CAPTAIN KARL BOY-ED, THE EMPEROR’S SOCIAL DANDY AND VON TIRPITZ’S TOOL
In the days before the Kaiser booted his spur through the treaties of
Europe, you could observe, almost any afternoon, a faultlessly-attired
man—well built, his big round head resting firmly on a powerful
neck—sauntering down Connecticut Avenue, the Rotten Row or Fifth Avenue
of Washington. Jauntily swinging his cane and puffing at his inevitable
cigarette, he would bow gracefully in greeting the members of the
capital’s smart set. He could be seen later at tea at the Chevy Chase
Club, then among government officials and diplomats at the Metropolitan
Club, or a guest at the Army and Navy Club. He was much desired at the
most brilliant functions in New York in the winter, or at the resorts
where, in the summer, the wealthiest and most exclusive Manhattanites
gathered. One always found him graceful, suave, clever at repartee,
effervescing natural humour—the object of admiration on the part of
matchmaking mothers, and the reported seeker after an American
heiress—but always mingling with the persons in official, diplomatic and
navy circles who knew the innermost government secrets.
He was Germany’s Beau Brummel, Captain Karl Boy-Ed, the Kaiser’s naval
attaché, seemingly more interested in the frills, foibles and gaieties
of society than in the supremacy of the German Navy. Very much like an
American in appearance, Oriental in his sense of luxury, and possessing
the French quality of subtlety in rapid-fire wit, he lacked apparently
every vestige of the much vaunted Teutonic efficiency. He would
occasionally, however, drop out of the scenes of beauty and charm,
travelling about the country, visiting warships, tramping over coast
country, scrutinizing fortifications, or places where Uncle Sam would
have coast defences, until finally it began to be whispered that Captain
Boy-Ed knew as much about the American Navy and coast forts as did the
naval officers themselves. Under the veneer of lightness and graceful
ease, the naval attaché hid with the craft to which that Turkish part of
his ancestry made him heir, the persistent methodical thoroughness of
his German ancestry.
And, when the Kaiser set the dogs of war loose, Boy-Ed shunted aside the
cloak of frivolity, disappeared almost entirely from festive gatherings,
settled down by day to room 801, No. 11, Broadway, New York, receiving
code messages as “Nordmann,” and by night to his suite in the German
Club, where he delved into records, conferred with associates and
elaborated plans for activities on the seven seas. From a hale, jolly
fellow he became—as if by the shift of the magic wand of a Turkish
sorcerer—a veritable machine, mind and body, working for the Kaiser. A
man of great brain power, erudite, fertile in schemes, for long an aid
to Admiral von Tirpitz, he assumed charge in America of all enterprises
dealing with the naval phases of the Teutonic warfare in this country
and in or near American waters. These were activities which, despite his
boast: “They haven’t got any evidence against B. E.,” caused his
dismissal from America by President Wilson.
BOY-ED’S CAREER
Born of a Turkish father and German mother—the latter, Ida Boy-Ed, a
novelist much loved in Germany—he possessed an unusual combination of
traits, a mingling of Oriental subtlety, the brutal frankness of the
Prussian, and the artistic genius of his mother. He elected for the
navy, and early displayed qualities that attracted von Tirpitz’s
attention. The admiral took him up and made him one of his “Big Six,”
young German officers who were admitted to the naval lord’s most secret
councils and trained for just such executive work and such emergencies
as the great war produced. Having both a literary and constructive
ability, in addition to unusual qualities as a tactician and naval
officer, he was selected by Grand Admiral von Tirpitz as his chief
lieutenant, and was made the head of the news division. As such, he had
charge of propaganda enlightening the German people and arousing a
demand for a bigger navy. He prepared articles for the newspapers and
compiled pamphlets arguing for many battleships, in all of which he
cleverly instilled a distrust of England. Prior to each appropriation
for an increase in the German fleet, Boy-Ed carried on a Press campaign
designed to educate the public as to the urgent necessity for more
Dreadnoughts and submarines. By this means, an appropriation equal to a
hundred million dollars was obtained in 1910.
