The Hunters and the Hunted

by Bryan Perrett

  Carmania resumed her patrols on completion of the repairs, her beat being the Portuguese coast and the Atlantic islands. In 1916 she played a part in the Gallipoli campaign and thereafter was used as a troop ship. When the war ended she conveyed Canadian troops homeward. She became a passenger liner once more in 1920 and was honoured by the Navy League with a silver plate that had once graced Lord Nelson’s table aboard the Victory, one of a set bought by the League for presentation to ships that had distinguished themselves during the war. Carmania was the only civilian ship to be honoured in this way. After refitting in 1923 she continued her long and eventful career for a further nine years before being scrapped.

  CHAPTER 4

  Pacific Odyssey

  In August 1914 Germany’s Far Eastern and Pacific possessions included the Marshall Islands, the northern part of New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and the Bismarck Archipelago, the Palau, Marianna and Caroline Islands, and the Samoan islands of Upola and Savii. The jewel in Germany’s Far Eastern crown, however, was Kiachow Bay and the surrounding territories in the northern Chinese province of Shantung, leasing from the Chinese government in 1898 for a period of ninety-nine years. A city named Tsingtao was built on the tip of the peninsula separating the bay from the Yellow Sea, specifically designed to enhance German prestige in the area. No expense was spared in laying out its boulevards, public buildings and gardens. In addition, there were restaurants and hotels to rival any in the Orient, plus a temperate climate and sandy beaches. The Germans were proud of their investment, naming Tsingtao the Riviera of the Far East. To protect their investment, they fortified the landward approaches to the city and stationed a naval squadron in the harbour.

  Put at its simplest, Tsingtao was a part of Kaiser Wilhelm’s plan to project Imperial Germany as a global power with a navy that could challenge that of Great Britain. Unfortunately, that particular part of the plan fell apart in 1902 when neighbouring Japan concluded an alliance with the United Kingdom, relations between the two countries having become close as a result of the Royal Navy’s having overseen the development and training of the Imperial Japanese Navy. It was felt that in the event of a war between Great Britain and Germany, Japan would certainly honour her alliance. The reality was that the Japanese wanted Tsingtao and at that period of history if they wanted something they usually got it by one means or another. Far from being a fortress, Tsingtao had become a trap. German worries on that score were briefly relieved by the Russo-Japanese War of 1904 – 5, but returned ten-fold when Japan emerged the victor, having humbled the apparent might of Russia with comparative ease.

  At the beginning of August 1914 the major German naval presence at Tsingtao was Vice Admiral Count Maximilian von Spee’s East Asia Squadron. At full strength it consisted of the armoured cruisers Scharnhorst (flag, Captain Schultz) and Gneisenau (Captain Maerker), armed with eight 8.2-inch and six 5.9-inch guns, and the light cruisers Emden (Captain von Müller), Nurnberg (Captain von Schonberg) and Leipzig (Captain Haun) armed with ten 4.1-inch guns, although Leipzig had been temporarily detached to protect German interests along the west coast of Mexico. Also present at Tsingtao were an elderly destroyer, S90, and a number of gunboats that could be used to convert civilian liners into armed merchant cruisers, and an Austrian light cruiser, the Kaiserin Elizabeth, which was paying a courtesy call. Elsewhere, a few more gunboats were operating on China’s rivers or based at Shanghai.

  Of these, Scharnhorst and Gneisenau were obviously the most formidable, being considered two of the best gunnery ships in the entire Imperial Navy; Gneisenau, in fact, had won the Kaiser’s Gold Cup for Gunnery and her sister was not far behind. This was most important as Spee was well aware that his squadron would not survive an encounter with the Japanese fleet. Nor could it hope to remain for long at any of Germany’s Pacific colonies which were incapable of either supplying the squadron with the necessary technical and logistic support, or defending themselves. He was well aware of Japanese ambitions regarding Tsingtao and conscious that in the event of a war with Great Britain she would activate these very quickly. The squadron’s only remaining alternative, therefore, was to head for home by crossing the Pacific, rounding Cape Horn and then possibly sailing north up the less frequented sea lanes of the Atlantic. Supply ships and colliers had been engaged to accompany the squadron and the considerable German community resident in South America was instructed to provide further support as required. It was a desperately risky undertaking, but Scharnhorst and Gneisenau would provide the squadron with a slim chance of success as the only opposition likely to be encountered, in the early stages of the voyage at least, were slower British cruisers that were out-ranged and out-gunned. Any battle would be fought at a range of Spee’s choosing, a range at which the British could do little or no damage.

