EVADING CAPTURE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 89, 10 September 1914, Page 7

EVADING CAPTURE.

KRON PRINZESSEN CECILS. CARRYING MILLIONS IN GOLD. AN AMATECR PILOT. Tlic oxperienec of tlie German steamei Kron .Prinzessen Ceeile in the Atlantic, after she left New York on July 28 for Bremen are related by one of the pas' sengers in a Honolulu paper. . The Kron Prinzessen Ceeile, he says, with 1454 passengers and a cargo of ■11,500,000 dollars in gold and specie, sailed from New York at 10 a.m. on July 23. Her first port of call was to have been Plymouth, then Cherbourg, and afterwards Bremen. Tt was on the fourth day, while /a dance was in progress on deck and tie ■usual assembly was in the smoking-room •that a few minutes past ten, some of the passengers were startled by signs that the ships was being turned" round.' At 10.20, Captain Polaek entered the smoking-room and announced that war 'had broken out, and that the ship was going back to America. "The captain had received his orders by wireless at 10 o'clock. They were 1 rief, no waste of words. Turn back and make for an American port with .all speed.' The decision a3 to a port was to await developments. That the 'situation might become serious now '..slowly began to dawn en the passengers. Did ever a greater prize sail the seas in time of war than the Kron Prinzessen Ceeile, with her 11,500,000 dollars of gold and silver, consigned to France and England? Were there any ■ British or French warships near? Was it usual for British and French warships '.to sail up and down the American | coast? If so', what were the chances of ■slipping by? And so it went. The ships was 850 miles out of Plymouth when she turned back. The 'problem confronting Captain Polaek was 'to get his load of gold and human souls 'back to America without being over- ' hauled by an enemy's warship. At night fthe electric lights were turned out in jiOrder to conceal our identity from pass- ■ ing vessels. The four smokestacks were painted black at the tops as a further measure of concealment. At dinner we found the windows of the dining saloon heavily curtained, also in the smokingroom. There were no deck lights. To make matters worse from the standpoint of the pasengcrs, Saturday brought with it a dense fog. But the fog was to the liking of the captain. He sent the ship .along at the best speed she could make through the thick weather and with the fog-horn silent.

"Again on Sunday night there was a fog. The nerves of the passengers were on edge. A delegation ascended the bridge and asked the captain to please blow the fog-whistle and to carry the Visual side and stay lights'dcmanded by the laws of navigation. Otherwise, they declared, the women would not consent to go to their state rooms. Soon we heard the fog-horns sounding. "Meantime the Marconi operator bad intercepted a message from a French cruiser, detailed to protect French fishing craft off the banks, and the British cruiser Essex. The enemy was somewhere in the neighborhood. By Monday the attitude of some of the, passenf-ers bordered on indignation over the danger to lives I>ecaiisir of speeding through the fog. A protest was written out and an attempt to get the signatures of citizens of the United Slates, but a canvas of the vessel showed that a majority of the Americans held that the captain was doing his duty. '•The decision to go to Bar harbor Maine, was arrived at in a peculiar way. The captain decided that it would bo unwise to attempt to make for New York or Boston. He did not dare to ask for specific, information. Portland first came to his mind, and then he favored a less known port. Among the passengers was Mr C. Ledyard Blair, of Blair Bros., bankers, New -York. Mr. Blair's father has a summer home, near Bar harbor, and the son had sailed his yacht, so often in these waters that bo vas a capable pilot. Figuratively speakLing. Mr Blair took the helm, and Captain l'olaek was glad to have him do it."