SEE ADLER’S CAPTAIN

Hokitika Guardian, 7 January 1924, Page 4

SEE ADLER’S CAPTAIN

VON BUCKNER'S CAREER. One of the most remarkable incidents ol the war as lar as the .Southern Hemisphere was concerned. was the advent of Count Felix von Luckuer, the pirate captain of the See Adler, which captured so many small vessels before it was itself captured, and its captain and crew interned in New Zealand. .Count Felix Von Buckner. who commanded the pirate ship, cut a dramatic figure, especially when he escaped from his island prison in Auckland, and gave the authorities a lew anxious days pursuing him. “A MODEST MAN.”

Now (says a correspondent) he i* on one of the passenger steamers plying out of Hamburg; and lie Ini- put aside at' the boisterous glory of his war experiences. When he was sect hack to Germany from New Zealand, he wrote a book, which has not been translated. But. with the aid of a Germany officer. 1 have read portions of the hook, and, although his statements about hi- Australasian adventures are true in the mam. he dresses himself in great glory. When he arrived back in Germany, lie lectured for some time: then he wrote bis book, and ihen lie was put in eliarge of one of the training shiptor iiicic:ini ile marine officers. But this -bip was part of lbe licet banded over to England: so he had io seek elsewhere for a post. .So he ha- become ctintaiil of a passenger boat. OF POOR FAMILY. One of the German captains m whom I spoke -- a captain who lived in Bremen, and who knew rou !.sicklier said that be was a very peas olid and fallen piraie in those days. lie belongs to a poor German Family, won untiling but the title to distinguish it. lie was so poor that his people could not send him to be a naval officer, and be had to he content with a career in the mercantile marine. It is interesting to hear him spoken oi by bis own people and compare the impression with our own. formed while he was terrorising the South Raillie. I really think he was a greater hero in our eyes than in the eyes ol his own people. One officer lo v. uotll r mentioned von Luekner's name said. “He is nothing. • • ■ He 's not great. . . He talks all the lime—and that is all."