  On 1 August Germany declared war on Russia. Three days later the East Asia Squadron scored its first success. While cruising off the Korean port of Pusan, Captain von Müller’s Emden intercepted the small Russian liner Ryazan which, while owned by the Russian Volunteer Fleet Association, was still engaged in her peacetime role of conveying civilian passengers. At first, her British captain tried to run for it, a futile exercise considering that her maximum speed was only 14 knots. This ended when he recognised his pursuer was the Emden and, out of consideration for the women and children aboard, he surrendered. Müller escorted her into Tsingtao where she was armed with eight 4.1-inch guns inherited from the ancient gunboat Kormoran, whose name she adopted. Simultaneously, another liner, the Norddeutscher Lloyd Steamship Line’s Prinz Eitel Friedrich, named after the Kaiser’s second son, was being converted to the role of armed merchant cruiser by the addition of two 4.1-inch and four 3.4-inch guns inherited from the gunboats Tiger and Luchs (Lynx). The crew was also provided by the two gunboats. Prinz Eitel Friedrich was to form part of the East Asia Squadron under Lieutenant Commander Thierichens, formerly of the Luchs. Emden and these two recent additions to the German naval strength were to leave Tsingtao as soon as the work of conversion had been completed and join the rest of the squadron at sea.

  On 15 August the Japanese gave Germany an ultimatum, demanding that she withdraw all her warships from Far Eastern waters and surrender Tsingtao and the entire leased territory of Kiaochow ‘without condition or compensation’. Obviously, no self-respecting government would comply with such demands and these, as expected, were ignored. The Japanese had been forming a military and naval task force to attack Tsingtao for some time and on 23 August formally declared war on Germany. Four days later a blockading force arrived off the port. This was followed shortly after by the besieging force, which included a small British contingent. This was received politely but left in no doubt that this was Japanese business being conducted for the sole benefit of Japan. In the event, the German garrison held out, with no hope of relief, until 7 November. By then, Spee and his ships were half a world away and their crews were celebrating a victory.

  At the end of June Spee had taken the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau on a protracted cruise of the central Pacific. On 6 August he reached Ponape in the Marshall Islands, joining Nurnberg which had only just been relieved by Leipzig off the Mexican coast. He headed for Pagan in the Marianas group, some 1,000 miles to the north where on 12 August he was joined by the Emden, Prinz Eitel Freidrich and Kormoran, plus four supply vessels from Tsingtao. Four more supply ships had been sunk or captured by Vice Admiral Sir Martin Jerram’s China Squadron, and while these could be replaced by German embassies and consulates elsewhere, it was a sharp reminder that the Imperial German Navy had very few friends in the Pacific, for to the south Rear Admiral Sir George Patey’s squadron of the Royal Australian Navy barred any progress while to the north the Japanese were on the point of declaring war. On 13 August Spee held a Captains’ conference aboard his flagship indicating his intention to proceed in a generally south-eastern direction towards Chile. Müller expressed reservations about the difficulty of coaling so many ships and the absence of enemy shipping lanes
along the route, and expressed the view that a single light cruiser operating in the Indian Ocean could cause considerable damage and tie down British resources across a wide area. Spee agreed and gave the task to Müller, whose Emden was the fastest of the squadron’s light cruisers. The admiral left for Eniwetok Atoll with the rest of the squadron later in the day, while the following morning Emden, accompanied by the collier Markomannia, set out on a cruise that would make her one of the most famous German warships of the war.

  At Eniwetok the East Asia Squadron spent three days coaling in the broad lagoon. Prinz Eitel Friedrich and Kormoran were detached to raid shipping routes in Australian waters and on 22 August Nurnberg was sent to Honolulu from where a signal could be despatched informing the Admiralty in Berlin that Spee was heading for Chile and expected to arrive at Juan Fernandez on 15 October. It was requested that coal supplies be sent there from San Francisco and Valparaiso.

