ARMED RAIDER

New Zealand Times, Volume XLII, Issue 9788, 11 October 1917, Page 5

ARMED RAIDER

DESTROYED ID PACIFIC MEMBERS OF CREW CAPTURED AT SUVA SUCCESS OF a BIG “BLUFF” COUNT VON LUCK NEK'S BAD LUCK. Preaa AssociationAUCKLAND, October 10. The following dispatch from the “New Zealand Herald’s’’ Suva correspondent has been passed by the center for publication: Friday, September 2ist, was a day of intense excitement in Suva. Early in the morning the startling message came through that the steamer Ami a waa expected to arrive in port that evening w.ih a detachment of German prisoners. They were members of the crew of the German raider tieeacller, which, it ia stated, was burned at sea. The first intimation of the arrival of these unwelcome visitors to Fiji was given oy a iuui-oasto named iuacptUersun at Xiovuka. Fie said there was a strange ooat with six Europeans in it at Vvaikava, a small island between Viti Levu and Yunna Levu. The natives, it was stated, became alarmed, because these strangers would not talk and were armed. SEARCH BEGUN. It was decided to investigate the 'mattes, and a cutter was dispatched from iicvuiia with Sub-Inspector nt. C. Hills, ot the Fijian Constabulary, and six Fijian pol.ee. Fortunately for this little party, a gale blew up , and forced them back to port. That night the Amra, with Captain Day in charge, arrived at Levuka and proceeded to Waikava. There they found a 22-icet boat with a cutter m tow, which, when the Amra was sighted, immediately put off for a break in the reef. Captain Day, who was determine!! not to lose hia quarry, lowered a boat, and Sub-Inspector Hills, Inspector Howard, and the six Fijians gave chase. Their only weapons vyere a Colt’s revolver and an automatic pistol. , . Fortunately the bluff that was being maintained proved so successful that the occupants of the cutter did not show fight, although all were fully armed, and they surrendered after a abort consultation. The prisoners suggested that as there was a motor in their boat they should tow their captors, but the offer was rejected, and the Germans were ordered into the British boat. , ~ . .. One German was left in the cutter to work the engine, which earned a ma-oilune.-gun ; fifteen bombs, and a largo quantity of ' ammunition. British officers' occupied the captured boat and towed their prisoners to the Amra. COMMANDER’S SURPRISE. Count vou Luckner, commander ot the Beeadler, naturally was anxious to know the strength of their captors. When it was told, him that the guns h© imagined he saw were merely cattle pens covered with canvas and that the crow’s sole means of defence were a revolver and a pistol, his face was a study. After having been, as he asserts, wounded in the Battle of Jutland and having command of a vessel that, according to his story, had the proud distinction of having sunk 23 boats in the Atlantic, it was indeed an indignity for him to have surrendered to such a bluff. Tho Seeadler’s mission in tho Pacific is stated to have been the capture of grain boats and saltpetre, but von Luoknor stated that he had no luck. Ho says that ho took no lives, and did not sink any steamers. Tho logs of many destroyed vessels wore on tho captured boat. All tho men got away from the burning Seoadler, but von Luckner will not say where they had intended to go, except that they expected to obtain possession ot a schooner leaving Fiji for America and convert her into another pirate.