EMDEN'S CAPTAIN.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 11537, 5 November 1915, Page 4

EMDEN'S CAPTAIN.

WHY HE GREW GLD. POIJTENESS OF RAISER'S OFFICERS U. C-Ip : j,-, i:. ; ,i. T <,!' tho Uriiisb steamer Auu;il, which is at pro-mi. no:> ing her way through Atr-traHu]) waters, i;i making hisLirv. He is the iir : i:r! v«;!::l out-id" the world'of T't. irconis.-'ii 1a lind some- politeness in- (hv:i;;i::s. '.l'bo :~kippr-r tolls of t;iis in lov.v.vd ro.',irs, r.ud ho i erutin;sei yen tlio while, as if von wero- not nv',l- - the ti'iiiii of his siat:onent. He repeats it so ctLoi i!i,,t one is- inclined at last to believe him.

It happened wise-.! Ih.» Enideii was sill'Kiilg .lii'.t:-h <it :;. u,i...e,-.uO rate in tho .Bay «i 'I hsea v. Glegg wan then master cl a line steamer called tho Lovat, which wos requisitioned by tfco Director of tho Ro\ai Indian rin-e to carry horse:; and Briti-di troop?. Sho sailed from Kiiiderporo Dock on | Sepember 7 of last vest', and on September 11, wlion on her'Wiiy to Bombay, she emerged from a rain squall, and there waiting for her was a throe- ! funnelled cruiser painted groy. She 1 was attended by two merchant steamers, and Glegg at first surmised that sho was a British warship forming a convoy, especially as «h© showed no national colours. He was quickly undeceived. _ The warship hoisted the signal "Stop immediately, 5 -' and at the same time ran up the German ensign to the peak. The skipper's heart sank when he found that lie had been caught by tho notorious Emdeu. As the' night was drawing on, the eleven British officers, engineers and apprentices,, eight Chinese cooks and stewards, and carpenter, and forty-nine Lascars, forming the orew of the Lovat, were given, but a few minutes to leave the boat. " I must say thd Germans were very polite,", averred Glegg. "The officers who boarded my poor ship expressed their regret at having to sink it, and were very sympathetic. "On board tlip Hamburg-American liner Markomania. to which we had beeu transferred, wo found the captain, officers, engineers, naval lieutenant m charge, and every m&n on board the Markoniania were the best and most sympathetic of people, and we did not feel at all that wo were anything but free agents, except that'wo wore battering about in the wa-ko of the Emden, going north all the time, right W to the very head of the Bay of Bengal. Wo later on came across the British steamer Kabinga, but'the captain of the Emden refused to sink her because she had tho captain's wife aboard When we landed on the Indian coast the Emdeii sent her boats to help, and ferried most of the Lascars over with their belongings, which I think was an exceedingly kind act ou the part of our captor. When the last German officer left .us we sent a mesage to the captain of the Emden, thanking him for his courtesy and kindness. The captain officers and all on board the Markomania treated us like brothers. They were all feeling the strain of the long anxiety, and risk of being sunk by one of our ships. When we left thorn they had been forty-four days at sea, and their nerves were all unstrung. They were beginning to 1 ope that they would be captured by the British." Indeed, one might gather from - the conversation of Captain Glegg that von Muller was an aging man, not so much because of the constant fear of being caught by the enemy, but because his sailor's heart was wrenched by the terrible task of sinking so many fine ships.