Then trouble arose over the ship's registry. Though Suhren insisted that he owned her, a corporation in New York whose stockholders were Costa Ricans were laying claim to ownership, for they had christened her and had secured provisional registration from the Costa Rican minister in Washington. Permanent registry, however, required application at Port Limon, Costa Rica. So hauling down the Norwegian ensign that had fluttered over the ship as the _Gladstone_, Captain Suhren ran up the Costa Rican emblem. He had obtained false clearance papers stating his destination as Valparaiso. They were based upon a false manifest, and he sailed for Port Limon. The Costa Rican authorities declined to give Suhren permanent papers, and he found himself master of a ship without a flag, and in such status not permitted under international law to leave port. He waited for a heavy storm and darkness, then quietly slipping his anchor, he sped out into the high seas, a pirate. Off Pernambuco he ran up the Norwegian flag, put into port and got into such difficulties with the authorities that his ship and he were interned. His supplies never reached the raiders and Boy-Ed learned of another fiasco. The _Lorenzo_, _Thor_ and _Heine_ were seized at sea. The _Bangor_ was captured in the Straits of Magellan. Out of twelve shiploads of supplies, only some $20,000 worth were ever transshipped to German war vessels. This involved a considerable loss, as the following statement of expenditures for those vessels made by the Hamburg-American Line will show: _Steamer_ _Total payment_ _Thor_ $113,879.72 _Berwind_ 73,221.85 _Lorenzo_ 430,182.59 _Heine_ 288,142.06 _Nepos_ 119,037.60 _Mowinckel_ 113,367.18 _Unita_ 67,766.44 _Somerstad_ 45,826.75 _Fram_ 55,053.23 _Craecia_ 29,143.59 _Macedonia_ 39,139.98 _Navarra_ 44,133.50 ------------- Total $1,419,394.49