THE EMDEN RECALLED

Hokitika Guardian, 15 May 1928, Page 4

THE EMDEN RECALLED

A GEIUrAN OFFICEIt’S STORY. Tennyson lias called rank tlie “guinea’s stamp,” and generally it is. Even inherited rank carries with it the aroma, of merit, hut in those democratic days bearers of inherited rank often seek to justify their title and to uphold the unearned honour by conduct lifting them above the common level.

A German prince—Franz Joseph of Hohenzollern —was attached, when the war broke out, as torpedo lieutenant to the Eniden, whose captain. Von Muller, won the admiration of lii.s English opponents. Yon Muller is dead, but bis courteous courage is not forgotten, a.nd Franz .Joseph, who shared bis dangers and lii.s victories. his disappointments and bis valued frienddiij lias written an account of tin l Linden's voyage and exploits from the i.-e----elnratioii < f war to tlie dcslrm. t.b a lire shin by the A.nstrn'inn warship Sydney. Yon Muller's imaginin'* seamanship and attention I ■ minute detail, added to the natural dillu ahie of the British task in running him down, enabled him to do a great amount of damage 1 ) our incrchaiil shipping, but, although he had ample opportunity to destroy many lives, be treated unarmed men with every consideration.

The term “trade rente’’ conveys to landsmen nothing in the nature < I highways traversed by a procession of chips, whose < nurse upon the trackless sea is as clear to the sailor as a stream of motor buses along the Strand is to a Londoner. Aon Muller became a.n ocean highwayman, and Ins “stand and deliver”, was backed by the authority of war, and therefore within the law. and wholly justifiable. B) steaming in darkness, and without r glimmer of light showing, the Finder hunted her prey upon many trade mutes, and by raiding the cargo of raptured vessels was able to pay but infrequent calls to any base of supplies. Her only anxiety and her chief need was coal. The loyalty of the crew, who. says the prince, worked repeatedly to the point of exhaustion, alone kept the Eniden almost distantly al sea. There was no eomiorc m tlie

'-bin at any time, lor she was strippei for action with a sell-saerifcing thor ougliness which spared nobody. Th prince's desire for snap was a Icaiur of the voyage. Rrubii.blv not even lb prince himself realised lion* much th German Navv owed 1 > the tcacliiiq of the hundreds of years of Driti.d construction and slow’y-deve’opod mu tine, and had it not been lor the Get man Emperor's ability as a espy is a mu-li |r, s redoubt a' le enemy wouh have faced us.

Discipline c-n the Eniden appears to have been excellent. The lack of rest, the steepness watchfulness, tlie hourly nossibility of being discovered ami sunk musi have Loon nerve si raining. The sinking of a ship even without destruction of life -is a sad business, and more Ilian once tlie prince refers to the trying slowness of the sinking* pr.ice*s ami its depressing effect. “1 must confess.” says the prince, “that 1 do not understand the policy of saving nothing bit bad of your enemy." There is little in the tram'at ion to imlier.'e ils German origin, and less lo show its un-English point of view. “The crew were then releasml for breakfast, and then to wash.’* is rather iiu-Fiig'idi. perhaps, but there are lew such lit’le straws to show the direction of the wind. There is a group of photographs ill ■>• - tenting the damage done to the Linden by (be Sydney, one of Iho iepleiu of the former, and one of Franz -10-ef. who would bo said by bis father in b'ok “every inch a prince." Tim Junk is a modest, and, we think, aim •! painfully accurate diary ci* the Linden's voyage, and a valuable eouiriLilt ion to the stories of the war.