For five years, prior to his arrival in Washington in 1911 as the
Kaiser’s naval representative, he served under von Tirpitz, making trips
around the world, observing and working out the details of Germany’s
plans for breaking Great Britain’s sea-power. Because of the work which
he performed, the unusual ability which he displayed, and because
Germany was seeking to surpass the naval power of the United States,
then the second only to Great Britain, he was sent to this country. When
he arrived here, he impressed Americans by his knowledge of America and
American ideas. With ample tact and keen insight into American customs,
he began immediately to make himself almost an American. Speaking
English fluently and possessing an unusually attractive personality, he
made himself extremely popular.
NAVAL STUDENT IN TIMES OF PEACE
His duties in peace times, naturally, were to study the American Navy
and gain whatever facts he could about American war vessels, the
personnel of the navy, the government’s plans for increasing the fleet’s
power and building up coast defences; also to pick up whatever he could,
openly or stealthily, about the secret plans of America in the use of
her battle-fleet. When the war started, a thousand and one more tasks
devolved upon him. As von Papen was in Mexico, he had for a time to look
after the military attaché’s secret service, and, after being relieved
of that, he devoted himself to the manifold details peculiar to naval
intelligence. Like von Papen, he, too, had a staff of experts. They
began, under his direction, delving into every phase of American naval
activities, seeking information about the naval plans of the Allies,
striving to exert their influence to prevent the shipment of arms and
ammunition from this country. Boy-Ed’s work lay also in supervising the
registration of naval reservists with the German consuls, providing for
the return of as many as possible of them to the Fatherland, assigning
spies to the country’s enemies, and collecting all naval information
bearing upon the war.
WATCHING BRITISH VESSELS
Seated in his room 801, Captain Boy-Ed gathered a great mass of facts of
value to Germany from enemy sources and from neutral nations. From his
room, which was stacked with maps of the sea and steamer routes, he sent
directions to his spies. He forwarded information about ships—English
merchantmen and British warships—that could be utilized by the German
Government in raids on Allied commerce. He also gave directions for
provisioning the German raiders scouring the Seven Seas for enemy
ships—an enterprise just as romantic—though in violation of American
laws—as the spectacular dashes of the _Karlsruhe_, _Emden_ and the
_Prince Eitel Friedrich_.
Here was a project in which before the war and in preparation for it,
the German Admiralty and the _Hamburg-American Steamship Company_
participated; and after hostilities began, it was simply necessary for
the captain through his staff of assistants or in person to issue
orders. The Atlantic phase of the enterprise, its financing, its
spectacular features and its illegality were presented to a Federal
court in New York by Roger B. Wood, the Assistant United States
Attorney, at the trial and conviction of several _Hamburg-American Line_
officials: Dr. Karl Buenz, its general representative in America, George
Koetter, supervising engineer, Adolf Hachmeister, purchasing agent, and
Joseph Poeppinghaus, second officer and supercargo, on the charge of
conspiring to obtain from the collectors of the ports false clearances
for ships in connection with the coaling and provisioning of raiders.
The Pacific phase of the scheme has been unearthed by United States
District Attorney Preston in San Francisco.
SMUGGLING SUPPLIES TO RAIDERS
Two years before Germany sent a declaration of war to England, and
just when a crisis in European affairs was impending, Dr. Karl Buenz,
who never before had engaged in steamship business, came to New York
as the American head of the _Hamburg-American Line_. Prior to that he
had been a judge in Germany, a consul in Chicago and New York, and a
minister to Mexico. One of the first things which came to his
attention was the completion of a contract between the Admiralty
Division of the German Government and the steamship company for the
provisioning, during war, of German warships at sea from America as a
base. Arrangement also was made for communication between these ships
and the company by the Admiralty’s code. The documents dealing with
this agreement were kept locked up in the German Embassy in
Washington, and the _Hamburg-American_ officials declined to produce
them at the trial, “because in that agreement,” Prosecutor Wood
asserted, “I venture to say the whole plan whereby false clearances
should be obtained is worked out in detail.”
