How “See Adler” Was Lost
p. 28 · Read in the full issue
IV/TR. N. Melville, of Lismore, N.S.W., who was in Levuka when Count von Luckner was captured there, says that the Count lived for some years in Perth before the war, and for some months in Brisbane. He returned to Germany before war was declared. He sank 200,000 tons of Allied shipping (mostly British) with out causing the loss of a single life. His treatment of prisoners most chival rous.
The See Adler's speed was considerably
reduced by the barnacles on the hull while in the Pacific and von Luckner de cided to careen on one of the Paumotus Islands. A heavy sea carried the vessel further aground while the work was in progress, and she was partially wrecked.
Von Luckner then decided to use the three Diesel-engined launches, on the See Adler to get off the island, and had hopes of capturing another vessel to continue his raiding.
Mr. Melville said that the next news of the Germans came when the half-caste skipper of a small schooner notified the harbour master at Levuka that he had seen six men on the Island of Wakaya, seven miles away, and that “they not speak good English for white men.”
The same day, in the teeth of a tro pical storm, a party in charge of the Sub inspector of Police (Lieutenant Hills) tried to reach the island in a small cutter but were unable to get through a small coral passage a mile from the shore. The next day a small steamer, the Amarah. used mostly for carrying cattle, was pressed into service by Lieutenant Hills, and the harbour master (Mr. J. Marsh), who set out with a party, which included Mr. Melville and six native policemen.
Von Luckner and his party surrendered when Lieutenant Hills and the native policemen landed, and, on boarding the Amarah. von Luckner’s first question was, “How many guns does this boat carry?” “None,” replied Lieutenant Hills, “this is a cattle boat.”
The reply left von Luckner gasping, because he had machine guns, bombs, and ammunition on shore, and could have resisted capture had he not, as he ad mitted, mistaken for gun-ports the window-like embrasures cut in the sides of the cattle boat to provide ventilation for the cattle.