SIXTY LIVES LOST

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 75, Issue 176, 28 July 1932, Page 7

SIXTY LIVES LOST

DISASTER IN BALTIC PICK OF GERMAN YOUTH DEATH OF VON LUCKNER TRAINING SHIP CAPSIZES By Telegraph--Preas A.^sociation—Copyright BERLIN, July 27. The flower of German youth, and also Count Felix von Luckner, one of Germany’s jnost chivalrous and adventurous sailors, second only in reputation of Captain .Von Muller, commander of the Emden, met their death when tho training qiiip Niobe, under Captain Ruhl’us, capsized in a squall in the Baltic with a loss of about sixty lives. The Felinarn lightship’s boats, assisted by a steamer, rescued fifty survivors, including Captain Ruhfus. Light cruisers, a seaplane, and destroyers are searching the scene of the disaster. EYE-WITNESS’ STORY RESCUE OF THE SURVIVORS DEATH-ROLL SIXTY-NINE Received July 27, 11.5 p.m. BERLIN, July 27. A dramatic story of the sinking oi the Niobe was given by Captain Muel ler of tho cargo boat Theresia Rush, which, after transferring tho survivors to the cruiser Koeln, arrived at Holtenau early this morning. Captain Mueller said: “Wo sighted the Niobe at a distance of 800 yards at 2.30 p.m. At the same moment the flying boat Do-X passed us. The Niobe signalled, •Where have you come from? Where are you going?’ but the signal was visible only a few seconds, when it disappeared. A heavy squall struck the Niobe and she capsized to the starboard side. 1 proceeded at full speed to the spot and launched two lifeboats. All the crew went in them except tho 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 rid themselves of their clothing. All tho officers were drowned except the captain. I picked up 40 and could do no more. Nothing could he seen except bubbles and oil. The Niobe lies 70 fathoms deep.” It is officially reported that 69 were drowned. A search by seaplanes and naval vessels for further survivors has been unsuccessful. WAS COUNT ON BOARD? HAD RELINQUISHED COMMAND Received Julv 28, 1.20 a.m. BERLIN, July 27. It is now doubted whether Count von Luckner was aboard the Niobe. It is believed that he relinquished command some time ago. RAIDER OF THE DEEP VON LUCKNER’S CAREER MANY ROMANTIC EXPLOITS Count Felix von Luckner, better known as the “Sea Devil,” became a modern buccaneer as a LieutenantCommander in tho German Navy during the war, and with his disguised wind-jammer ravaged Allied shipping. Qn tho face of it, von Luckner’s war record appears almost bloodthirsty. With a small crew and a mere threemasted windjammer, the Seeadler, in a day of fast, power-driven ocean greyhounds, he sailed through the British ships blockading Germany, undergoing careful inspection, and roved the sea at will, capturing ship xftcr ship of the Allied merchant marine and sending 68,000 tons of it to tho 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. Yet this strange buccaneer made the proud boast that he never killed a man. He took every member of every crew ho captured, he said, and held all the captives as guests aboard his ship. As many as five crews were on board at one time. “We attacked only merchant ships.” said Count von Luckner, in telling his story. “Wo sailed under a Norwegian flag, and, posing as a lumber ship, we would run up close to the prey, bearing signals tolling the other captain that we had a message to deliver. When our quarry came to stop, the Seeadler would draw up alongside, and launch a small boat. 1 ‘The smell 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 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 lookfits would suddenly boom out through megaphonos, as if giving orders to our crew: “Clear for torpedoes!” Taken by Surprise. “The effect would be instantaneous. The men of the merchant crews, illiterate for the most part, would be taken by surprise by tho proceeding. When the last cry •came, they would rush to the rail, waving their hands in surrender. Then we would take thorn aboard tho Seeadler, commandeer any supplies wo needed, and send another few thousand tons of the precious merchant marine of the Allies to tho bottom.” The man who conceived and carried out this bold marauding hud been prepared by his earlier experiences. As a youngster of 13, he relates, he was backward in school and had run off to sea. School had been to him little better than a prison, because ho 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 signing on a youngster without proof of his parent’s permission. Assuming the name of “Phylax Lucdccke, ” he finally persuaded rhe master of a Russian sailing craft to take him on as cabin boy—being warned in advance that there would be no pay, and that, ns the rations wero supplied for only the regular crew of twenty-four, he would have to eat the scraps left by tho sailors, Ho agreed to those conditions and sailed with the Russian to Australia. In Australia he went to work in the kitchen of a hotel. His immediate ambition. he says, was to got to America, since it was the land of self-made men. Also he wanted to see his hero, Bufftlo Rill. After wandering through Australia, from place to place, he arrived at Brisbane, where the master of tho Golden .Shore, an American fonr-mastci, signed him on for a trip to San Francisco. Touring Germany. That was a long step toward Buffalo Bill’s hime, in Denver. From San Franciseo he walked and begged rides in engine cabs, determined to reach Denver. When on arrival there he found, to his great chagrin, that bis idol was with a circus touring his own Germany, he wandered on to New York to do the next best thing —become a self-made man. To fulfil that ambition, ho decided to become a lieutenant in the German Navy, and arrive nt the goal through his own efforts. In 1900, ho says, he went back to Germany and enlisted as a sai'or, resuming his own name. At length, in 1905, he received his commission to a lieutenancy. Not until then did ho return to his home; he walked into his old home in full uniform. When the war broke out ho was placed in command of tho Seeadler, and left Bremerhaven on December 21, 1916, running the Allied blockade disguised as a Norwegian schooner laden with timber.

The ship was armed with two 4in. guns and several machine-guns, and manned by 64 men. She then cruised off the coast of South America, where she sunk at least eleven British ships, and then rounding Capo Horn, disappeared into tho Pacific. It was not long before she got equally busy in these waters, and several British ships were quickly sunk and their crews transferred to the Seeadler. The vessel had now been cruising for many months, and the members of her crew were getting worn out with constant anxiety, while the vessel herself was sluggish owing to a barnacle-covered bottom. Captain von Luckner therefore decided to seek out an island whore he could careen his vessel and •clean her up, giving his men a month or two ashore us well. He selected Mopiha. a small island in the Society Group, but a tidal wave drove her ashore, and tho vessel’s back was broken. Without a ship. Captain von Luckner and his companions managed to capture two small vessels, and set off in them looking for further adventure, hut he was eventually captured with five of his crew in the C<»ok Islands, und brought to Moluihi Island, Auckland, as a prisoner of war, escaping from there and taking the steamer Moa. He was re captured at Curtis Island, in the Kerniadecs, by the cab’e steamer Iris, and he spent fourteen days in Mount Eden civil prison after his re capture, and was afterwards sent ' to Ripa Island, near Lyttelton, for six months before going to Mouihi again, and leaving Wellington in about May. 1919, on the Willochra. for Germany.