St. Louis Post-Dispatch
June 6, 1915

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It was said that today the farm hand and } the working man have learned their A B Cs and re permitted to vote for their deputy er rep e NUED ON PAGE * K Of the 75 Men and Seven Officers W ho Sailed Away From Cocos Without Navi- gating Instruments, on the Day of the Battle, Nov. 1 0, There Could Be Mustered Only 14, All Told, When on April 28. N e ine of Ifomer’s Odyssey, wherein the ancient poet sang of the adventures of Ulysses as he returned to Ithaca from the siege of Troy, is the fol- lowing story of the extraordinary experiences of the party of 82 officers and men who land- ed Nov. 10 from the famous German raider Emden to destroy the cable station on Cocos Islcnd in the Direction Group in the Indian Ocean. 2 The recorder is Lieut... von Muecke, who was in charge of the landing party and com- manded them over the entire journey. 42 everyone will recall the Emden was destroyed by the Australian cruiser Sydney while they were ashore and they fled in a commandeered schooner. Altogether from Tsing-Tau to Damascus, the journey thas 20,000 miles, several hundred being over the desert wastes of Arabia. At the journey’s end, April 28, the party num- bered 14, all told, the other 68 having died of privations or been slain by enemies in the desert. | Lieut. von Muecke's story comes to the Post-Dispatch from Damascus, by the way of Beirut to Marseilles, to England and thence to St. Louis, and made this long journey in record time, considering the disturbed con- dition of thé world's mail service. It is the first detailed narrative to reach the United States since the party arrived at its goal and makes without doubt one of the greatest ad- venture stories ever written. By LIEUT. VON MUECKE. A survivor of one of the most remarkable journeys ever made by a mere handful of men across hostile sea and land. HEN Japan entered the great war on the W side of our enemy, our ship Emden was at our East Asiatic naval base, Tsing- Tau. 8 5 Besides the Emden our East Asiatic naval forces consisted of the armored cruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau and the light cruisers Nurnberg and the Leipzig. We also had five gunboats, which were: Cor- moran, IItis, Jaguar, Tiger and Luchs, and two destroyers. There was also an armored ‘cruiser belonging to our ally, Austria, namely, Kaiserin Elizabeth. Our gunboats and the two destroyers and also the Austrian cruiser Kaiserin Elizabeth were de- stroyed by the Anglo-Japanese fleets. Our two heavy and two light cruisers succeeded in eluding the combined Anglo-Japanese fleets: and while these four made their way to the South Atlantic Ocean, we for months. gave the Anglo- Japanese squadron a merry chase, destroying over 79,000 tons of British shipping, in addition to deing other damage to the enemy ships and property. One way or other we kept on escaping the three Japanese fleets who were searching for us. Ot course, the Japanese naval officers were not d match for our resourceful Captain. Every time we felt that we were in a tight hole, and that we would Lave to measure swords with a superior enemy, we found some way to get out of it; at last we became past masters in this great game of high-sea hide-and-seek. — Fooling a Japanese Cruiser. UT the best we ever did was when we thought B we had to fight a heavily armored Japanese cruiser which was waiting for us just out- side Kiauchau. As we left Kiauchau, we were sure we had to fight this Japanese cruiser. It would have been madness for us to attempt to put up a fight with the Japanese, as we knew well that her heavy guns would have certainly outranged us and we would have been sunk long before we would be in position to hit the enemy ship. So we utilized the dummy funnel which we al- ways kept on deck. Our Emden was three-funneled and we made it appear four-funneled. © We replaced our black-white-and-red man of war ensign with that of the British white ensign; then we lined up the crew along the railing. We had on board many sailors who had in the past fraternized with the British sailors. ing British cheers, and long, and long before we sighted the dreaded Japanese cruiser we were en- abled to give cheers like those of the British sailors. At last, when we came by the Japanese ship, These sailors instructed the whole crew in giv- a They Reached 1 1 DD e SS > SS . ~ Rts D iS HE long black line indicates the course of the Emden party’s 20,000-mile trip from Tsingtau to Damascus, the arrow heads showing the direction of each stage of the, voyage. The. stars mark the points at which stops were made, however brief. The dark shading on the Arabian territory is the desert region, part of which the remnant of the Cocos Island landing party traversed. 