When Germany stood on the brink of war and England stood ready to pen
her in by a blockade, the Admiralty Division sent its orders to make
ready to provision the raiders. Dr. Buenz himself, on July 31,
1914—before the war—received a cable which he read, and then at once
sent to the German Embassy for safe-keeping. Straightway Boy-Ed was in
and out of Dr. Buenz’s office, giving directions as to the warships
needing supplies and whither the provision ships should proceed by
routes outside the regular freight lines. He kept urging upon Dr. Buenz
the necessity of haste, and even before the German Government advanced
the cash, the ships were chartered—others purchased—under bonds that
guaranteed payment to the owners in the event of seizure. Twelve or more
ships in all set forth from Atlantic ports, carrying coal and food
supplies bought with Hamburg-American cash.
The steamship _Berwind_, which had been chartered and loaded in a hurry,
was the first to sail. When some of the conspirators met in Dr. Buenz’s
office, there was hesitancy as to who should apply for clearance
papers—documents of which Dr. Buenz testified he knew nothing. They
finally told G. B. Kulenkampf, a banker and exporter, that the _Berwind_
was loaded with coal—she had coal and provisions—and told him to get the
clearance papers. He did so, swearing to a false manifest, as he
afterwards admitted. In getting such clearance papers, Germany’s agents
aimed to prevent the Allies from learning about the supply ships.
Germany desired, naturally, to carry on this work secretly in order to
deceive her enemies and prevent her adversaries from knowing where the
German cruisers were.
Such a ruse may be a legitimate trick in war, but the German Government
or her agents had no right to use the American Government in such an
enterprise. So men employed by the _Hamburg-American Line_ went to the
collector of the ports from which these ships sailed, making affidavits
as to the cargo—generally false—and the destination for which they
sailed—also false. On board these ships—the _Berwind_ and the _Lorenzo_,
sailing from New York presumably for Buenos Aires on August 5 and 6,
1914, respectively; the _Thor_ from Newport News for Fray Bentos,
Uruguay; the _Heina_ from Philadelphia in August, for La Guayra; the
_Mowinckle_, _Nepos_ and others—the officials put supercargoes bearing
secret instructions. These men had authority to give sailing orders to
the captains once they were outside the three-mile limit. They knew that
the ships were not bound for the ports designated, but to lonely spots
on the high seas, where they would lie in wait for the arrival of the
German cruisers, whose captains would receive the “tip” by wireless.
RISKY WORK FOR SKIPPERS
Very few of the supercargoes, however, accomplished their aims. The
_Berwind_ reached a point near Trinidad where Supercargo Poeppinghaus
directed the ship to lie to. Presently five German ships, the _Cap
Trafalgar_, _Pontus_, _Elinor Woerman_, _Santa Lucia_ and _Eber_
appeared, and after the task of transferring the supplies to them was
begun, the British converted cruiser _Carmania_ came up. A brisk fight
ensued between the _Carmania_ and the _Cap Trafalgar_, lasting for two
hours, and ending when the German ship sank.
One representative of the _Hamburg-American Line_ sought to use bribery
to effect his purpose. One of the ships chartered was the _Unita_, in
charge of Eno Olsen, a Canadian citizen of Norwegian birth. The German
supercargo made a mistake in thinking that Olsen was friendly to
Germany. When, however, the supercargo explained to him after they had
got out to sea, what the purpose of the cruise was, Captain Olsen
baulked.
“‘Nothing doing,’ I told the supercargo,” Captain Olsen testified, with
a Norwegian twist to his pronunciation. “So the supercargo offered me
$500 to change my course. ‘Nothing doing—nothing doing for a million
dollars,’ I told him.
“The third day out he offered me $10,000. ‘Nothing doing.’ So,”
concluded Captain Olsen with finality, “I showed him my citizenship
paper. I said the _Unita_ cleared for Cadiz; and to Cadiz she goes.
