_PADANG_
On the twenty-third of November, early in the morning, the ship was
"cleared for action," for we were now getting near land, and it was
not at all improbable that we would run across an English or Japanese
torpedo boat destroyer coaling somewhere among the islands. For such
an emergency my plans were made. I intended to tack ahead of the
destroyer, which would certainly not be expecting an attack from us, to
bring up alongside of it by an apparently unsuccessful manoeuvre, and
then to grapple with the enemy at close quarters. To make the best use
of our armament we had cut four holes in the railing of the _Ayesha_
where the machine guns could be placed to some advantage, although
the rigging, with its lanyards and dead ends, would certainly be a
great hindrance. The rifles and pistols were taken up on deck, and the
ammunition was set within easy reach. As the machine guns had not been
used for some time, a shot was fired from each of them, to test them.
At ten o'clock in the morning the lookout at the masthead reported:
"Land in sight ahead." Just where we were, and what land we were
approaching, it was quite impossible for us to know, with the limited
means of navigation at our command. But to be near any land whatever
was a source of satisfaction to us. Gradually, one island after another
came in sight. By four o'clock in the afternoon we had got our bearings
sufficiently to know that we were just outside of Seaflower Channel,
and about eighty nautical miles from Padang.
Of Seaflower Channel we had no charts whatever; we only knew that it
abounded in reefs. As a calm always set in towards evening, and I dared
not venture to pass at night through this channel so unfamiliar to me,
we lay to, and slowly drifted seaward under reefed sails. Just before
sunrise we turned about, and steered for the Channel again.
Lookouts were stationed in the masts to watch the water for the change
in color that indicates the presence of reefs or shoals. With all
sails set, and with a light wind in our favor, we passed through the
Channel during the course of the day without meeting with any serious
difficulties in the way of navigation.
As we no longer had any reason to fear a shortage in our fresh water
supply before reaching Padang, the bottles of Seltzer water were
brought out, and one was given to each man, as an especial treat, and
probably afforded us more enjoyment than had a bottle of champagne
under ordinary circumstances. On that evening, just before seven
o'clock, our log registered the eight-hundredth mile.
Before the night was over, a final gale, with a rain like a veritable
cloud-burst, gave us considerable to do. As the day dawned, the high
mountains of Sumatra came in sight against the horizon. Unfortunately,
the wind was not only very light, but off shore also, and we could make
but little headway. The heat was so intense that towards noon a sail
had to be spread for an awning.
Our supply of tobacco had given out entirely by this time. The men
smoked tea leaves as a substitute. The officers tried it also,
but--bah, the devil was welcome to it! The crew seemed to get
considerable enjoyment out of it, however.
As a guide for the run into Padang, between all the many reefs and
islands, we had drawn a chart for ourselves according to information
gathered from an antiquated sailors' hand-book that some one had raked
up. Although this chart could lay no claim to being either accurate or
complete, it was nevertheless better than none. During the evening we
saw, on one of the islands that we passed, a beacon which was wholly
a surprise to us. Before the night was over the long-looked-for
flash-light of Padang came in sight, but we passed it at a great
distance. Much to our regret, the current, instead of taking us toward
land, was steadily carrying us farther out to sea, and, with the light
breeze that was blowing, to tack was out of the question. By morning,
therefore, we were five nautical miles farther off shore than we had
been on the previous evening.
The strait in which we now were is the highway for all ships. We had
little desire to remain here, if for no other reason than that we were
very likely to encounter some hostile cruiser. By this time a complete
calm had set in. We therefore lowered our two jolly-boats, the smaller
one manned by one, the larger boat by two men, hitched them to our
_Ayesha_, and so attempted to make some headway. For the men at the
oars, this was no light task, exposed as they were to the full rays of
a tropical sun, as they sat unprotected from it in the open boats. We,
on board, were not idle either. The oars of the _Emden's_ two cutters,
which we had with us, were fetched out and tied together by pairs, so
as to lengthen them, and with these we proceeded to row the _Ayesha_.
Although it cannot be said that we attained the speed of a fast mail
steamer in this way, we did, however, make some progress.
On the following day a light wind did at last set in, and relieved us
of this strenuous labor. In the distance, near the coast, we saw a
number of steamers that were evidently either entering or leaving the
port of Padang. One of these roused our interest more than any of the
others, because she apparently did not change her position at all,
and so was evidently laying to, as the great depth of water in this
vicinity precludes the possibility of anchoring. As we drew near to the
vessel, we could make out with some degree of certainty that she was
not a merchantman. She appeared to be a small warship of some kind--a
gun-boat, or a torpedo-boat destroyer, and flew a flag which we could
not distinguish, because of its great distance from us.