4 * The photograph reproduced in the map is that of the gallant commander of the Emden who was saved after his ship was wrecked by gunfire from the Australian cruiser Sydney and who is now a prisoner in England. with our dummy funnel sending out black smoke, our newly hoisted British ensign flying from the mast, and our sailors cheering like genuine Brit- ishers, we passed the enemy, with whom we ex- changed salutes. From that time on we roved over the high seas and did as much damage to the enemy as we pos- sibly could. After sinking several ships, and after provi- sioning our ship, one night we stood off near Madras. That was in the early part of September. One of our crew, some years ago, had worked there and knew the place well. That evening this sailor told our Captain that he knew of his personal knowledge that there were several oil tanks near the entrance to the harbor. We waited till dark, and about 10 p. m. we stole into the inner harbor, and after locating the tanks with searchlights we shelled them. Before the shore batteries had time to fire on us we had cleared, off to the sea. The following morning we could still see the flames, far off in the horizon. Thus we destroyed millions of gallons of oil belonging to the enemy. Visiting With an English Gentleman. N the early part of October, perhaps on the | tenth, we reached an island in the Indian Ocean. This island is called Diego Garcia, and is one of the group called Ghagos Islands. possessions. Later we learned that there were not more than 35 or 40 Europeans and about three or four hundred natives there. This island is sit- ulated half way between the African coast and Sumatra. When we entered this little water inlet we learned that no one in that ocean desert was yet aware of the breaking out of the European war. We at once sent a small crew to the shore and established friendly relations with the British resi- dents; so we coaled all day long from a steamer which we had captured previously in the Indian Gcean. We could have esaily captured the island and seized all the coal and provisions there, but we needed urgent repairs on our machinery; so we wished to stay there for a few days in peace. Some of our engineers repaired one of the motor boats belonging to the British residents, for which they received baskets full of cocoanuts. These people live a simple life and from the beginning we fell in love with the place. The manager of the island was a white-haired old man, whose father, an adventurous sea captain, had discovered it in 1808, and upon his death the present owner took charge of the place and the cocoanut industry that went with it. A few hours after our arrival at the isjand, the old gentleman paid our Captain a visit. Capt. von Muller and the staff officers of our ship greeted him with utmost courtesy. | The white-haired gentleman, Jenks Willmore, | think his name was, asked us for news from En- gland. He was very much interested in the home rule controversy. He asked the Captain if he thought there was a possibility of civil war cn account of the “home rule” dispute. we made our ship look like a British cruiser; then These islands } we made for the entrance of the harbor, where were originally Spanish, but now they are British stood an unknown cruiser and many ships be- — conducting joint maneuvers with the British navy. The simple old man accepted our ruse with per- fect faith. We also told him that the Pope was dead; of course, this was a bit of news to him. On leaving us he said that he would like to pay us another visit were it not for the fact that :.n accident had happened to his boat. Capt. von Muller would not allow such ‘a small matter to prevent the agreeable old gentleman’s second visit to us; so we sent two of our engineers to repair the damage to the boat. The unsuspecting old gentleman was so much charmed