Von Luckner’S Sextant

How It Was Made By An Ingenious German Cadet

DECLARING that he would engage in a propaganda mission for German ideals, Count Felix von Luckner, the famous wartime Lieutenant-Commander of the See Adler, sailed for Australasia and the Pacific Islands in the middle of April.

Just what he means by his Pacific “voyage of propaganda for German ideals” no one appears to know, but it is evident that he will not be permitted to indulge in any unnecessary political pro paganda in New Guinea or Samoa. How ever, the Count has many friends in the Pacific, where he. is remembered as a man of unusual skill and daring, and of much personal charm.

The suggestion has been put forward that the New Zealand Government might meet the friendly overtures of the Count by restoring to him what is known as the “von Luckner sextant” which, until recently, was hidden away in a packing case in the Dominion Museum, at Wellington.

Von Luckner did not make the famous sextant. It was the work of Cadet W. von Zartowsky, who was interned at Pago Pago, and later on the island of Motuihi, Auckland, from which von Luckner and his men escaped. It was

produced recently at the request of Mr. Harold Gatty, of Pan-American Air ways.

The sextant is a remarkable example of high class craftsmanship under most difficult conditions. All that the cadet had to work with were odds and ends, such as parts of a primus stove, and he manufactured a sextant that did excellent service over long ocean distances. The instrument had practically every adjust ment and detail found on modern sex tants, including adjustments for index and collimation, a frosted glass to keep the glare of the sun from the arc, vernier, and lens for reading the vernier scale exactly. Young von Zardowsky even made a key for the lock. The arc was cut from a section of the brass bonding of a launch steering wheel, and it is probable that an old sextant provided other parts.

When war was declared von Zardowsky was a cadet on a German merchantman, and was interned. The relic would be of interest to the former cadet if he is still living, or to his family. But the sextant is also a war relic of considerable interest —provided, of course, that it is placed on display and not hidden awa^.

Felix von Luckner commanded the See Adler, which left Hamburg in 1916, and he managed to get his vessel through the Allied blockade —under Norwegian colours —and was responsible for sinking 14 Allied merchantmen. But the See Adler was wrecked the folowing year on one of the islands administered from

Tahiti. Von Luckner then set out with five men in an 18-teet boat, armed with machine-gun and rifles. Again, he called himself a Norwegian. He, called at is lands in the Cook Group, but was even tually captured in Fiji, and taken as a prisoner to New Zealand and interned at Motuihi. It was then that he met Cadet von Zadowsky, and plans were laid with considerable skill for their sensa tional escape. How the Germans secured the N.Z. commandant’s own launch, and eventually transferred to the scow Moa,

and were recaptured in the Kermadecs, is common history.

Incidentally, the scow Rangi, which was wrecked not long ago, was in com pany with the Moa on that historic oc casion, beating up the coast to Tauranga.

The crew of the Rangi noticed that Moa had suddenly changed her course. It was not until later, however, that they dis covered that that vessel had been boarded by the adventurous von Luckner. The Rangi reported the incident in Auckland, and that information eventually led to the Counts, re-capture at the Kermadecs.

Eriki.