Suddenly, the ship that had been lying so motionless began to move.
Thick clouds of smoke poured from the smoke-stacks; she turned sharply,
headed for us, and approached at high speed. In a short time we
recognised the war flag of the Netherlands flying at the masthead. As
we had no desire to drop our incognito as yet, and as we were sailing
in free waters, there was no reason why we should show our colors. We
therefore quickly gathered up all our rifles, and, together with our
artillery equipment, stowed them away below decks. All the men quickly
disappeared down the main hatchway, which was closed after them. The
wildest looking one of the sailors and myself were the only ones who
remained in sight. That we both belonged to the Imperial Navy no one
would ever have imagined, as our clothing was so scant that we would
much more readily have been sized up as belonging to the war fleet of
some one of the island kingdoms of the Pacific.
Before long, the torpedo-boat destroyer was close beside us, and began
to evince an interest in us, which, inexplicable from the first, soon
became extremely embarrassing. At a distance of fifty meters she slowly
passed by. On the commander's bridge stood all the officers, each
provided with marine glasses, through which they examined our ship
with great curiosity. From the lively conversation that was going on
between the officers, we concluded that they were talking about us.
The destroyer passed around us, close under our stern, and all the
binoculars were turned toward our ship's name, which had long since
disappeared under a coat of the thickest white paint. We were just
congratulating ourselves that we had bluffed her, when, at a distance
of 5000 meters, she suddenly turned, and lay to. At this, I could not
rid myself of the thought that we had been expected.
At the destroyer's approach we had got our war flag ready to run up,
for if we had been spoken, we would, of course, have replied by a
display of our colors.
In the course of the afternoon our attendant, whom by this time we
had identified by the ship's name as the Dutch destroyer, _Lynx_,
left us, and disappeared in the direction of Padang. In our cheerful
but overhasty conclusion that she was preceding us into port to give
notice of our coming, so that maids of honor might be in waiting, and
triumphal arches be prepared for us, we were doomed to disappointment,
however.
By nightfall we lay close before the small, flat coral islands that
lie in front of the entrance to the harbor. We could see the lights of
a steamer that was coming out of the harbor. Another was moving into
port. We looked upon both of them with suspicion, as we supposed one
of them to be our companion of the foregoing afternoon. We therefore
carefully screened the _Ayesha's_ lights. We had made no mistake,
for in signaling to the incoming steamer, the outgoing ship revealed
herself to be our old acquaintance, the _Lynx_. To our regret, she
had sighted us in spite of all the precaution we had taken. Again she
became our close companion, and for a while her green and red side
lights could be seen immediately astern, at a distance of not more
than one hundred meters. We felt truly sorry for the _Lynx_. It must
have been very irritating to her to have to trundle behind us at the
wonderful speed of one nautical mile, a speed which, with the light
breeze blowing, the _Ayesha_ could not exceed. The engineers at the
1000 horse-power engines of the _Lynx_ probably wished us elsewhere
more than once that night.
In so far as our problems of navigation were concerned, the presence
of the _Lynx_ was a distinct advantage to us, for we were sailing in
waters with which we were wholly unacquainted, but we could feel
perfectly sure that wherever the _Lynx_ could float, we could also. We
knew that if we were nearing a shoal, our escort would retreat in time,
and we could then turn and follow her.
Otherwise, however, her companionship was little to our liking, for it
gave us the appearance of a disreputable little vagabond being brought
in by a burly policeman. As we were a warship, we had no intention
of allowing ourselves to be thus escorted. I therefore determined to
communicate with the _Lynx_ by signal. For this purpose I had a white
bull's eye lantern, that usually hung in the men's quarters, brought
on deck. In front of this lantern we held a board, and by raising and
lowering it, we gave our Morse signals. By means of this apparatus of
high technical development, we conveyed to our escort the message in
English, "Why are you following me?" Although the _Lynx_ acknowledged
our signal as having understood it, we received no reply to our
question. After a half hour had passed without an answer, we resorted
to our Morse signal again, but this time asked in German, "Why do you
follow me?" And again the signal was acknowledged, but no answer given.
Shortly afterward, however, the _Lynx_ increased her speed, and steamed
off. For another whole day the poor _Lynx_ had to dog our footsteps,
for the wind continued to fail us.
