Current History, Vol. VIII, No. 3, June 1918: A Monthly Magazine of the New York TimesVarious
History
Current History, Vol. VIII, No. 3, June 1918: A Monthly Magazine of the New York Times
Various
World War, 1914-1918
They brought ashore everything they could from their wrecked ship,
including planks and beams, of which they constructed barracks; also
provisions, machine guns, and wireless apparatus. The heavy guns were
put out of commission--likewise the ship's motor. The wireless plant, a
very powerful one, was set up between two cocoanut trees. It was
equipped with sending and receiving apparatus, and without difficulty
its operator could hear Pago-Pago, Tahiti, and Honolulu.
On Aug. 23 Count von Luckner and five men set out in an armed motor
sloop for the Cook Islands, which they reached in seven days. There they
succeeded in deceiving the local authorities, but a few days later they
and their boat were captured in the Fiji Islands by the local
constabulary and handed over to the British authorities. Thus ended the
Captain's hope of seizing an American ship and returning to Mopeha for
his crew.
On Sept. 5 the French schooner Lutece from Papeete arrived at Mopeha to
get the three Tahitians and their crops. First Lieutenant Kling took a
motor boat and a machine gun and captured the schooner, which had a
large cargo of flour, salmon, and beef, with a supply of fresh water.
Kling and the rest of the Germans, after dismantling the wireless, left
the island that night, abandoning forty-eight prisoners, including the
Americans, the crew of the Lutece, and four natives. Before going they
destroyed what they could not take with them, cut down many trees to get
the cocoanuts more easily, and left to the prisoners very scant
provisions, and bad at that. The few cocoanuts that remained were
largely destroyed by the great number of rats on the island. There was
plenty of fish and turtles.
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