Evening Star Newspaper, June 2, 1929, Page 106

THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, JUNE. 2, 1929—PART 2. A Polish Count, * Now Married to an [ | | % ‘om the agent of the North German Lloyd, { American Girl and Working in Wall Street, Tells for the ¥irst Time the High-= Jights of the Cruise of the German Kron- prinz Wilhelm, Sea Raider. BY COUNT ALFRED VON NIEZYCHOWSKI. N the 28th of July, 1914, the Kron- prinz Wilhelm, giant passenger ship of 25,000 tons, was lying at anchor in Hoboken, had but recently been over- hauled and was soon to sail for Bremen with the usual number of passengers. Her captain, K. Grahn, showed no sign of what was really going on in his mind. Her officers talked as if they believed the volcano upon which the world was sitting was perhaps not going to blow, after all, when suddenly, ‘like a bolt from heavén, came the declaration of war by Germany against Russia. Capnt. Grahn at once received sealed orders Comdr. Thierfelder, who went aboard . the Kronprinz Wilhelm with 15 men, |, 2 big guns and 50 rifles and turn- |" ed the ship into a sea_raider. who in turn had his instructions from the Ger- man Ambassador at Washington, to put to sea and await further orders by wireless. These he received soon after we got out of Hoboken, When the 8. M. S. Karlsruhe sent a message baying that she would meet us on the 6th of August in latitude 25.40 north, longitude 72.37 west. We accordingly put on all speed in that direction. Should we succeed in reaching the cruiser, we would at least have temporary protection against attack, but what orders the war vessel ‘would bring us none could tell. Steaming warily onward, we went into the third day of our cruise. The Karlsruhe, e neat, shipshape-looking vessel, somewhat smaller than the Kronprinz, steamed up rapidly. Capt. Grahn at once went aboard the cruiser and held a brief parley with her commander. When he returned after a few minutes, I read the news in his face. M Kriefschiff!” he said. “War vessel!” EFORE we left Hoboken we had taken on board an extra supply of coal and provi- sions. These we now began transferring as speedily as possible to the decks and hatches of the Karlsruhe, which was in great need of them. The cruiser, on the other hand, had on deck two 83-mm. guns, which our derricks now hoisted aboard the Kronprinz Wilhelm, together ‘with about 50 rifles and some ammunition, Licut. Comdr. Thierfelder now came aboard s from the Karlsruhe with 15 men of the latter's crew. Henceforth, he was to be our #&aval comrander, while Capt. Grahn should ®ct as his asdistent with the rank of first o —— on a Mystery Ship The Kronprinz Wilhelm, which slipped into a neutral United States port after sinking 14 vessels. The port was en- tered by sailing between two vengeful British warships. officer. We, the merchant officers, became au- tomatically full-fledged naval officers, with all their powers and duties. In this array I was designated as “watch officer.” In the midst of this turmoil the lookout of the Karlsruhe suddenly rang his alarm. Look- ing up, we saw on the horizon the smokestacks of a large English cruiser. We were taken completely by surprise. Our extra provisions had not yet all been trans- ferred, and we had not taken aboard one-tenth the mnecessary supplies of ammunition. But there was no time to lose. We could see at a glance that the English cruiser, which we soon recognized as the Bristol, a fast ship, had rec- ognized the Karlsruhe and was bearing down full speed. TB‘E Karlsruhe now began making a large semi-circle to starboard, while we bent off to port, this action of hers being intended to give us time to get away. A running battle at once began, clearly visible from our decks. The Karlsruhe had brought her long-range starboard guns into play, while the Bristol, belching volleys of white smoke and flame, thundered away with her own. When the Karlsruhe finally was out of sight of the Britisher, Comdr. Thierfelder altered our course to the west, steaming ahead full speed. For the moment we were safe, but there was no telling at what instant a new enemy might appear, warned of our whereabouts by the wireless of the Bristol. For a whole month we cruised about without taking a single ship, and now within three days it was absolutely necessary that we capture a steamship from which we might coal. The night of the 4th of September, 1914, was a particularly dark one. At 9 o'clock the ship’s bugle began to call to station and the drum rolled as if to wake the dead. For the lights of a large steamer had appeared on the starboard horizon. Instantly all was in motion. The men, con- scious of the ship’s perilous condition for lack of fuel, ready for any action that might rescue us from 1it, leaped to their places and stood ready for the event. Soon we had come fairly near our prize, whose proportions were at last plainly discern- ible. As, however, we were