COMMERCE RAIDER.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20316, 26 January 1928, Page 13

COMMERCE RAIDER.

TURNS CRUSADER FOR PEACE. Count Felix von Luckner, better known as the “Sea Devil,” who became a modern buccaneer as a Lieutenantcommander in the Germany Navy during the war and with his disguised, windjammer ravaged allied shipping, has turned peace crusader, says the New York Times. He, has come to the United States to lecture, particularly at schools and colleges, until December. Peace is his theme, though he rams it home with burly' gestures and exclamations delivered with all the force of his huge physique.

The transformation from buccaneer to advocate of international accord might have seemed unexplainable but for his unusual career. On the face of it, his war record appears almost bloodthirsty. With a small crew and a mere threemasted windjammer, the Seeadkr, in a day of fast, power-driven ocean greyhounds, he sailed through the British ships blockading Germany, undergoing careful inspection, and roved the eea at will, capturing ship after ship of the allied merchant marine and sending 68,000 tons of it to the bottom. He travelled 64,000 miles, though ships of the allied navies were searching for him everywhere, and he sank 58,000 tons of precious saltpetre the Allies wanted for ammunition. NEVER KILLED A MAN. Yet this strange bucanneer makes the proud boast that he never killed a man. He took every member of every crew he captured, he says, and held all the captives as guests aboard his ship. As many as five crews were on board at one time. “ The Seeadler, in fact,” said Count von Luckner, telling his story, “ was not armed. She was a bluff. She had wicked-looking holes under her rails, threatening her enemies with deadly broadside. The only cannon she had aboard was an antique muzzle-loader made in 1817, which was made to look extra dangerous by being covered with a painted barrel. “We attacked only merchant ships. We sailed under a Norwegian flag, and, posing as a lumber ship, we would run up close to the prey, bearing signals telling the other captain that we had a message to deliver. When our quarry came to a stop, the Seeadler would draw up alongside and launch a small boat. “The small boat would have only five men in her, but they were husky. One had been a successful German prizefighter, another an accomplished wrestler, and the other three were worthy companions. As they arrived on deck, supposedly to deliver their message, the whole five would suddenly throw off their coats, showing themselves stripped to the waists, ready for rough action. “ Two watchers on the Seeadler were aloft, meanwhile, waiting to add the final touch. As the boarding party threw off their coats, these two lookouts would suddenly boom out through megaphones, as if giving orders to our crew: ‘ Clear for torpedoes.’

The effect would be instantaneous. The men of the merchant crews, illiterate for the most part, would be taken by surprise by the proceeding. When the last cry came, they',would rush to the rail, waving their' hands in surrender. Then we would take them aboard the Seeadler. commandeer any supplies we needed, and send another few thousand tons of the precious merchant marine of the Allies to the bottom.” HIS EARLY ADVENTURES.

The man who conceived and carried out this bold marauding had been prepared by his earlier experience. As a youngster of 13, he relates, he was backward m school and had run off to sea. School had been to him little better than a prison, because he was not interested in his studies, and much, preferred to read the tales of America’s Wild West, particularly the exploits of Buffalo Bill. Getting a start even as cabin boy was not easy. The laws prohibited a ship’s captain "from singing on a youngster without proof of his parents’ permission. Assuming the name “ Phylax Luedecke,” he finally persuaded the master of a Russian sailing craft to take him on as a cabin boy—being warned in advance that there would he no pay, and that, as the rations were eupplied for only the regular crew of 24, he would have to eat the scraps left by the sailors. He agreed to those conditions, and sailed with the Russian to Australia. In Australia he went to work in the kitchen of an hotel. His immediate ambition, he says, was to get to America, since it was the land of self-made men. Also, he wanted to see his hero, Buffalo Bill. After wandering through Australia, from place to place, he arrived at Brisbane, where the master of the Golden Shore, an American four-master, signed him on for a trip to San Francisco. That was a long step toward Buffalo Bill’s home, in Denver. From San Francisco he walked and begged rides in engine cabs, determined to reach Denver. When on arrival there he. found, to his great chagrin, that his idol was with a circus touring his own Germany, he wandered on to New York to do the next best thine—become a self-made man. To fulfil that ambition, he decided to become a lieutenant in the German navy, and arrived at the goal through his own efforts. In 1900, he says, he went bad: to Germany and enlisted as a sailor, resuming his own name. At length, in 1905, he received his commission to a lieutenancy. Not until then did he return to his home; he walked into his old home in full uniform. Count Luckner entered the World War full of enthusiasm, intent on doing his duty; but the many contacts he had with men of other countries on his vovages. he say* made him averse to killing them. ” I used to think how each side was praying to God for help in fighting the others,” he said, ” and how it was always the same God that they were praying to. As soon a® the war was over, I made up mv mind that I would go out by myself, without consideration of policy or diplomacy (things I never learned anything about in my sailing daysl and to try to make people realise the common humanity of us all. “ These old ideas of fighting and international rivalries are all wrong. • I can’*t write or make fine speeches, but I can tell my story and talk straight to the heart. Bv talking especially to young people. I think I can make some headway in developing international friendships.-