THE ARMED RAIDER

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 14, 11 October 1917, Page 5

THE ARMED RAIDER

HOW THE MOTOR-BOAT 1 WAS CAPTURED j A CLEVER BLUFF . j GKEAT EXCITEMENT IN j FIJI I By Telegraph—Press Association. Auckland, October 10. i The following dispatch from tho "Her- ! a?<Ts" fiuva correspondent has been pass- j eu l>y the Censor for publication:— j "I'riday, September 21, was a day of in- «; Cense excitement iu Suva. Early in the j morning a startling message came through.. ,' that the steamer Amra was expected to . -:j arrive in port that evening with" "a de- | lacliraent of German prisoners. They were ; the members of the crew of the German • xaider Bee Adlur, wliich, it is stated, was burned at sea. The iirst intimation of the. j arrival of these unwelcome visitors to Fiji j was given by a half-caste named Mae- ! pherson at Levuka. He said that there j was a. strange boat with six Europeans in. \ it at Waikava. a small island between. ; Vitilovu. and Vanua Levtf. Tlie natives, j it was stated, become alarmed because .; these strangers would not talk, and were ; armed. It was decided to investigate the ■ matter, and a cutter was dispatched from j Levuka wtih Bub-Inspector H. C. Hills.^^jj of the Fijian Constabulary, and sir Fijian-" • police. Fortunately for this little party a gale blew up and forced them back to ; P °'That night the Amra, with Captain. '■ Day' in charge, arrived at Levuka, and . proceeded to Waikava. There they found .; a 23-foot boat with a cutter in tow, . which, when the Amra was sighted, im-' ; mediately put off for a break in the reef. ; Captain Day, who was determined not to \ lose his quarry, lowered a boat, and Sub- : i Inspector Hills. Inspector Howard, and. ; six Fijians gave chaae. Their onlj-.j ; weapons ware a Colt's revolver and attj < automatic pistol. Fortunately the bluff j | that was being maintained proved so euc- j cessful that tho occupants of the cutter .; did not show fight, although all were fully • armed, and they surrendered. After n. I short consultation the prisoners suggested ] that as there was a motor in their boat ; they should tow the captors, but the offer J wa6 rejected, and the Germans were or- l dered into the British boat. One German: i was left in the cutter to work the en- ] gine. The cutter carried a machine-gun, 15 : bombs, and a large quantity of am muni- \ tion. The British officers occupied tlie ; captured boat, and towed their -prisoners . j to tlifl Amra. Count von Luckner, com- '; inander of the See Adler, naturally was j anxious to know the strength' of their ! captors, and when, it was. told him that j tne guns he imagined he saw were merely j cattle pens covered with canvas, and that , : the crew's sole defence were a revolver j and a pistol, hie face was a study, after j having been, as he asserts, wounded ml \ the Battle of Jutland, and "having had, j command of a vessel that, according toi ; his story, had the proud distinction of ] having sunk 23 boats in the Atlantic, it, j was indeed an indignity for him to have surrendered to such bluff. j "The See Adler'e mission in the Pacific, ! is 6tated to have been the .'capture of; j grain boats and saltpetre, but Von Luck- j ner stated fhat he had no lack. He says i j that ne toot no lives and did not sink ■ ) any steamers. The logs of many destroy-1 ; ed vessels were on the captured boat. All ; ; the men got away from the' burning Sβ* \ Adler, but Von. tuckner will not say j where they had intended to go, except that they expected to obtain possession , of a schooner leaving Fiji for Amenoa, .; and convert her into another pirate. ; ■. . i