running in com- plete darkness, we felt that we ourselves were not seen. At a distance of about 500 yards our rockets went up, displaying under their glare a large single-funneled British freight and passenger liner, the Indian Prince—from every sign an exceptional prize. The enemy, contrary to our expectations, seemed not to be worried over our approach, evidently sure we were a vessel of her own nationality. Not until Comdr. Thierfelder sig- For seven months during 1914-15 the German cruiser the Kronprinz Wilhelm was the mystery of the Atlantic. Caught at the outbreak of the war a few hundred miles from the Virginia Coast, she could not get back to German waters, so she roved the Atlantic and preyed on enemy shipping. In 251 days she cruised 37,000 fl,la. stopped 26 vessels, sank 14, dodged and outwitted the fastest and best of the al- lied cruisers which scoured the seas for her. Lieut. Count von Niezychowski, one of the officers of the famous ship, tells for the first time the story of her gallant ad- venture in his book, “The Cruise of the ‘Kronprinz Wilhelm,” recently published by Doubleday, Doran & Co., Inc. Count von Niezychowski is a Polish nobleman, who became a German naval officer and served on the Kronprinz Wilhelm until his internment in the United States. He has since married an American wife, be- come an American citizen and a mem- ber of a Wall Street banking house, far removed from his wartime career. Count von Niezychowski owned the only camera aboard the raider, and his photo- graphs, some of which are reproduced on this page, are the only pictorial records of the cruiser’s raids. Since his captain is dead, and also most of the other officers of the Kronprinz Wil- helm, the count is the ome man to tell the story of the unique adventures of the famous mystery ship. The story, made up of excerpts from his book, is printed by permission of the publishers. naled to the ship to surrender and follow us did she note her error. We now saw that it was fortunate for us we had been able to creep up on this vessel, for she proved to be a fast steamer and might, if warned in time, have put out her lights and escaped in the darkness. There was nothing now for her to do but haul down her colors and steam on ahead of us. ALL night the steamer sped on directly in front of us. Comdr. Thierfelder had or- dered the vessel’s captain to extinguish all his lights, and our men aloft kept a sharp lookout lest our prize display secret lights or signals. Meanwhile, the gun crews were kept at their posts for instant action. The captain of the Indian Prince, however, recognized the hopelessness of his position and showed good judgment in not attempting to deceive us. He told us afterward that he had The seventh victim of the Kronprinz Wilhelm, the British ship Hemisphere, plunging to the bottom on December 28, 1914. some kegs of dynamite in his hold set, with which to blow the bottom ship, but had neglected to use them hope that his vessel would be rescued we could unload and sink her. He still jollily ccntinued to hold even for some days after he had been was Comdr. Thierfelder’s tirrty-first birthday, all hands expected a holiday given over to sports—excitement. But the wheel of fortune turned other than we expected. B Shortly after dawn of that day a sy onoroski, steamer with two smokestacks appeared on the northern horizon. It was indeed Comdr. Thier- felder's lucky day, for this steamer proved the richest prize of the voyage. “Clear for action!” sounded, all hands came to station, and we steamed rapidly down on the enemy. It was a large, beautiful freight and pas- senger vessel, the Guadeloupe of Havre. It was indeed the finest birthday present our com- mander could have wished. As our prize boat was rowing over toward the Guadeloupe, we noticed a scufie on the decks of the prize. A number of sailors had run out of one of her cabins carrying three black leathern trunks, weighted with iron, which they now unceremoniously cast into the sea. Two at once went to the bottom; the third, however, remained afloat and was fished up by the two boats which immediately put out from our side for this purpose. A On opening this trunk we found valuable documents and writings addressed to the French minister of war. In addition, there were mil- lions of dollars’ worth of checks and drafts pay- able at Parisian banks, and though this paper was naturally of no use to us, our men at least enjoyed the feeling of having captured some- thing valuable. The transter of passengers proved quite a spectacle, for there were 294 persons on the vessel, including many women and a few chil- dren. Among the women were some pretty French girls, all about 16 years old and dressed in the most chic styles. Our crew stared at these goddesses from a respectful distance until the fair ones were corralled out of sight. Then our men made it their business to besiege the Contimernd am Poama Mo