quarters at Messina at the beginning of the war, the ships had sped to Turkey when they were sold to that country, but their German crews remained aboard. They did much to force Turkey into the war by attacking Russia.

Principal Sources: The Review of Reviews, The Times, New York; The Morning Post (London), The North German Gazette, The London Times' "History of the War," The Evening News (London), The Berliner Tageblatt, the Wolff Bureau, The Standard (London), Reuter dispatches, The Economist (London), "Nelson's History of the War" by John Buchan; The Sun, The Evening Sun, New York.

II

EXPLOITS BY THE EMDEN AND OTHERS ON THE HIGH SEAS AND ON THE ENGLISH COAST

August 1, 1914-March 5, 1916

AIDS and captures by German commerce destroyers

began. British merchant vessels had been exposed to these attacks everywhere. The Emden, commanded by Captain Karl von Müller, particularly distinguished herself. Being a vessel of only about 3,500 tons, but having a speed of 25 knots, she was quite fast enough to overhaul any British merchant steamer she was likely to encounter, and could easily have run away when necessary. Her exploits recalled to Europeans those of Robert Surcouf, a famous French privateersman of over a hundred years before, whose Confiance, his swiftest and rakiest craft, was generally heard of where least expected. After reaping a harvest of merchantmen, Surcouf's vessel unaccountably disappeared. The exploits of the Emden also recalled those of Raphael Semmes and the Alabama in our Civil War. A statement made by Captain John M. Kell, the executive officer of the Alabama, might almost have been written by the corresponding officer of the Emden, since it dealt with the Alabama's exploits in the same waters as those through which the Emden operated against about seventy British, Russian, French, and Japanese ships: "In a few weeks we had so paralyzed the enemy's commerce that their ships were absolutely locked up in port, and neutrals were doing all the carrying trade." The disguises which the Emden assumed on entering Penang were those which had frequently been assumed or resorted to by Captain Semmes, of the Alabama, and in every case were legitimate. The history of naval sailing days abounds in instances of ships that hoisted flags other than their own, in order to find out the nationality of another vessel, or to approach near some prize that might otherwise escape them.

The captain of the Emden, when finally captured, had been steadily at sea for forty-eight of ninety days; in the South China Sea, the Indian Ocean, and the Bay of Bengal; had nearly closed up the port of Calcutta for a couple of weeks, had fired on Madras, captured or sunk 22 merchant ships, and then, having been reported 200 miles south of Ceylon near the Equator, had doubled on his tracks and again crossed the Bay of Bengal. Several times he had recoaled and provisioned his ship from prizes and, barring the fouling of his ship's bottom, was in better shape when captured than when the war began, for his successes had greatly increased the morale of his crew. It was his invariable practise to sink prizes, reserving one in which to send crews and passengers into port. Indeed nothing else. could be done, since he could not take them into any friendly port, nor could he cumber his own ship with captured crews. The Emden steamed one evening into Madras roads and shelled the outskirts of the town for half an hour, oil-tanks being set ablaze and two or three natives killed. Fort George returned the fire, probably without effect, and the Emden then retired. At the end of October, when in disguise by carrying an extra dummy funnel, and flying the Japanese colors, the Emden contrived to torpedo a small Russian cruiser and destroyer in the British harbor of Penang, but on November 10 she was caught at the Keeling or Cocos Islands, south of Sumatra, by the Australian cruiser Sydney, driven ashore and burned.

One of her greatest exploits was the one at Penang, which is in the Straits Settlement, and where, after a few brief hours. in that busy harbor, she left death and destruction behind. her. Penang lies on the western coast of the Malay Peninsula, just below the Siamese border, and is the shipping point of the Federated Malay States, where 65 per cent. of the world's tin is produced, as well as a great amount of rubber. The thing that made Penang a point of importance in the war was the fact that it was the last port of call for ships from China and Japan to Colombo and Europe, and it had been made more or less of a naval base by the English Government. It was probably for the purpose of crippling this base that the Emden made her raid on it.

Had she found Penang undefended, she could, at one blow, have embarrassed English cruisers patrolling those waters, and at the same time have caused a terrific loss to English commerce by sinking merchantmen at anchor in the harbor. It was early in the morning that the Emden, with her dummy fourth funnel, and flying the British ensign, got past a French torpedo-boat, the Mosquet, which was on patrol duty outside, and entered the outer harbor of Penang, where, across the channel leading to the inner harbor, lay the Russian cruiser Jemtchug. Inside were French torpedo

THE SINKING OF THE "EMDEN" BY THE "SYDNEY"

The Cocos, or Keeling, Islands, are in the Indian Ocean about 600 miles southwest of Sumatra. The Sydney was an Australian, not a British

warship

boats and torpedo-boat destroyers, the torpedo-boats lying beside the long Government wharf, while the D'Iberville rode at anchor between two tramp steamers. At full speed the Emden steamed straight ahead for the Jemtchug in the inner harbor. In the semi-darkness the Russian ship took her for the British cruiser Yarmouth, which had been in and out of the harbor two or three times during the previous week and did not even "query" her. When less than 400 yards away, the Emden suddenly emptied her bow guns into the Jemtchug, and prest on at a terrific pace, with all the guns she could bring to bear in action. When she had come to within 250 yards of the Russian ship, she changed her course slightly, and as she passed the Jemtchug, poured two broadsides into her, as well as a torpedo, which entered the engine-room, but did comparatively little damage, however. The Russian cruiser, taken completely by surprize, was crippled. Her captain had been spending the night ashore, and as there was no one on board who seemed capable of acting energetically, she was defeated before the battle began. Such men as were on board finally manned her light guns and brought them into action.

In the meantime the Emden had got well inside the inner harbor among the merchant shipping. She now discovered the presence of French torpedo-boats and realized that, unless she got out before they could join in the action, her fate would be sealed, for at such close quarters torpedoes would have proved deadly. Accordingly, she turned and made once more for the Jemtchug, which had been bombarding her with shrapnel, but, owing to bad markmanship, had succeeded only in peppering merchant ships that were within range. As the Emden neared the Jemtchug, both ships were actually spitting fire. At less than 150 yards the Emden passed the Russian ship and torpedoed her amidship, striking the magazine. A tremendous detonation followed, paling into insignificance all the previous din in that harbor. A column of heavy black smoke rose and the Jemtchug sank in ten seconds.

The Emden then started for a point of safety, but sighted the torpedo-boat Mosquet coming in at top speed and immediately opened on her, causing her to turn. After a run