by our hospitality that he persisted that the Captain and his staff pay a visit to the shore so that he could return our hospitality with hos- pitality. But Capt, Muller told him that cur fer of hospitality. : Just before we sailed away Capt. Muller sent the old gentleman a box of cigars and a bottle of wine. I wonder what he is saying to himself now that he must have learned that we are at war with the\ British. The Dash Into Penang Harbor. OWARDS the end of October, late in the aft- ; ernoon, we were about nine or ten miies off Penang. | We hoisted our dummy funnel and once more This was good news. 5 schedule prevented accepting his prof - hind. We steamed towards her until we were within 600 or 700 yards, and then we sent her two (or- pedoes,: both of which took effect, and the un- known cruiser, which we later found out to be the Russian cruiser Jemstching, sank immediately. At the time we had fired the two torpedoes, we had likewise sent her a salvo of 100 shots. Our shots also sent to the bottom several sailing ships in the harbor. After this we steamed out of the harbor as fast ax we could. On leaving Penang we were steaming at full speed, and about 35 milee out we met a steamer. Just then we sighted a warship in the horizon, which we took to be a large British cruiser. But after the early morning mirage had settled, we found out that it was the French destroyer, the Mousquet. We approached her within 3500 yards and then we sent a salvo to her. We immediately sank her and saved 35 of her crew. Just then we sighted another destroyer making for us from the direction of Penang. We were chased by this unknown craft for about five hours, but we finally got rid of fer in rainstorm. With full speed we made for the Indian Ocvan. and after destroying many ships we turned to proached the commander of the wireless ‘sta’ and informed him that their operation of the w less had interfered with the movement of cruiser. . While I was talking with him, who had coi half way from the station towards the place wh we had landed, another detachment of my pa had already marched to the station, and 66 viously arranged, rounded up the British who connected with the station. sat We fi then we 4 CS me 8 „ e 23 E 1 * 9 7 4 2 * — — * : ST * 34 3 in 2 placed them under strict guard, at 2 3 .. » te * ok bart . * ay ‘ 8 * ae es BO F 4 ae vas - * 7 4 * wets i . = ie . 3 = 2 © tet ge * . 1 n = 1 ae * — aa = 5 , * + ‘ 4 @ . 8 8 ö re : co Se ee 2 82 ee arth 4 2 0 1 1 LA Pat eee 1 FF 4 bu bE eae } Ts 15 ee ie: . 7 2 2 — we Kine — * * . 1 8 i 1232 9 6 50 ang ere — PPA. « , sare . : F . ’ * ende coy — wr . : vy * eat e 5 8 : ay —- * ; 2 we could with the material at our band. I had made all arrrangements to wireless officials before they could distress signals. However, they ay bi sent out these signals; not knowing this, at our work for about an hour and a half I was informed that beside the wireless, the were three submarine cables from the isla These cables are to Rodrigues, to Batavia and >, > Loe 4 1 Perth. Our party cut three cables, and we th ot 0 we had destroyed the whole three. But in ves we had only destroyed one real cable, to * 32 other two cables we had cut were dummy at les. At 9:20 we had scarcely finished our we when we suddenly heard the whistle of thie | | me ordering us on board, in distress. “es We made for our ship as fast as we could, upon our arrival at the shore we found out was steaming at full speed toward a a 2 4 . " 8 Pe, 2 « 5 5 n ri ‘ 2 2 * 9 eye At that moment you can imagine our d ment to see our ship desert us, leaving us to t mercy of those whom only a few hours bett had put unnder a strong guard. There we were, 40 men and three officer After 20 minutes: of rapid conference, decided on our next move, when, at * 7 * Sho 7 * m3 a ae * 5 sent by her, our hearts throbbed, Thea thi ship began to fire. ‘Soper 6 ee — * po Al 5 x sae # the Emden was on fire. She was making for Ke ing Island, which is about fifteen miles tre terrible the Ghagos-Keeling Islands Group, to destroy ai. wireless station situated on the Cocos Islands. in command of 40 men and two officers, to lande“ 1 and destroy the wireless . 1 8 a i . 8 N * aes 3 * this f nen cite * we: Sed pS SA oe ae 3 * wee: ; be ee . x > 0 Pa) = = * a ; 4 a * 2 7 > aT tae i 4 5 . 8 1 * = 1 14 * * — nr 5 + " 4