After we got there I sold the cargo and looked up the British Consul.”
The provisions for each ship were ordered under directions from the
_Hamburg-American_ officials who eventually provided the money. The
_Hamburg-American Company_ received three payments of $500,000 each from
the Deutsche Bank in Berlin. In addition, $750,000 was sent to Boy-Ed by
exchange through Kulenkampf’s firm, Wessels, Kulenkampf & Company, from
the Deutsche Bank, making $2,225,000 in all. Telling of the receipt of
the money, Kulenkampf testified:
“Some time after that, Captain Boy-Ed came to me and asked if I had
received money from Berlin. I said, ‘Yes,’ and he told me that it was
for him. I asked him to obtain instructions, and a little later I was
telephoned to hold the money at the disposal of Boy-Ed. I followed the
instructions of Captain Boy-Ed. He instructed me at different times to
pay over certain amounts, either to banks or to firms. I transferred
$350,000 to the Nevada National Bank in San Francisco, $150,000 to the
_North German Lloyd_, $63,000 to the _North German Lloyd_. That left a
balance of approximately $160,000, which was placed to the credit of the
Deutsche Bank with Gontard & Company, successors of my former firm. That
amount was reduced to about $57,000 by payments drawn by Captain
Boy-Ed’s request to the order of the _Hamburg-American Steamship
Company_.”
MONEY SPENT FREELY
How part of the money was spent is shown by the following account of
payments through the _Hamburg-American Line_:
Steamer Total Payment
Thor $113,879.72
Berwind 73,221.85
Lorenzo 430,182.59
Heina 288,142.06
Nepos 119,037.60
Mowinckel 113,867.18
Unita 67,766.44
Sommerstad 45,826.75
Fram 55,053.23
Graecia 29,143.59
Macedonia 39,139.98
Navarra 44,133.50
——————
Total $1,419,394.49
But Boy-Ed’s supervision of supplies to the raiders covered both the
Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans. While the _Hamburg-American_ took
charge of handling the supplies in the North and South Atlantic, another
German agency is accused of doing similar work on the Pacific. That
accounts for Boy-Ed’s transfer of money to the West, where his cash also
was used in the purchase of at least one ship. Boy-Ed’s funds, amounting
to more than $600,000, have been traced to the Pacific. In following
these payments it is important to observe how differently and more
cleverly Boy-Ed handled his money than von Papen. Unlike the military
attaché, he paid out little money by personal cheque; but he had
accounts with various commercial firms to whom he gave orders for
payments. Working with the ingenuity of an adept in covering up his
tracks, he caused money in large amounts to be shifted from one bank to
another, from one firm to another, through various cities until after
myriad devious turnings and twisting it finally reached its destination.
He used various commercial concerns as his bankers.
Out on the Pacific Coast, Boy-Ed employed members of the German
consulate to distribute the money and supervise provisioning. Two
indictments returned against Germans and others in San Francisco charge
that an effort was made to employ that port as a “naval base” for
provisioning the German raiders; that false manifests were filed for the
succouring of merchantmen; that supplies were transferred to the German
raiders. More than $150,000, it is specifically charged, was paid out
for this purpose by the German consulate.
The outfitting of the steamships _Sacramento_, _Olsen and Mahoney_,
_Mazatlan_ and the barque _Retriever_ are said to be charged to the
defendants. One device employed in San Francisco Bay to outwit the
Government officers watching for violations of the neutrality laws was
to fill the _Retriever_ with coal, and then announce that the vessel
would be used for an expedition on the high seas to take cinema pictures
of a stirring sea drama. But the officials were not hoodwinked. The
steamer _Sacramento_, formerly the German-owned _Alexandria_, which,
after the war started, was bought by the _Northern and Southern
Steamship Company_ and which flew the American flag, left port piled
high with supplies of all sorts, including sauerkraut and beer, and
reached Valparaiso, Chile, empty. All her supplies were transferred to
German cruisers and a German supply ship at Masefuero Island, near the
Chilean coast.
