Captain and Caliban

Taihape Daily Times, 5 August 1918, Page 6

Captain and Caliban

MAX THIERICHENS OF THE EITBL FRIEDRICH. ' LITE OP LUST AND CRIME. During the night of March 9-10, 1915 the German cruiser Prinz Eitel Friedrich slipped into the harbour at Norfolk, U.S.A., having run the British blockade of cruisers outside the threemile limit. She thus ended a career of six months as a commerce raider, the feats of the Alabama in ihe Civil War,

The Eitol Friedrich was soon interned for the period of the war, and her officers and crew put under formal arrest. Even the British, whose fleet had been outwitted, gave their tribute Of praise to the men who had taken their fair chance, and had got away. Captain Max Thicrichens ? and his crew became objects of admiration to the world.

That is the bright side of the picture; and no one, even now, would «are to dim its lustre. But even at his best the German of the ruling class sems tainted with the ineradicable nature of the beast. The world has dong accepted )the Latin affinity of Mars and Veniis, so it would not have been surprised if the gallanf Thierichens had not measured up to the standards of a Galabad. Nevertheless, it had a right to expect that he should not descend to the level of a Caliban; and T hie riche ns fell below €ven that low standard. PATRIOTISM AND PASSION.

Among the great. quantities of letters of congratulation which Captain Thierichens received were many from German-American women. Thierichens was depraved by the social custom of military Germany by which men of the officer class are in youth taught to consider themselves above the moral law.

It was not long until he had narrowed his correspondence chiefly to three women, and of these more particularly to two. Of these latter, one was a German servant girl of rather tetter than average understanding and the other a kindergarten teacher in the Middle West, omr twenty-five and the other forty-five years of age. ■ Their correspondence in both cases started on an exalted plane.. It ended in unprintable depravity. By the time this correspondence came under Government censorship it had become a ■blend of exalted patriotism and of passion perverted to the obscenities pictured on the walls of ruined

Pompeii. Hut to make the picture complete there came to the American authorities a “round robin” signed by the whole of the interned crew of the Prinz Eitel Friedrich, in which they set out their opinion of their gallant captain. This document declared Captain Max Thierichens to be “one of the most dishonest men who ever had been in charge of a vessel.”

“He is guilty of using tlie United {States mails, ” (this document signed "by his own crew proceeds) “for fraudulent purposes, advertising -in the papers that he would receive liebesgaben (love packages) for the soldiers in order to benefit himself, and later selling the same, in the canteen after an inspection ,and rifling; he kept -everything of value.” KEPT EVERYTHING FOE HIMSELF. 1 ‘He has received 1000 packages and money from, very near every German society and countless private people, Tout kept everything for himself. "If we met a vessel on the high seas the first thing he always did •was to secure as much wine and other good things for himself and officers, so that they always had plenty Ho would not allow hi|s sailors to -bring enough potatoes and common food on board to satisfy their hunger . . . Ho had his men maltreated wherever there was a chance to do so. “If it was not for the iron discipline' maintained by the Germans, there would have been a mutiny on board the ship. We do hope that there will be an investigation of the evil doings of said captain. ” ’ On sea, as on land, it will be seen by this crew's memorial, there is always that iron discipline which forces the German, or works on his suberser'vient habit of mind, into all the enormities which authority demands of it, and enables him to suffer every kind of personal indignity and tyranny. Captain Thierichens was in correspondence in America with nearly a tiozen misguided American women. At the same time he was receiving most tender and touching letters from his wife and children, at Kiel, to whom lie was a hero.