  On 26 August the squadron coaled in the lagoon of Majuro Atoll, where a signal was received informing Spee of Japan’s declaration of war. The Allies, on the other hand, had no idea of Spee’s whereabouts. The East Asia Squadron had apparently vanished into thin air and no amount of searching could detect a hint of its presence. Having left Majuro, Spee headed due east for Christmas Island which was reached on 7 September. Nurnberg rejoined shortly after, having called at Fanning Island and cut the cable connecting Honolulu with Fiji. She brought with her the news that troops belonging to the New Zealand Army had occupied German Samoa. Spee believed that the invaders’ troop transports and supply ships could well still be present in the area, but when he approached the town of Apia at first light on 14 September the only vessel present was a small sailing ship which certainly did not justify the expenditure of ammunition that could not be replaced.

  The squadron resumed its eastwards course, calling at Suvorov Island, then Bora Bora in the Society Islands, then the French island of Tahiti at dawn on 22 September. Here, thanks to thorough preparations on the part of the Governor, the garrison was wide awake and alert. Scharnhorst and Gneisenau became involved in duel with the fort and a French gunboat, the Zelée, which turned out to be fruitless as all pilotage marks had been removed from the entrance to the harbour. As a result, the Germans had to watch helplessly while the Governor blew up the port’s warehouses and set fire to his coal stocks. Annoyed by the pointless expenditure of ammunition, Spee resumed his eastwards voyage, pausing at the Marquesas Islands to coal and re-provision from 26 September to 3 October. Meanwhile, the Governor of Tahiti had sent warning of the squadron’s presence to Samoa and in due course the news reached the Admiralty in London. For no intelligible reason the latter believed that Spee was actually heading west and told Patey to base himself at Suva in the Fijian Islands. Simultaneously, Spee was informing Berlin that he was now heading for Valparaiso via Easter Island and Juan Fernandez, to which places the German Consul in San Francisco was to despatch coal. In addition, the signals office aboard the flagship was able to listen to radio traffic between the Leipzig and the Dresden, confirming that both light cruisers were still active off the west coast of South America. Thus, when the East Asia Squadron reached Easter Island on 12 October, Spee was able to plan the concentration of all German naval units in the area.

  When war began to seem inevitable, Captain Haun sailed Leipzig north from her station off the Mexican coast to a point near the entrance to San Francisco harbour, where he hoped to prey on Allied shipping. However, following instructions from the Admiralty, British shipping remained snug inside the bay. There were, however, rumours that two enemy cruisers, the British Newcastle and the Japanese Idzumo were heading for the area and Haun began to look for prey further south. On 27 August, while off the coast of Lower California, he received a signal from Berlin instructing him to operate off South America and, possibly, in the Atlantic. On 11 September he had his first success, sinking the steamer Elsinore, on passage in ballast to Panama. A week later Leipzig reached the Galapagos Islands. On 25 September she sank the freighter Bankfield, on passage from Panama to the United Kingdom with cargo of sugar. After that, there was no further contact with Allied merchant shipping but on 1 October he received orders from Berlin to cooperate with Dresden. For the moment he had no contact with the latter but, by coincidence, a shortage of coal induced him to head for Easter Island. On the night of 2/3 October Dresden did manage to get through by radio and informed him that she, too, was heading for Easter Island.

  Dresden had rounded the Horn on 18 September and immediately become involved in an incident that was to have far-reaching consequences. She had not long emerged from the Straits of Magellan when she encountered the Royal Mail Ship Ortega, travelling in the opposite direction. Ortega, under the command of Captain Douglas Kinnier, was on passage from Valparaiso to Montevideo by way of the passage. She had aboard cargo valued at £117,000, Admiralty mail with a secure classification and 300 French reservists heading for home to rejoin the Army. Kinnier was aware that the odds were stacked against him for Ortega was only capable of a maximum speed on 14 knots while, inevitably, that of the German cruiser was much greater. Whatever happened, he was determined to give the enemy a run for his money.