Captain Fred Jebsen, a lieutenant in the German naval reserve, took a
cargo of coal south on his boat, the _Mazatlan_, for delivery at
Guaymas, Sonora, Mexico. He transferred it to lighters, which carried it
to the German cruiser _Leipzig_. Jebsen also is said to have planned to
pilot a ship to India, and being frustrated, made his way in disguise to
Germany, where he is reported to have been drowned by the sinking of a
submarine. The _Olsen and Mahoney_, a steam schooner, was loaded with
supplies, but after considerable controversy with customs officials, was
unloaded. In the early days of the war, the cruisers _Leipzig_ and
_Nürnberg_ lay off San Francisco. The _Leipzig_ put to port for supplies
which were granted in quantities permissible under international law.
Efforts to supply still further quantities are alleged by the
Government.
One of the picturesque incidents of the provisioning, which reveals how
minutely Captain Boy-Ed looked after finances and sets forth other
phases of his work on the high seas, as directed from No. 11, Broadway,
is revealed in the piratical cruise of the good ship _Gladstone_,
rechristened under German auspices _Marina Quezada_. Her owner, when she
bobbed into the view of Captain Boy-Ed, was a Norwegian syndicate; but
what money was behind that group it has not been possible to learn.
Under the name of _Gladstone_, the ship had plied between Canada and
Australia; but shortly after the outbreak of the war she put into
Newport News. Then Captain Hans Suhren, a sturdy German formerly of the
Pacific coast, appeared in New York, called upon Captain Boy-Ed, who
took most kindly interest in him, and then departed for Newport News.
Here he assumed charge of the _Gladstone_.
“I paid $280,000 in cash for her,” he told First Officer Bentzen. After
making arrangements for his crew, he flitted back to New York, where he
received messages in care of “Nordmann, Room 801, 11, Broadway, N. Y.
C.” Meantime, in consultation with Captain Boy-Ed, the captain received
instructions to erect a wireless plant on his ship—the equipment having
already been shipped to the _Marina Quezada_—and to hire a wireless
operator. Boy-Ed handed Suhren a German naval code book, gave him a map
with routes marked out and sailing instructions that would take him to
the South Seas, there to await German cruisers. Food supplies, ordered
for a steamer which had been unable to sail, were waiting on the piers
at Newport News and Captain Boy-Ed ordered them put on the _Marina
Quezada_. Two cases of revolvers also were sent to the boat. In a like
manner, it may be observed, ships on the Pacific had been equipped
secretly with arms and wireless.
Again Suhren went back to his boat, kept the wireless operators busy,
hurried the loading of the cargo, which was under the supervision of an
employé of the _North German Lloyd_, and needing more money before
sailing in December, 1914, he drew a draft for $1,000 on the
_Hamburg-American Line_, wiring Hachmeister, the purchasing agent, to
communicate with “Room 801, 11, Broadway,” the office of our friend
Boy-Ed.
Prior to his departure, the skipper had difficulty with the registration
of his ship. Though he insisted he owned her, a corporation in New York
whose stockholders were Costa Ricans were laying claim to ownership, for
they really christened her, and got provisional registration for her
from the Costa Rican minister in Washington. It was necessary, however,
in order for the ship to get permanent registration, to go to Port
Limon, Costa Rica, and register there. So hauling down the Norwegian
flag, that had fluttered over the ship as the _Gladstone_, Captain
Suhren ran up the Costa Rican emblem. Then, having loaded his ship and
having obtained false clearance papers stating his destination as
Valparaiso, based upon a false manifest, sailed for Port Limon. But the
Costa Rican authorities declined to give Suhren permanent papers, and,
accordingly, being without authority to fly any flag and in such status
not permitted under international law to leave port, Suhren was in a
plight. He waited, however, until a heavy storm came up one night, then
quietly slipping his anchor, he sped out into the high seas, a veritable
pirate. Finally, as he neared Pernambuco, he ran up the Norwegian flag,
put into port and got into such difficulties with the authorities that
his ship was interned. His supplies never reached the raiders, and
Boy-Ed, at No. 11, Broadway, learned from Suhren of another fiasco.