When, on the following day, the _Ayesha_ had carried us within the
limits of Dutch territorial waters, we immediately ran up our war flag
and pennants. The _Lynx_ did not again draw near to us, but kept at a
distance of several thousand meters.
Toward noon we found ourselves in a position of some peril. We were
aware that we were now in a region of submerged reefs over which a
vessel of even our light draught could not pass in safety, but of the
exact location of these reefs we knew nothing. To our great relief, a
little Malay sail-boat came alongside, and brought us a native pilot,
whom I was glad to employ. The only prospect of remuneration that I
could hold out to him was through our consul, as the entire amount
of cash on board consisted of a shilling and twopence, which we had
found in a pocket-book that the former captain had forgotten to take
with him, and which we had confiscated for the benefit of the Imperial
treasury. In marked contrast to the impression we made on the Dutch--as
developed later--this Malay pilot, who seemed to us to be a very
intelligent person, was from the outset untroubled by any doubt of our
status as a German warship, for he at once declared himself willing to
accept our promise of a later payment through the German consul.
Hardly had the pilot come alongside, when the _Lynx_ made a dash for us
at high speed. As we had no idea what her intentions were, I ordered
the war flag, which had been lowered in the meantime, to be run up
again. In order to impress the _Lynx_ more fully with the fact that
she was dealing with an Imperial ship of war, I ordered the salute
customary between warships to be given, as she sped past us at a
distance of about sixty meters. Our entire crew stood at attention on
deck, and our officers saluted. The _Lynx_ at once returned our salute
in like manner.
Just before running into the harbor, I flagged a signal to the _Lynx_,
saying, "I am sending a boat." Then I donned my full-dress uniform--my
khaki brown landing suit from the _Emden_, of which I had been most
careful--and went on board the _Lynx_.
Her commander received me at the gangway ladder, and escorted me to
the mess-room. I opened the conversation, saying that we had felt much
flattered at the lively interest he had shown in us during the past
day and a half, that we were a landing squad from the _Emden_, and
were on the way to Padang with His Majesty's ship, _Ayesha_, that at
Padang we wished to repair damages, and relieve the distress on board
by replenishing our store of provisions and our water supply. I then
inquired whether he knew of any reason why we could not run into the
harbor. To this the commander replied that he had orders to accompany
us, that there was nothing to prevent us from running into the harbor,
but that in all probability we would not be allowed to run out again;
that these matters would, however, be decided by the civil authorities
on shore, and that he could give us neither further, nor more definite,
information.
I represented to him that the _Ayesha_, being a warship, could leave
the harbor at any time, and that no one had the right to detain us.
Then I added in jest: "I hope you and I will not get into a fight when
I run out."
As I left the destroyer, I saw the _Ayesha_ for the first time from
a distance, and under full sail. I must say that she made a capital
appearance, and looked very pretty, even though the patched and torn
sails she carried were little in harmony with the pennant and war flag
of the German Empire.
Just before we reached the entrance to the harbor, a small steam tug
came out to meet us. It was bringing the harbor master, who was coming
to show us where to drop anchor. He indicated a place quite far out.
It was my intention, however, to get as close as possible to the
steamships lying in the harbor, for even now I could distinguish the
German and Austrian flags flying on some of them. I therefore told the
harbor master that I would rather not anchor so far out, but would like
to run farther into the harbor. It was not a sufficiently sheltered
place for my ship, I explained, and furthermore, that it required
a great length of chain to anchor in water of that depth. That our
chains were in fact quite long enough to reach to the bottom of water
six times as deep, I did not feel obliged to tell him. By and by his
objections were overcome by argument in plain German. But, as we got
farther in, he demanded very insistently that we anchor at once. Now
it chanced that by a mishap the two topsails, the very ones by which
a ship makes the most headway, absolutely refused to come down. Again
and again the sheets and halyards hitched, so that, as was my original
intention, we had come close up to the steamers before we found it
possible to anchor.
As soon as the _Ayesha_ lay at anchor, I sent my senior officer,
Lieutenant Schmidt, on shore to report our arrival officially, and to
make my wishes known to the authorities. At the same time, the German
consul was asked to come on board. Furthermore, I announced that, in
accordance with international custom, no one would be allowed to come
on board without the permission of the government authorities, nor
would any one from the ship be permitted to go ashore.
Soon the _Ayesha_ was surrounded by boats coming from the German ships.