  Aboard Dresden, Captain Ludecke ordered a round to be fired across Ortega’s bows as a signal that she should heave to. Kinnier ignored it but swung away on a course that would take him to Cape George. Made aware of the situation, the engine room staff decided to ignore the manufacturer’s recommendations and thrashed the ship into a hitherto unheard of rivet-rattling 18 knots. Dresden had not the slightest difficulty in keeping up and now opened fire in earnest but to little effect as Ortega was stern-on and presented only a small, narrow target.

  Despite shells sending up fountains of water nearby, Kinnier was not giving up. His plan was to take Ortega into uncharted shallow waters in which Dresden could not follow. He steered the ship into the little-used Nelson’s Strait, letting her speed fall away as boats were lowered. For almost 100 miles of narrow, tortuous channel the boats took frequent soundings while Ortega followed slowly behind. Ludecke probably thought Kinnier was mad to hazard his ship in this way and quickly abandoned the chase. At length, Kinnier brought Ortega out into the Straits of Magellan and then completed the passage into the Atlantic by way of Smyth’s Channel. On reaching Rio de Janeiro to report the incident, he expressed himself quietly satisfied that neither the enemy nor nature had succeeded in putting a scratch on his plates.

  Having coaled at Easter Island and obtained fresh supplies of meat, the assembled German squadron sailed for Mas a Fuera, an isolated rock that provided a protected anchorage, another 1,500 miles to the east, arriving on 26 October. Here, to everyone’s surprise, it was joined by the armed merchant cruiser Prinz Eitel Friedrich, which had been forced to abandon her abortive cruise in Australian waters for lack of fuel supplies. The same was true of the Kormoron, which after searching for Allied shipping had only sufficient fuel left to reach the American island of Guam, where she was interned. There her crew enjoyed a restful war until the United States declared war on Germany, becoming prisoners of war after scuttling their ship on 7 April 1917.

  Ortega’s experience had convinced Cradock that the reinforced East Asia Squadron was somewhere west of South America, but not as far west as the Admiralty seemed to think. There was also a suspicion that Karlsruhe was still active somewhere in the Atlantic. Therefore, while Cradock began to operate round the Horn from Port Stanley in the Falkland Islands, several more cruisers under Rear Admiral Stoddart remained active on the east coast to protect the vital shipping lanes to the United Kingdom. During the next few weeks the Admiralty’s faulty intelligence and poor appreciation of the situation involved Cradock and his ships, including the protected cruisers Monmouth and Good Hope, the light cruiser Glasgow and the armed merchant cruiser Otranto, on a number of fruitless patrols in atrocious weather, demonstrating the futility of senior officers attempting to control actions from which they were thousands of miles distant. They a
lso beefed up Cradock’s squadron with the 1899 battleship Canopus under Captain H.S. Grant. Canopus was armed with four 12-inch and twelve 6-inch guns and therefore had plenty of punch, had she been allowed to use it. The problem was that with a maximum speed of 12 knots she would not as her likely German opponents were much faster and could keep her at arm’s length.

  Cradock was well-liked throughout the Royal Navy. He had previously seen active service in Egypt and the Sudan, and in China during the Boxer Rebellion, storming the formidable Taku Forts at the entrance to the Pei-ho River in a joint Anglo-German operation. One of the German officers present on this occasion was his present opponent, Maximilian von Spee, with whom he was personally acquainted. An amiable man, he was good company and while he had never married he enjoyed the company of women. His closest companion was his dog, which accompanied him whether he was ashore or afloat. While his home was his cabin, he had few personal possessions, the exception being a cloisonné vase that he had acquired in China. A keen huntsman, he was known to comment that if he did not meet his death in action he would prefer it to take place in the hunting field.

  Spee had served in the Imperial Navy for thirty-seven years. A happily married man whose two sons were serving in his squadron, he was the opposite of the British cartoon version of a German senior officer, being noted for the courtesy and good manners with which he conducted his business. Professionally, he was a gunnery expert with additional experience in weapon development. His recognition of the need for thorough training had brought his squadron’s gunnery to the highest possible standard. He had seen active service in the Cameroons and China where his natural aggression first became apparent.