOLULU.

The interned Prussian gunboat Geier, which was reported in despatches last week to have been disabled at her pier in Honolulu, at the outbreak of the war in 1914 was cruising in tho Pacific and while en route to. the California coast was pursued by three Japanese armoured cruisers. In order to escape, the German ship mado her way into Honolulu, but finding that tho Japanese maintained a blockade off tho Hawauan port, tho Geicr interned. As a precautionary measure, it is said, the breech blocks of the Geier's guns were removed and sent ashore, as were also the main crankshafts and cylinder heads. During the _ Spanish-American war the Goier sprang into prominence by an attrmpfc to demonstrate the ineffectiveness of the American blockade upon Havana. The Geier had obtained permission to pass through the American blockade at an early period of the war, at a time when a strong American naval force was present .before tho Cubyi port, and she remained in Havana until only a few lightly-armed cutters and converted lightouse tenders were on guard, the heavy ships having been withdrawn under Admiral Sampson to the eastward.

* MADE A DASH FROM PORT. Picking her time, the Geier one afternoon in May, 1893, made a dash out of port, hugged the coast in a run to the westward, and would have made good her get-away without beinj* epoken to had it not been for the unexpected arrival a few hours earlJer before Havana of the newlybuilt and fast coastguard cutter Manning. At the first cry of " Black smoke coming out of Havana!" which went up from every masthead lookout of the American vessels ■ simultaneously, the senior officer present hailed the Manning, which was close by, through the megaphone in the following language:— , ■ there! ' . ' "That fellow coming , out of Havana is probably the German warship Geier. He must be overhauled at all hazards. You have the only ship present that can do it. Go in, and good luck to yon!" commander of the Manning, Captain F M. Munger (now captain-commandant, retired), called out in "reply: "How close m under the batteries may I go,?" The orders to the blockading force were not to draw .the fire of. the batteries on shore needlessly, eince it was of paramount importance to preserve ships until the Spanish tleet hnd been destroyed. The reply of the se"nior officer was: 'Use your own discretion, sir, but overhaul that vessel somehow." FULL SPEED AHEAD.

With a dash the Manning's engine-room indicator was whirled to full speed ahead the bugles sounded all hands to quarters, and in another instant the Manning was tearing through the water at full speed. Steadily she crawled up. and as she did so her officers could see the stranger's hull steadily rise on the horizon. Then the gun sponsons came in view; her flag was showing, but it was now plain that the vessel ahead was not only a large cruiser, but unmistakably the Geier. A headline in the coast ahead compelled the stranger to haul out more to sea, and as she did so she slowed down, then stopped, and slowly there fluttered to the gaff end the Imperial flag of Germany. The Manning, without stopping her great speed, tore under the Geier's stern, put her helin hard a-port, and made a, iull round of the German cruiser, as much as to say, "Well, you didn't get out without being spoken to." As the Manning spun round the German, the officers of the Ge.er stood at salute, which was curtly acknowledged from the Manning, and then, as the Manning headc-d back, a great roar of laughter burst from the men, for there, coming down in the distance as fast as they could steam, was every one of tho eight little guard vessels, the fastest not able to make more than 10 knots, and not one carrying more than a few 6-pound guns; but they were all determined to be in that fight if it was possiblo to get there. VITAL TO THE BLOCKADE. The significance of the Geier's act lay in the fact that, if she had been able to break through the American cordon without Being spoken to, she could, on arrival at Vera Cruz, where she put in a few days later, have cabled to Berlin that the American pretensions to a blockade before Havana wero itnwarranted, and thereforb the alleged_ blockade was not recognisable. It is a principle in international law that a blockade, to be recognised, must be effective.

The commander of the blockading vessels before Havana on the above occasion, in writing his report of the share which his vesscl_ took ip the war, declared that, of all the incidents which came under bis notice during the West Indian campaign of 1898, the one which most vividly impressed him was the sight of the Manning dashing at full speed to engage an enemy which everyono believed, and which afterwards was shown to be true, was treble the fighting power of the ship that obeyed the order to stop her.