SHIP CAPSIZES

Southland Times, Issue 21771, 28 July 1932, Page 7

SHIP CAPSIZES

LOSS OF 69 LIVES GERMAN TRAINING CRAFT MANY TRAPPED BELOW VON LUCKNER ABOARD? (United Press Assn.—Telegraph Copyright.) Berlin, July 27. The flower of German youth, also Count Felix von Luckner, one of Germany’s most chivalrous and adventurous sailors and second only to von Muller, commander of the Emden, met their death when the training ship Niobe, under the command of Captain Ruhfus, capsized in a squall in the Baltic with the loss of 69 lives. Tire Fehnarn lightship’s boat assisted by a steamer rescued about 50 survivors, including Captain Ruhfus. Light cruisers, seaplanes and destroyers are now searching the scene of the disaster. A dramatic story of the sinking of the Niobe was given by Captain Muller, of the cargo boat Theresia Rush, which after transferring survivors to the cruiser Koeln arrived at Holtenau Lock early this morning. Captain Mueller said he sighted the Niobe at a distance of 800 yards at 2.30. “At the same moment the flying boat Do. X passed us,” he said. “The Niobe signalled, ‘Where do you come from; where are you going,’ but the signal was visible for only a few seconds when it disappeared in a heavy squall which struck the Niobe. She capsized to the starboard side. I proceeded at full speed to the spot and launched two lifeboats. All the crew went in them except the cook and myself. “The Niobe sank in two or three minutes. Only those on deck were saved; the rest were trapped below. Some remained afloat for an hour before they were rescued. They had rid themselves of their clothing. All the officers were drowned except the captain. I picked up 40, I could do no more. Nothing could be seen except the bubbles and oil. The Niobe lies 70 fathoms deep.” It is officially reported that 69 were drowned. The search by seaplanes and naval vessels for further survivors has been unsuccessful. DOUBT ABOUT VON LUCKNER. (Rec. 1.10 p.m.) Berlin, July 27. It is now doubted whether’ Count von Luckner was on board the Niobe. It is believed that he relinquished command some time ago. AMAZING CAREER. LUCKNER’S WAR ACTIVITIES. ALLIED SHIPPING RAIDED. Count Felix von Luckner, captain of the German commerce raider Seeadler, who had an extraordinary career, came of a Bavarian family which settled in Holstein. The head of the house was made a Danish nobleman about 1780 and one of its members was a Baron Luckner, who in 1791 became a Marshal of France after having served under Frederick the Great. Count Felix was born at Dresden in July, 1881. At the age of 13 he ran away from home, went to sea and sailed to all parts of the world. In Australia he earned his bread for a time as a dish-washer. He then went to the Salvation Army and was given the job of selling the War Cry on the streets. Luckner was afterwards in turn a lighthouseman, a saw-miller, a kangaroo-hunter, an assistant to a conjuror, a prize-fighter, a ship’s cook, a Mexican soldier, and sc on, until at the age of 20 with the money he had saved he was able to take the course and pass the examination at the Lubeck Navigation School. He also served as a one-year volunteer in the German Navy, in which he later became a reserve officer and it was not till then that he resumed relations with his family. By the special permission of the Kaiser, Luckner, who had become an officer in the merchant service and had five time distinguished himself in life-saving operations, was transferred to the active list of the Navy. On the outbreak of the war he was posted to a small gunboat, the Panther of Agadir fame. In order to get on to a big ship he pretended to be ill and made his illness convincing by having himself operated on for appendicitis. In this way he attained his object, for on his recovery he was posted to the battleship Kronprinz in which he commanded a turret during the Battle of Jutland.

It was in March, 1917, that it became known that a German warship had succeeded in getting through the Allied blockade in the North Sea and was at large hunting down Entente shipping. This vessel was the Seeadler (4000 tons gross), commanded by Luckner, which had left Germany in the guise of a Norwegian timber ship. Before long he had sunk a large number of vessels, the value of which with their cargoes was said to be about £7,000,000. The Seeadler even ventured to approach the Australian coast and captured there a coal ship bound for Honolulu.

After eight months Luckner’s vessel needed refitting and he beached it on the small island of Mopelia. The work had already made considerable progress when a specially high tide caught the Seeadler and so embedded it in the sand that it could not be released. It was therefore destroyed as far as possible and on August 21, 1927, Luckner with five men put to sea in an armed boat to seek another ship in which he could carry out further commerce raiding Near the Fiji Islands on October 8, however, they were captured by the Australian Navy and interned on Motuihi Island near Auckland. Two attempts to escape, one in the camp commandant’s motor-boat and the other in a sail boat, failed. The 5” men who had remained by the wreck of the Seeadler captured a French sailing ship and put to sea in her at the beginning of September. They were, however, wrecked off Easter Island, but managed to continue their voyage in a Chilean schooner and reached Chile in March, 1918. There they were disarmed and treated as shipwrecked men. Luckner returned to Germany in the spring of 1919.