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Show i GERMAN STEAMER CECIUJS SAFE Great Liner Carrying Millions in American Gold Slips Quietly. Into Bar Harbor. FOREIGNERS EXCITED Captain Feared Capture by French Treasure to Be FvnropnJ D I. i New York. Bar Harbor. Me, Aug. 4. -The North German Lloyd steamer, Kron Prlnzessin Cecilie, carrying more than $10,nno,ono n gold, "and whose whereabouts have been a mystery j since she sailed from New York last) Tuesday, arrived in the harbor here today. The Cecilie dropped anchor at 61 o'clock this morning after a forced run of four days, her officers fear-1 ing capture. With a cargo of $10,000,000 in gold and a million in silver consigned to French and English bankers, with an estimated value of over five million in herself, the Kron Prinzessln Cecilie Ce-cilie has constituted probably the finest sea prize ever open to capture As Bhe crept along the Maine coast and into the harbor under the cover nf nip-lit parh rlpcl cinrl avarv nnrt- hole was bflrnkoted with canvas so that not a gleam of light betrayed her whereabouts. Her four stacks had been tipped with black paint so that she resembled an English steamship steam-ship At one time capture seemed imminent immi-nent Captain Charles Polack reported re-ported on Sunday that he had Intercepted Inter-cepted a wireless message from one French vessel to another gUfing warn ing of the Ceellie's proximity, but uiv der the protection of a fog the North German-Lloyd liner escaped. The Kron Prinzessin Cecilie left New York early last Tuesday morning bound for Bremen via Plymouth and Cherbourg. She had 350 first class, 130 second class and 736 steerage passengers About a third of the first class are Germans who sailed to anticipate the war crisis whose sudden preclpita tlon drove them back to America. Most of the rest are Americans Friday night, while a dance was in progress, one of the passengers noticed that the position of the moon had unaccountably shifted to the port side of the ship. Before the meaning of this was determined, the captain called the men into the smoking smok-ing room. "Gentlemen," he said, "war has been declared between England, Fra'uce, Germany and Austria, we are going back to America. We have enough coal for our return home and it Is my earnest hopp that we shall not be intercepted by foreign war vessels " There was nervous laughter, applause, ap-plause, oaths, congratulations, protests pro-tests which gave way to apprehension apprehen-sion as the seriousness of the situa tlon became apparent. Electric lights were turned off and the ship was covered from prow to stern In canvas This smothered whatever beams of light escaped through chinks in the state room win-dows. win-dows. According to the ship's log, she was then 4fi.4fi north latitude. 30.21 west longitude. In two days she would have docked at Plymouth A group of financiers on board of fered to buy the ship and sail her under American colors. But to all proposals the captain replied thut his 'duty was spelled by his orders from Bremen which instructed him to turn ! back and save his ship. Thpre was a stampede for thp wire- Captain Polack's explanation to a delegation of passengers who protested pro-tested against fast running under such conditions, was that it was his motive to save his ship from capture. Ho added that he did not consider the danger appreciable as he was not on the usual path. For a time the protest against what the passengers looked on as a peril to their lives threatened to take the form of a written demand that he reduce re-duce tbe speed of the ship When the vessel steamed safely into Bar Harbor he received a long line of passengers, who congratulated him on his achievement. Captain Polack is a lieutenant commander in the German naval reserves. At 9 o'clock today the Rhip was waiting the arrival of Boarding officers of-ficers Among the passengers were Congressman Con-gressman A J Barchfeld of Pennsv: van la, Congressman Richard Bart-holdt Bart-holdt of Missouri, C. Ledyard Blair of New York, Governor Charles R. Miller ofrv Delaware and Samuel New-house, the copper magnate of Utah and New I York. English Officer Chagrined. Colonel G F B. Cobbett. an Eng J lish military officer whose chagrin I at not being able to join the army was apparent to everyone on board, was one of the few English on the1 ship. There were a number of German Ger-man officors. Oral duels and miniature minia-ture international w arfare in the i smoking room helped to divert the minds of the passengers. Thp pool on the time of arrival In Plymouth was changed to gambling on the American port into which the ship would go. La6t night the betting bet-ting was even on landing on the New England coast. Governor Miller of Delaware believed be-lieved Newport would be the landing piace; men iew i otk Degan to De a favorite Boston. Portland and ports as far south as Hampton Roads also figured. It took several of the ship's officers offi-cers to restrain paasengers from crowding into the small launches that came to jhe ship's side this morning. A man who managed to get a news paper from one of the launches was all but mobbed Captain Polack said he was await Ing advices from his line offices In New York. "I can see no possibility of taking this ship to New York from here with safety," he said "To avoid foreign vessels we should have to keep within with-in the three limit and to accomplish this the ship would have to be built like a canoe. .We have reached an American port in safety and that was more than 1 had dared to hope. We have been In almost constant danger of capture and we can consider ourselves our-selves extremely lucky to have come out so well "I know I have been criticized for making too great speed under bad weather conditions, but I have not wilfully endangered the lives of the passengers I would rather have lost the whole ship and cargo than have assumed any such risk. Of course, aside from this consideration, ray one aim has been to save ray ship and my cargo from capture. "I have not been acting on my own initiative but under orders from the North German Lloyd in Bremen and although T am an officer In the German Ger-man navy, my duty has been to the steamship line." Finest Ship of Fleet. New York, Aug 4. The Kron Prlnzessin Cecilie is the finest ship of the North German-Lloyd fleet News of her safe arrival at Bar Harbor Har-bor was received at the line offices here in a telegram from Captain Polack. Po-lack. Until his message was received the line was apparently In the dark as to the vessel's movements since leaving New York harbor The gold aboard the vessel w-as consigned bv New York bankers to London and Paris. Officers on one of the great international banks concerned con-cerned said that the metal probably would be landed at Bar Harbor and returned to New York by express. Officials of the line said that the Cecilie had not been ordered back to port from this side of the Atlantic. Officials of one of the big bankt. less but the captain announced that no messages would be sent for fear of betraying the ships location The American port which the captain cap-tain would try to make was a matter for unlimited speculation It was not Until the passengers awoke this morning in sight of the green Maine hills that the liner's destination be came certain. For two nights, with her head and side lights extinguished, the Kron Prinzessin Cecilie plunged through the fog with unreduced speed and without sounding her fog horn, hero which was shipping more than $3,000,000 in gold on the liner expressed ex-pressed great disappointment over her return. Some of them said frankly frank-ly they would be glad it the vessel had been captured by the French In such an event, they thought, the French captors would have seen to It that the metal reached its destination Arrangements were being miide today to-day for the return of the gold to New York Apparently all efforts to have it shipped on any other vessol have been abandoned. |