In January 1917, two British steamships did not arrive at the port of destination. The disappearance of "Gladys Royal" and "Landy Island" at first did not cause much surprise - World War is raging in Europe, thousands of soldiers are killed on the fronts every day. Who cares about the fate of the two ships? What dreadful thing could happen to them? There are no German ships in the Atlantic - the Kaiser's fleet is securely locked in its bases. The steamers were probably delayed on the voyage, went for urgent repairs in some colonial port, ran aground or were thrown by a hurricane on the reefs … Shipwrecks are not uncommon, and there is no way to find out about the fate of a ship if it does not have a radio station.
The following month, the number of disasters in the Atlantic increased unusually - at the appointed time, four French barges, several schooners flying the flags of Great Britain, Italy and Canada did not arrive at the ports. The British steamer Horngarth disappeared in March.
- Sir, it seems we got a raider.
“Just the fantasies of the Sunday Times reporters. Not a single German ship is capable of breaking the blockade and entering communications in the Atlantic.
… the bowsprit of the French barque "Cambronne" collapsed with a crunch. Lieutenant Commander Count Felix von Luckner powerlessly clenched his fists: he had just ruined with his own hands another, ninth masterpiece of the sailing era. A month ago, von Luckner had to sink the Pinmore, the barque he sailed while serving in the civilian navy. The law of war is harsh - there is no place for nostalgia.
However, fate this time turned out to be favorable to the "Cambronne", the ship was lucky enough to stay alive. The Germans crippled the bark by cutting down the bowsprit and the topmast - this should have slowed its progress - for the time the French ship reaches the coast, the Seeadler will have time to leave the dangerous area of the ocean and leave in an unknown direction. On board "Cambronne" 300 prisoners were transported, taking from the captains their word of honor that they will not report any information about the German raider to the oncoming ships until they reach the Brazilian port.
At sunset on March 21, 1917, both ships peacefully parted their courses - the crippled and robbed "Cambronne" crawled to the nearest port, and "Seeadler" tore into the South Atlantic in full sail.
The sight of the Seeadler sailing under full sails impressed the captain of the Antonin bark so much that he ordered a photograph of the German raider to be taken - this picture is a reproduction of that very photograph.
The humane treatment of the prisoners had its effect - the crews of the sunken ships kept their promise, reporting their amazing adventures only upon arrival in Rio de Janeiro. Brazilian newspapers were filled with sensational stories about the "Sea Devil", the news agitated the British command, and a squadron of cruisers immediately went in search of the raider. Alas, it's too late. The Seeadler disappeared without a trace.
That they were in trouble, von Luckner realized back in February, after the capture of La Rochefoucauld. The crew of the French barque was not at all surprised by the German attack, saying that just a couple of days ago, La Rochefoucauld was searched by a British cruiser. It seems that the British are beginning to suspect something. Von Luckner decided to take the raider to the Pacific Ocean, where the enemy least expected a German attack.
The ocean struggled and sighed behind the thin hull of the side. Unnoticed by anyone, the Seeadler skirted Cape Horn and drifted farther and farther from her pursuers. Ahead lay thousands of miles of endless water surface and dozens of new victories in the name of Germany.
Felix von Luckner closed his eyes dreamily. The calculation of the command of the Kriegsmarine was fully justified - the three-masted sailboat turned out to be an excellent corsair. Perfect camouflage - no one would ever think that a sailing bark is capable of attacking steamers. The second important advantage is the absence of an unmasking smoke plume. The third point - "Seeadler" did not need bunkering and support ships, the supply of provisions was enough for a year of continuous sailing. There was also no shortage of ammunition - the specifics of the sailing corsair's work were far from the generally accepted ideas about the "smoke of sea battles." The dexterous, silent killer sent a dozen enemy ships to the bottom without a fight. During the raid "Seeadler" accidentally killed only one person - a sailor from the steamer Horngarth.
Von Luckner remembered the search in the North Sea. The patrol service of the British sea wolves was what they needed - as soon as the sailboat appeared on the horizon, the cruiser "Avenge" with a search group moved towards it. "Seeadler", pretending to be a Norwegian sailing ship, cordially let the British sailors on board, the captain presented all the necessary documents and a load of timber. The British, of course, did not dismantle the blockages of logs, otherwise they could find many interesting things - a pair of 105 mm guns, two tanks with 480 tons of diesel fuel and 360 tons of fresh water, an auxiliary diesel unit and even a "prison" for future prisoners.
The disguise did its job - the Seeadler did not arouse any suspicion among the British. Half of the raider's crew knew Norwegian, and Norwegian postcards hung on the walls of the cockpits.
However, according to the laws of the genre, the German plan almost fell through at the last moment: a strong squall pressed the British boat to the side of the Seeadler and dragged towards the stern. Another moment - and the British sailors will notice the propeller in the clear water. And they will understand that the Norwegian sailing ship "Irma" is not as simple as it seemed from the very beginning.
The situation was saved by one of the German sailors - a thin line whistled briefly in the air, hitting the back of the heads of the British sailors. From below, a flurry of selective battle flew - but the deed was done, enthusiastically scolding the "Norwegian sailors" sitting on the yards, the British did not notice the "Seeadler" propeller.