Suhren is supposed to have been taken prisoner to Canada.
Had the _Hamburg-American_ officials carried out their part of the
enterprise by means of the false clearance papers—and the same applies
to Boy-Ed—a guest of the nation and to others engaged in the
project—they would have put the American Government in the position of
officially endorsing their work of deceit and stealth. “Is it a nice
thing,” asked Prosecutor Wood, “to have this Government endorse the lies
of these defendants?”
Boy-Ed, furthermore, violated the clause of _The Hague Conference of
1907, which says: “Belligerents are forbidden to use neutral ports and
waters as a base of naval operation against their adversaries.”_
QUEER WIRELESS CODES
Another operation that appealed to Captain Boy-Ed’s ingenuity was the
use of the wireless to frustrate the enemy. He had given implicit
instructions to Skipper Suhren in regard to the use of the wireless.
Members of the crew of the _Sacramento_ are accused of breaking the
Government seal and using the radio plant. The Government officials also
found such extensive misuse of the German-owned wireless plants in
America that they were obliged either to close them down or take them
over. The Sayville, Long Island, plant, finally was taken over and
operated by the government.
CUTTING IN ON MESSAGES
But Boy-Ed delighted in circumventing the Federal authorities. A few
instances have been published, but there remain hundreds of cases which
the Federal radio inspectors have uncovered. To Chief Flynn of the
Secret Service and Charles E. Apgar, an inventor, much credit is due for
detecting one ingenious method used by Boy-Ed and others for sending out
wireless messages. Apgar, an enthusiastic wireless operator, spent much
time “listening in” to the messages sent every night from the wireless
plants at Sayville, Long Island, to Germany. Finally he hit upon the
scheme of recording the splash and splutter of the radio in a
phonograph. After perfecting his device he began to “can” the Berlin
messages—coming and going—every night. Then reeling off these messages
on his phonograph, he would study again and again the dots and dashes of
each word. He observed that messages had been repeated by the Sayville
operator, that numbers were thrown in at intervals and finally that
between words there were gaps of varying lengths—all means undoubtedly
of sending messages in code—a new language of science invented by the
Germans. Many messages were sent by Boy-Ed, himself. It was after a
thorough study of these canned messages that the government began to
operate the Sayville plant itself.
FRAUDULENT PASSPORTS
Like von Papen, Boy-Ed was under orders to send spies to the
adversaries’ countries, to make arrangements for naval reservists to
return to Germany, all of which required the use of fraudulent
passports. While there have been charges that Germany had a factory for
forging passports and while the _New York World_ charged, at the time of
Boy-Ed’s recall, that he had dealings with a gang of forgers and
counterfeiters, who made passports, there is evidence that the naval
attaché did pay money to German reservists, who procured passports
fraudulently. One of these men was Richard Peter Stegler, a Prussian,
thirty-three years old, who had served in the German Navy, and
afterwards came to this country to start on his life work. Before the
war he had applied for his first citizenship papers; but his name had
not been removed from the German naval reserve list.
“After the war started,” says Stegler, a well-dressed young man with
rather stern features, “I received orders to return home. I was told
that everything was in readiness for me. I was assigned to the naval
station at Cuxhaven. My uniform, my cap, my boots and my locker were all
set aside for me, and I was told just where to go and what to do. But I
could not get back at that time and I kept on with my work.”
Stegler then became a member of the German secret service in New York.
“There is not a ship that leaves the harbour, not a cargo that is loaded
or unloaded, but that some member of this secret organization watches
and reports every detail,” he said afterwards. “All this information is
transmitted in code to the German Government.” In January, 1915, if not
earlier, Stegler was sent to Boy-Ed’s office, and there he received
instructions to get a passport and make arrangements to go to England as
a spy. Boy-Ed paid him $178, which he admits, but denies that it was to
buy a passport. Stegler immediately got in touch with Gustave Cook and
Richard Madden, of Hoboken, and made use of Madden’s birth certificate
and citizenship in obtaining a passport from the American Government.
