STRANGER THAN FICTION

Otago Witness, Issue 3244, 17 May 1916, Page 33

STRANGER THAN FICTION

TRUTH ABOUT THE APPAM. (Feosi Otjk Own Correspondent.) LONDON, February 25. The main fact 3 concerning the capture of the Appam by the Moewe are now generally known, but Dr St. George Queely, the surgeon of the captured liner, and a Queenslander by birth, on his arrival in England- tells a great deal more, which emphasises the romantic character of the adventure. Both Captain Marryat and Robert Louis Stevenson are outdone. It was the third day out from Dakar. The Appam had passed the Canaries, and was making for the coast of Portugal. ''l happened to be on the bridge/' says the doctor, "• and I drew the attention of the second officer to a strange vessel. ' Oh,' he said, ' it is only some old tramp hanging about.' At about half-past 2 in the afternoon she came rather nearer to us, and we couid see her plainly through the glass. Still the officer stuck to his opinion that she was only a tramp. Shortly afterwards she came up, on the starboard, and seemed to cross our bow. We fell away a little to make way for her, when suddenly she hoisted four flags as a signal to stop. At the same time tho naval ensign of Germany was broken on the staff. The captain ' was in his cabin, but he rushed up on the bridge and gave the signals for ' Stop ' and 'Full speed astern.' Immediately three boats were lowered from the cruiser, and men armed with rifles, bayonets, and revolvers got into them, rowed over to us, and called out to us to lower the ladder. "At this moment tho lieutenant in charge of tho Appam rushed down, calling out to some of his men to come to tho gun, the solitary one we had on board (a three-pounder). The men on tho cruiser saw what he was after, and they fired a shot across our stein. Tho lieutenant retreated', but immediately he and one of his men went down on their hands and knees, and, crawling to the gun, succeeded in putting it out of action, in spite of tho fact that rirlo shots were aimed at them by the Germans. The armed Germans, under .a young lieutenant, then came .on board, and announced that they seized the ship in the name of his Imperial Majesty the German Emperor. They then proceeded to release the German prisoners, whom they armed with rifles and revolvers, and to disarm all the Englishmen on board, passengers and crew." PLACED UNDER ARREST. The captain and crew of tho Appam were mastered on deck, together with the naval and military men on board, and tho officials, including Sir E. Merewether, and they were all taken to tho mysterious cruiser, where they were confined between decks. The next clay, however, Sir E. Merewether, the captain, and rom» others, who were found to be civilians, were brought back. They reported that they had had a wretched time of it, cooped, up with the crews of the six ships which the cruiser had already sunk before capturing the Appam. On tho evening of the capture the passengers and officers had dinner in the saloon as usual, tho Germans taking theirs in the second-class cabin. The, course was altered and the cruiser started off, the Appam following in her wake. A REFUSAL TO SIGN. The Moewe went on her course, and Lieutenant Berg proceeded to take tho Appam across tho Atlantic. Sturgeon Queely relates the following incident which took place when the passengers were asked to promise not to take up arms against Germany during the continuance of tho war: —■ "A great many were indignant with this suggestion, and absolutely refused to give the required undertaking. Meetings were held in different parts of the vessel to take the matter into consideration, and at one of these Sir Edward Merewether got up and made a short speech, Faying that in tho cicrumstances he thought it was better for everyone to sign, and ho added that he himself would head the list. On this the majority of civilians signed the declaration, but all the soldiers and sailors on board, and many of the Government officials refused to do so. The next day the lieutenant commander sent for me and said, 'I do not see your name in the list.' I said, 'No.' He asked me why I had refused to sign. I replied that I was a non-combatant attending to both British and German wounded, and that I thought in the circumstances it was unreasonable to ask mo to make such an undertaking. I said, 'I refuse to sign.' He said, "Then I must let my captain know by wireless 'what you say.' I asked him what would be tho alternative to signing. Did it mean a drumhead court-martial and a filing party? If so, that would he compulsion, and I would only sign tinder compulsion. Ho relied, "I do not say what the punishment would be ; I only say I must let my captain know.' I heard nothing more about it." THE CLAN MACTAVISH. Then followed the exciting incident of tho Clan MacTavish. The Moewe saw her victim, hoisted the signal to . stop, and shortly afterwards fired at the strange vessel. "To our surprise a shot was fired from the la iter, immediately followed by another," says the surgeon. "Thereupon the cruiser opened fire and sent altogether about eight shots into her. Wo then heard a terrifie rush of steam, and through my glasses, I saw the steam rushing out of the strange boat, which wo .found out afterwards was the Clan MacTavish, a new boat of about 9000 tons, bound for England with frozen meat. After a timo two boats came off to the Appam bearing stretchers with wounded men on them. The German sailors

sent down ropes, which they made fast to the stretchers, and the wounded were hauled on board. There were five of them and they were placed in my charge." Later one of tho wounded men died at sea, and Lieutenant Berg sent Dr Qucely a Union Jack, saying he believed it was customary to cover the corpso of a British combatant with it. "But," added the Gorman commander, "you must on no account allow it to bo thrown into the sea with tho body; let mo have it back, as a few Union Jacks may bo very useful to me by ajid by." Tho surgeon accordingly returned it.