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Show I oo BOW THE APPAM WAS CAPTURED Thrilling Story of the German Raider Which Arrived at Newport News. Norfolk, Va., Feb 2 Under tho guns of Fortress Monroe last night is moored the Elder-Dempster liner Appam. Ap-pam. She started out from Dakar, West Africa, for Liverpool, under the union jack. Then sho disappeared Two weeks ago she was reported missing and later hope for her was practically abandoned. This morning bhe steamed between the Virginia ertpes. the German naval ensign at her masthead Her captain, crew and passengers and the skippers and crews of seven other British ships were aboard her under the absolute control of a German Ger-man prize crew of twenty-five men. Lieutenant Hans Berge in command. Lieutenant Berge reported to Collector Col-lector of Customs Norman R. Hamilton Hamil-ton that the Appam had been captured cap-tured by the German man-of-war Moewe on January 1G The capture took place In the vicinity of the Canary Ca-nary islands Prisoners Rescued. Ruled by the prize crew were more than 400 persons. There were also twenty German civilians ci-vilians who were being brought on to Interment camps in England when tho mysterious sea raider delivered them. The Appam also brought news of a bloody battle at sea on the day lifter lif-ter her own capture between the Moewe and the Australian froightcr Clan McTavish. The Clan McTavish was sunk and fifteen of her crew killed or Injured. Four of the wounded wound-ed men are on board the Appam. Government officers havo notified the German officer that hiB vessel must remain where it is until Its status stat-us has been decided. He has been allowed to take aboard certain supplies. T'he Appam was almost al-most entirely out of food and fuel when sho reached Hampton Roads. Romantic Story. Whon tho Appam steamed into port this morning she brought with her a story that Is yet to be told in full detail, but which brings back all the romance of those other days when pirates pi-rates roved the Spanish main seeking rich galleons. In command of tho prize ship is a short, stocky German. Lieutenant Hans Berge. He has red hair and a bristling red mustache. lie is a man of action, not a man of words. With twenty-one men he brought a ship with 425 citizens of an enemy nation aboard across thousands of miles of ocean through lanes of hostile warships. war-ships. Before going on board the Appam he had been second in command of the Moewe, a ship of myBtery. It came from "somewhere" and it is "somewhere" now. But whence it came or whither it has gone time alone will tell. Even its class is not known whether it was a warship or a converted merchantman All that is known is that the Moewe found itself it-self off the coast of mid-Africa in the middlo of January. Here is Its talo for the next few days' Tale of the Moewe. On January 11, steaming along in the tropical African waters, the Moewe sighted the British steamship Farrlngford, laden with 5000 tons of copper ore. A shot across the bows brought tho Farrlngford to a stop. There was little time wasted. The British officers and crew were transferred trans-ferred to the Moewe and a shot sent the merchantman to the bottom. On the same day the Moewe met and captured the British steamer Corbridge, carrying 6000 tons of coal. Needing coal badly, the raider soon had taken aboard tho Corbridgc's compartment and attached tho ship itself as a collier. Two days passed. Then on the morning of January 13 the Moewe met and captured the British steamship Drummondy, an admiralty transport bearing 5000 tons of coal. She transferred trans-ferred as much of the coal as possible and sent the Drummondy to the bottom, bot-tom, and transports officers and crew Joining the rest of the prisoners in tho Moewe's brig. A few hours later there appeared on the horizon the British steamship Arthur. Ar-thur. The Arthur carried a general cargo. When she sank the Moewe was supplied for months. Ship's Busy Day. The thirteenth was a busy day for the Moewe. Only a little while after tho Arthur had sunk beneath the waves, another ship was sighted. She was the British vessel Trader, also an admiralty transport. She carried 6000 tons of sugar destined for the British forces at the Dardanelles. There was little parley with the Trader. Even as her officers and men were pulling for the Moewe in small boats a three-Inch shell beneath the water lino sent her down head -first Then a day passed. Next, in the early morning of January Janu-ary 15, the Moewe sighted another British vessel She was the steamer Ariadne, with 5000 tons of wheat aboard for the troops in Egypt. There was no formality. Tho Ariadne's skipper skip-per and crew were taken off. The Ariadne sought rest with the other ships which had met the Moewe 6n her strange voyage. The Moewe was rapidly losing hpr worth as a raider, however. Amply victualled and empty of coal, she was still so crowded with prisoners that her position was becoming uncomfortable uncom-fortable And. so on January 16, she came upon the Appain. She had been expecting ex-pecting the Appam had laid in wait for her, but when the Appain failed to show up at the expected time it was feared that she had escaped. Appam Is Sighted. The Appam was a distinctly British ship. She was heavily loaded with an SOOO-ton cargo and was making her way stolidly northward, aboard her a passenger list of British citizens and colonial officers. There was nothing to disturb the calm of the voyage German submarines had never pene trated those waters, the German raiders raid-ers had been swept from the seas Brlttania ruled the waves. A shot across her bows startled the tppam. She laid to. A German crew 'camo aboard. It was not known at first what to do with the lateBt victim. Finally, it was decided to transfer as much of the Appam's cargo as was needed to the Moewe, to place the passengers on board the war-jhlp on the Appam nnd to send her forth to seek a port. f This was done. Tho prisoners num. i bered 13S. They taxed the Appam to capacity. And now the Moewe is left behind to her adventures. The crulso of the Appam begins. It is only known that the Appnm was captured "somewhere." The placo is belloved to have been near the Canary Can-ary Islands. At any rate, the Moewe, just on the edge of the horizon, trailed the Appam Ap-pam for forty-eight hours, as If fearing that trouble might come. And thus it was that the passengers and prisoners prison-ers of the Appam saw a bloody fight at sea in which the British steamship Clan McTavish was wiped from the lists. Thrilled By Battle. The Clan McTavish was an Australian Austral-ian freighter carrying 10,000 tons of geneal cargo Sho offered resistance when fired upon by the Moewe A stiff battle ensued. Tho Clan McTavish McTav-ish went down. The Appam, which had stood off at a distance, her pa3-sengers pa3-sengers thrilled by the battle, picked up four wounded members of the Clan McTavish's crew These men wero brought Into port today They wero the only ones on board who needed medical attention. After the Incident of the Clan McTavish Mc-Tavish the Moewe fell off, disappeared disappear-ed below the horizon and tho Appam ; was alone. |