During an unprecedented 224-day raid, the Seeadler sailing ship sailed about 30 thousand nautical miles, destroyed three steamers and 11 sailing vessels (this does not include the freed French barque Cambronne)
Commander von Luckner chuckled. Another funny episode came to mind when they took the British Horngarth. Trying to get closer to the steamer, the Germans asked to tell them the time (this is a question! I would have asked how to get to the library). The German signal remained unanswered, then von Luckner went for a trick - a whole block of smoke bombs was lit on the raider's deck. The thick black smoke immediately attracted the attention of the British - the steamer rushed to the aid of the "burning sailing ship". And then he received a 105 mm projectile in the wheelhouse, which smashed the radio station. I had to surrender to the mercy of the winners.
The French were even more stupid - when they saw in the moonlight the signal “Stop immediately! Before you is a German cruiser! ", The captain of the Duplex bark decided that this was a funny joke of his colleagues, and boldly moved towards the raider. The French captain realized that he was grossly mistaken when a blasting charge knocked out the bottom of his ship, and he himself was locked in a cramped cabin for "guests of honor" aboard the Seeadler.
There were other moments that the commander von Luckner could not know about - his raider narrowly escaped death at Cape Horn. Suspecting the intentions of the elusive Seeadler, Her Majesty's fleet prepared a trap in the Drake Passage - an armed transport "Otranto", under the cover of armored cruisers "Lancaster" and "Orbit", lying in ambush in the nearest bay. "Seeadler" saved the case - a strong wind carried the sailboat to the south and the ships missed each other.
Time passed, and the trophies became increasingly scarce - during the month spent in the Pacific Ocean, only three American schooners A. Johnson, Slade and Manila. The supply of provisions and fresh water was rapidly melting - the 300 crew members of the sunken ships on board, before they were reloaded on the Cambronne, greatly reduced the supplies on board the Seeadler. Affected by the lack of vitamins - the Germans began to torment scurvy. Finally, the ship itself after a 30,000-mile raid fell into disrepair and needed urgent repairs and cleaning of the lower part of the hull.
Maupihaa Atoll
On July 28, 1917, von Luckner took his ship to the uninhabited Maupihaa atoll (French Polynesia), where it was planned to make a stop, resupply and rest the crew. Alas, this time the luck turned away from the brave sailors - while the Germans were drinking schnapps on the coast of the paradise island, a storm that had flown in tore off the Seeadler anchor and smashed it on the reefs. The history of the sailing cruiser ended there, but the history of its German crew was not.
Commander von Luckner, at the head of a small detachment of six, set off on a 10-meter longboat in the direction of Fiji, where they intended to seize a sailing ship, return for the rest of the crew and continue "plundering ships for the needs of their black soul." Pretending to be American tourists did not work for a long time - on the island of Wakaya, the pranksters were captured by the local police and sent to a prisoner of war camp in New Zealand. From where they soon fled, seizing a high-speed motor boat that belonged to the head of the camp (it is fair to say that the head of the camp himself allowed the Germans to "ride" on it). Along the way, the Germans captured a 90-ton scow "Mia" and, with the help of a homemade sextant and a map from a school atlas, reached the island of Kermadek, where they were again captured while trying to capture a larger ship.
The skeleton of "Seeadler"
At the same time, the members of the Seeadler crew who remained on Maupihaa did not waste time in vain - a French ship anchored at the atoll, which was immediately captured and renamed Fortuna. Despite its eloquent name, the ship did not differ in fortune, and was soon smashed against the rocks of Easter Island. The Germans made their way ashore, where they were immediately captured by the Chilean authorities.
Von Luckner met the end of the war in a New Zealand prisoner of war camp, after which he was repatriated to Germany in 1919. During the Second World War, he accomplished his only feat - he surrendered the garrison of the city of Halle to the advancing American troops. It is worth admitting that von Luckner did not like shedding blood very much. The hero himself died in Sweden in 1966 at the age of 84.
Wind Squeezers
The legendary German "Seeadler" (incorrect translation - "Sea Eagle", correct translation - "Eagle") belonged to the last generation of large commercial sailing ships, built at the end of the 19th century, the so-called. "Windjammers" (wind squeezers). Their design has been perfected. The completely steel hull made it possible to fulfill all the requirements of hydrodynamics - the ships received a large lengthening of the hulls, as a result, their speed radically increased, breaking all records of "tea clippers". The length of windjammers exceeded 100 meters, the displacement could reach 10 thousand tons - just phenomenal figures for sailing ships.
Huge steel masts raised the sails to a previously unimaginable height, and the area of the sail equipment increased significantly. To control the giant panels, steam or electric winches were used. Some of the Windjammers had a steam steering engine and even a telephone network. The golden era of the sailing fleet, masterpieces of shipbuilding!
Giant steel sailboats were unmatched on long ocean routes. Unlike the sooty steamers, the sailboat did not waste a single gram of coal during the entire voyage (however, many of them still had an auxiliary vehicle for special occasions). Moreover, the sailboat was faster - a fresh breeze accelerated the windjammer to 15 knots or more, which was twice the cruising speed of the steamers of those years.
The Windjammers competed successfully with steamers until 1914. With the opening of the Panama Canal, the sailing fleet was doomed, the Panama Canal changed all shipping routes in the New World. The situation of 1869, when the opening of the Suez Canal put an end to the era of "tea clippers", was completely repeated. The Suez and Panama Canals, impassable for the Windjammers, became a stumbling block for the sailing fleet. The handsome Windjammers resisted for about thirty more years, but their time was numbered - the smoking and rumbling steam engine confidently supplanted the white panels of the sails.
The four-masted barque "Kruzenshtern", the former German windjammer "Padua" (1926). Russian training sailing vessel, repeated participant in round-the-world expeditions.