There were the _Kleist_, the _Rheinland_, and the _Choising_ of the
Lloyd line, besides an Austrian ship. They all had their top flags set,
and greeted us with a "Hurrah." Cigars, cigarettes, tobacco, watches,
clothing, poems, letters, and, what we wanted most of all, German
newspapers, were thrown to us. That these were old, none later than
the second of October, and it was now the twenty-seventh of November,
mattered little. They were most welcome, for up to this time, the only
news that we had obtained was from the English papers that we had
found on board the English steamers that the _Emden_ had raided. All
that we had heard of the war, therefore, were the widely disseminated
Reuter tales of horror such as:--The Russians near Berlin--the Kaiser
wounded--the Crown Prince fallen--suicide epidemic among German
generals--revolution in Germany--the last horse slaughtered--complete
rout on the western front, and the like. Together with the newspapers,
many pictures had been thrown on board also, and, on coming into the
cabin and mess soon afterward, I found the walls covered with pictures
of the Kaiser, the chief of the fleet, the Secretary of State for the
Imperial Navy, and others, which the men had tacked up for decoration.
At first the Dutch government authorities made trouble for us, as they
were not disposed to accord us the status of a warship, but intended
to regard us as a prize of war. Against this, I made an instant
and vigorous protest by declaring that it was only to my superior
officers in Germany that I would have to account for my right to
command this ship. At the same time I asked permission to take aboard
water, provisions, ropes, sailcloth, clothing, nautical charts, and
the simplest toilet necessities, such as soap, tooth brushes, hair
brushes, shoe polish, etc. The German consul took charge of this. The
"neutrality officer," especially appointed by the Dutch government
to look after such matters, immediately wired to Batavia to get his
orders concerning us direct from the authorities there. Altogether, the
impression I received was that every effort was being made to hold the
_Ayesha_, and to intern the officers and crew. It was very evident that
the local authorities were much disturbed, and feared complications
with Japan or England, if we were allowed to leave.
[Illustration: VON MÜCKE]
The person most concerned, and the one with whom the decision lay,
seemed to be the harbor master, a subaltern official, and a Belgian
at that. When the afternoon had well nigh passed, and the things
ordered for the ship had not arrived, I requested the senior Dutch
commander at Padang to order the goods to be delivered at once, as, in
conformity to the neutral code, I would have to run out of the harbor
within twenty-four hours. Finally, at seven o'clock in the evening, a
part of what had been ordered arrived, and with the things came the
neutrality officer. He made every possible effort to induce me to allow
officers and crew to be interned. As I had foreseen this, my officers
had been asked to be present and take part in the conversation, so that
he might be convinced from the beginning that the _Ayesha's_ officers
were unanimous in refusing to consider his proposition.
In the first place, the neutrality officer represented to me--in so far
as I could see, by advice from Batavia--how wholly impossible it would
be for us to get away, as it was forbidden to deliver either marine
charts, or nautical books. There were many other things also with which
we could not be supplied, such as clothing, for instance, since, to
provide us with these, as well as with soap, tooth powder, etc., would
be to "increase our war strength."
As it had now been three weeks since any of us had been able to
brush our teeth, we decided that this hardship could be endured a
little longer. Nor had the one comb we possessed failed to serve our
modest demands. As the harbor master had seen that my men were going
almost naked for want of clothing, and as he also was aware that we
had no marine charts, I could but conclude that there was intention
in refusing us these very necessary articles. When I persisted in
my determination to sail with or without charts, I was told that we
could not escape capture if we ran out, as the waters round about were
being scoured by Japanese and English cruisers; that it had only been
by a lucky chance that we had escaped capture so far, and that we
would surely be caught if we put to sea again; that the _Emden_ had
acquitted herself well enough, and that no one would criticize us if
this hopeless attempt were abandoned. It is needless to say that we
absolutely refused to be moved by all this persuasion.
Meanwhile, the provisions had been delivered and stowed away on board,
and the ship made ready to weigh anchor, the only hindrance to our
departure being the ten live pigs that we had taken with us, for they
persisted in standing just where our anchor chain was being hove up. At
eight o'clock in the evening we left our anchorage.
From the Dutch papers that we received a few weeks later, we learned
that the people had occupied themselves with various speculations
as to what we were going to do, and where we were bound. They might
have spared themselves the trouble of these speculations if they had
listened as we departed, for the answer to the question whither we were
going and what were our intentions, was born back to them upon the
breeze, as the _Ayesha_ vanished into the night:
"To the Rhine, the Rhine, the German Rhine,
To guard its sacred boundary line!"