Stegler has pleaded guilty to the charge and the two men were convicted
of conspiracy in connection with the project. Stegler paid $100 for the
document. Stegler, Cook and Madden each served a term on Blackwell’s
Island.
“I was told to make the voyage to England on the _Lusitania_,” continued
Stegler. “My instructions were as follows: ‘Stop at Liverpool, examine
the Mersey River, obtain the names, exact locations and all possible
information concerning warships around Liverpool, ascertain the amount
of munitions of war being unloaded on the Liverpool docks from the
United States, ascertain their ultimate destination, and obtain a
detailed list of all the maritime ships in the harbour.’”
NEW YORK, THE CENTRE FOR SPIES
“I was to make constant, though guarded inquiries, of the location of
the Dreadnought squadron which the Germans in New York understand was
anchored somewhere near St. George’s Channel. I was to appear as an
American citizen soliciting trade. Captain Boy-Ed advised me to get
letters of introduction to business firms. He made arrangements so that
I received such letters and in one letter were enclosed some rare stamps
which were to be a proof to certain persons in England that I was
working for the Germans.
“After having studied Liverpool, I was to go to London and make an
investigation of the Thames and its shipping. From there, I was to
proceed to Holland and work my way to the German border. While my
passport did not include Germany, I was to give the captain of the
nearest regiment a secret number which would indicate to him that I was
a reservist on spy duty. By that means, I was to hurry to Eisendal, head
of the secret service in Berlin.”
Stegler did not make the trip because his wife learned of the enterprise
and begged him not to go. He also had been detected by Federal Agent
Adams and was placed under arrest in February, 1915, shortly after he
decided to stay at home. In his possession were all the letters and
telegrams exchanged between him and Boy-Ed, none of which, however, said
anything about passports. There was one telegram from “Winko,” who was
Captain Boy-Ed’s servant.
LODY SENT TO DEATH
Stegler also said that he had been told that Boy-Ed previously had sent
to England Karl Hans Lody, the German who in November, 1915, had been
put to death as a spy in the Tower of London. Lody also had been in the
navy, had served on the Kaiser’s yacht and then had come to this country
and worked as an agent for the _Hamburg-American Line_, going from one
place to another.
Still another man who had a fraudulent German passport was a German
naval reservist, who had shipped as a hand on the freighter _Evelyn_
carrying horses to Bermuda. On one trip that he took, practically all of
the horses were poisoned and were lost. He, however, was arrested by
Federal authorities on the charge of using the name of a dead man in
order to get an American passport.
In passport matters and the handling of spies, Captain Boy-Ed was more
acute and more subtle than his colleague, von Papen. Nevertheless, the
Government officials succeeded in getting a clear outline of his
activities. It seems quite likely that after the arrest of Ruroede in
December, 1914, when suspicion was directed to von Papen as the
superintendent of the passport bureau, the management thereof was
switched to Boy-Ed. The exposure of Boy-Ed’s connection with Stegler
made it necessary for the German Government to change its system once
more.
Boy-Ed, as has been shown, had supervision of naval affairs and matters
pertaining to the sea. He issued information to the Press bearing on
Germany’s conduct of her naval warfare. He made pleas for an embargo on
the export of arms and ammunition. He received from Count von Bernstorff
all information which the Ambassador obtained bearing on that question,
and, on one occasion, the Count sent him a list of the countries which
had forbidden the export of war supplies.
