OCR Text |
Show YOUNG STOWAWAY SAFE IN CELL Officials Trying to Fathom Motive of German Who Held Up British Captain Cap-tain and Crew. ADMITS HE IS A SPY Spent Three Weeks in Preparing Prepar-ing for Holdup of the Ma-toppo Ma-toppo Captain Tells Story. Lewes, Del , March 31. Ernest Schiller, the young German who captured cap-tured tho British steamer Matoppo and terrorlrjed her crew of 56 men on Wednesday night shortly after the ship had sailed out of New York harbor har-bor for Vladivostok with railroad supplies sup-plies for tho Russian government declared de-clared today that he was a spy for the German government. Weary from excitement undergone in his efforts to escape from the steamer yesterday after ho had held tho crew in his power with pistols all of Wednesday night, he threw himself upon a cot in tho Lewes jail early today and sought sleep. Admits Being Spy. "Yes I am a spy for the German governmont" ho said. 'You can believe be-lieve it or not it makes no difference to me. I got my Instructions from tho German government to go aboard tho ship and blow her up to prevent her cargo from reaching Russia. I could have blown her up but the captain's plea for his wife and daughter was too much for me and I hadn't the heart to do It. I am ready to take the consequences but I ask that they keop me ashore Instead of sending me back to the ship for the captain to take me in charge." Schiller had been told that as his daring oxplolt occurred outside the three mile limit, he would In all likelihood like-lihood be taken to British possessions in the West Indies for trial for piracy Federal authorities and representatives representa-tives from the British government came hero today to examine Schiller and to decide what to do with him An examination Into Schiller's men- .. I'll Ml l. a1a TUftnn 1111 (JOIHUUUU Will UU uiuut. J. uuiiv, who have talked with him believe he Is irresponsible and that his story of his career Is not true. Reluctant to Tell History. j Schiller was reluctant to tell his history. his-tory. "I was born in Germany" he said. "Never mind tho town or my parents' name. I have been In this country one year, In New York three weeks. I was sent by the German government gov-ernment to England soon after the war started, and at Germany's request I enlisted in the British navy and was assigned to the training ship Conway at Liverpool "I want to say right now that there are several thousand Germans In the British navy. I know whnt this means to me. It's the Tower of London Lon-don if they get me back to the Matoppo. Matop-po. But I won't go, Just bear that in mind." Captain Richard Bergner of the Matoppo said he is convinced that Schiller is a former naval officer. Lewes. Delaware, March 31. The young stowaway who, single handed, captured the British steamship Mat tappo forcing the captain and crew of 5G men to divert the vessel from its course and land here yesterday afternoon, rested calmly in the cell in the town jail here today whllo the British consul-general at Philadelphia and United StateB officials endeavored endeav-ored to fathom the motive of his alleged al-leged act of piracy. Despite his assertions that ho had not concealed any bombs on the Mat-tappo Mat-tappo and had mode threats to blow up the ship merely to frighten the captain and hio crew to obejing his commands, a thorough search of tho cargo of barbed wire and farm implements im-plements will be made before the vessel ves-sel pioceeds to Vladivostok Was After Money. The alleged pirate declares that his identlt must remain as a mystery. "I prefer to be known as Schiller," he said. lie denied that ho was actuated actu-ated by patriotic motives but was after aft-er the 2000 pounds winch he believed v.as in tho vessel's safe. In describing his experience: "I speut three weeks in Hoboken preparing for this. I "went along the dockB buying drinks for tho sailors and learning from them what ships were sailing with contraband. "1 lay in the lifeboat on the upper deck, waiting for the ship to snll from Thursday until tho following Wednesday night. For two days I did not eat. I had only brought some sandwiches with me but I stuck it out" Is Not Simple Minded. Although Dr. W. R. Messick, who examined tho prisoner after he had been captured by the crew of tho federal fed-eral coast guard launch as was being convoyed ashore from the Matappo, declares that he believes the man is mentally Irresponsible, Captain Bergner Berg-ner says he "is far from being simple sim-ple minded." "This fellow may act tho fool now," Bergner said, "but he is far from being be-ing simple minded as you will see by what happened. We left New York, Wednesday evening, and had passed the Sandy 'Hook light at 3 o'clock when I was in my cabin. Wo were bound for Vladivostok with railroad rail-road material for tho Russian government govern-ment and had a crow of fifty-six men of which only fourteen wore Englishmen. English-men. The others are Chinese and coolies. Shouts "Hands Up!" "Suddenly a voice from the dark shouted: 'Hands up.' I turned and faced Schiller with two largo revolvers revolv-ers poinded at me. 'I have your vessel ves-sel planted with bombs. You do as I tell you, or you and your whole crew and ship will go down in tho less than two minutes. You have two thousand pounds sterling in your safe uuu j. wuui crcij muuu v. v- "I protested that I had only ten poundB " 'We will soon see what you have' said Schiller and produced a paper chart of my ship, on which ho indicated indi-cated where tho money was supposed to be. His chart of the ship was all right but the cash box he demanded held only ten pounds instead of two thousand. Then he went over all the papers In the box. "'Look here, captain, your papers say you carry barbed wire. That's contraband and I am within my rights in sinking you,' Schiller said. Covers Second Engineer. "Just then the second engineer came and Schiller covered him, too, with his guns and ordered him to produce his papers and to fasten me. Then he asked for the wireless and, locking me in my cabin, ho went to the wireless station and covered the two operators before they could send out any message. Before he returned to my cabin with the wireless operators opera-tors ho smashed the wireless apparatus. appara-tus. He locked the wireless operat- i . - - - . . . . |