BEAT THE BLOCADE.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXIV, Issue 911, 4 November 1933, Page 1

BEAT THE BLOCADE.

Daring Exploit of Submarine Commander. (Special to the ** Star.”) LONDON, September 21 Captain Paul Koenig. the commander of the famous German submarine Deutschland, which made a daring crossing of the Atlantic in the war, has died in Germany at the age of sixty-six. Captain Koenig’s feat astonished the world, for when he appeared suddenly at Baltimore,. Maryland, on July 10, 1916. with a cargo of mails and dyestuffs, he had broken through the Allied blockade and accomplished one of the most remarkable voyages ever attempted. The daring mariner was* merelyacting “ according to plan." for the Deutschland had been specially constructed for the purpose of communicating with the United States. Her gross tonnage was 790 tons, and she had a carrying capacity of about 440 tons. Her trip took almost exactly one month. The adventure was the more remarkable in that Captain Koenig had little or no previous experience of submarines. Hostility toward Germany was growing in America at the time and his heroism temporarily arrested that. When legal questions, arose regarding his detention in United States waters, these were overcome in his favour and he contrived to return 4 o Germany' with a cargo of metal and documents.

Captain Koenig followed this triumph with another double* crossing of the Atlantic later the same year, sailing via the Orkneys, and landing at New London, Connecticut. He became a national hero and wrote a boedv about his exploits. After the Armistice the Deutschland was acquired by Mr Horatio Bottomlev and used as an exhibition ship. Captain Koenig was married te an Englishwoman, who remained in London during the war.