The conviction throughout the country has been steadily growing, since
the exposure of von Papen’s methods, that Boy-Ed was not an innocent
associate of the military attaché. The Federal authorities, in fact,
have unearthed a large amount of evidence to show active participation
by Boy-Ed in these enterprises, for to him they simply were part of the
war of Germany on her enemies. Colonel Roosevelt, who has made a special
study of Germany’s crimes on neutral territories, has expressed the
sentiment of Americans in a speech at the Academy of Music, Brooklyn, on
January 30, 1916, in these words:
“The German and Austrian Governments through their accredited
representatives in the embassies here have carried on a campaign of bomb
and torch against our industries. The action our government should have
taken in view of this campaign was not action against Dumba, von Papen
and Boy-Ed, but the holding of the German and Austrian Governments
themselves responsible for every munition plant that was blown up or
damaged.”
The roll of Boy-Ed’s associates, as indicating his knowledge of plots of
violence, is illuminating. He employed Paul Koenig for a series of
secret activities. He was said to have known Captain Eno Bode, dock
superintendent of the _Hamburg-American Steamship Line_ in Hoboken, and
Captain Otto Wolpert, another dock superintendent, both of whom, it is
charged, were involved in a bond conspiracy.
Boy-Ed and von Papen, in many secret conferences on board the
_Vaterland_ in Hoboken, where they were sure of no eavesdroppers,
developed details of their war on America and the campaign of violence
on land and on sea to stop the carrying of munitions of war to England,
France and Russia. Von Papen superintended the campaigns on land and
projected his work upon the seas. The moment, however, the schemes, as
papers found in von Igel’s possession prove, had anything to do with the
sea, he consulted Boy-Ed.
INVOLVING AMERICA IN THE MEXICAN MUDDLE
One of the causes for the summary dismissal of both Boy-Ed and his
confrère, von Papen, from America, was their schemes to involve this
nation in a conflict with Mexico, to bring about American intervention
in that country and thus prevent America’s supply of explosives and
rifles from being used exclusively against Germany. Boy-Ed, prior to the
war, had opposed the suggestion of intervention, but he changed his mind
when he began to appreciate the fact that America in arms would take the
powder, high explosives and rifles that Europe was buying. He always was
a warm supporter of General Huerta, for, when von Papen was in Mexico,
getting acquainted with Huerta, Boy-Ed, addressing his colleague there,
wrote: “I was especially pleased by what you wrote about Huerta, the
only strong man in Mexico. In my opinion, Admiral von Hintze was not
quite right in his estimate of him. For Huerta can scarcely be such a
drunken ruffian as Hintze often implies, if only because a chronic
drunkard could hardly have kept so uncertain a position under such
uncommonly difficult circumstances. I met a number of people in Mexico
City who were in close touch with Huerta, and without exception they all
spoke very highly of the President’s patriotism, capacity and energy.”
PLANNING WAR WITH THE UNITED STATES
Of Boy-Ed’s schemes to do his share in preparing, from a naval
standpoint, for war between Germany and the United States, of the plots
to create disorganization in the American seaports and to render the
German merchantmen useless to Americans, much evidence has been gathered
by Federal investigators. Of his methods in getting information secretly
from the Navy Department and from battleships, of his placing spies,
ready for any deed of daring, on the warships, a greater amount of
information has been learned than ever will be made public by the
Government. Suffice it to say precautions already have been taken
against those schemes. All these formed the basis for the decision to
hand Boy-Ed his passport. Summing up Boy-Ed’s work for the Kaiser in
America, accordingly, we have his supervision of the shipment of
supplies to the German raiders, his activities in fraudulent passports
and his co-operation with Dr. Dumba. When President Wilson requested the
Kaiser to recall his military and naval representatives, he made the
announcement that his action was due to “their improper activities in
military and naval affairs,” a double-barrelled assertion applying to
both men.
Captain Boy-Ed, on his return home, received from the Kaiser the
decoration of the Order of the Red Eagle, third class, with sword, in
“recognition of his services in the United States.” He would
undoubtedly, for “those services,” except for the immunity granted him
as a member of a diplomat’s official family, be facing prison in the
United States with Dr. Karl Buenz and other officials of the Kaiser’s
own steamship line.