The Imperial German Navy equipped the impounded three-masted sailing ship Pass of Balmaha (1,571 tons) with two 105 mm guns hidden behind hinged gunwales, several machine guns, and two carefully hidden 500 HP auxiliary engines. She was commissioned as the auxiliary cruiser Seeadler ("Sea Eagle"). Felix Graf von Luckner was almost the only officer in the German Navy with extensive experience of large sailing ships, and so was appointed to command her.
Seeadler left port on 21 December 1916 and slipped through the British blockade disguised as a Norwegian ship. Many of the crew of six officers and 57 men, including Luckner himself, had been selected for their ability to speak Norwegian, in case they were intercepted by the British. By Christmas Day, Seeadler was southeast of Iceland, where she encountered the British armed merchant cruiser Avenger. Avenger put an inspection party aboard, but failed to detect the German deception. She continued on, eventually reaching the Pacific and capturing or sinking 14 Allied ships. By sep 1917 she had got to the Cook Islands
After the Seeadler had spent time cruising around the Pacific shipping lanes with no sign of traffic, the ship’s doctor reported that there were signs of beri - beri among the crew, and it was decided, in the interests of health and morale, to head for an uninhabited island. Eventually the Society Islands atoll of Maupelia was chosen, as the ship’s information claimed that the island was uninhabited, but had ‘fish and coconuts in abundance’. Seeadler was too large to enter the sheltered lagoon of Mopelia, and consequently had to anchor outside the reef. On 24 August 1917 , disaster struck. According to Luckner, the ship was struck by a tsunami which wrecked her on the reef. If one accepts von Luckner's account of events, this is what happened.
"At about 0930 (9.30 AM) he had noticed a strange bulge on the eastern rim of the sea.... at first we thought it was a mirage. But it kept growing larger. It came towards us. Then we at last recognized it... A TIDAL WAVE, such as is caused by a submarine earthquake and volcanic disturbances.
"The danger was only too clear. We lay between the Island and the wave. We dared not raise sail, for the wind would drive us onto the reef. So, our only hope of getting clear of the Island was on our motor. The huge swell of the tidal wave was rushing towards us with breakneck speed. The motor did not stir. The mechanics worked frantically. They pumped compressed air into the engine. We waited in vain for the sound of ignition.... by this time the oncoming tidal wave was only a few hundred yards away. We were lost."
It is clear that a tsunami was not to blame. The war diary of the Seeadler, for which Kircheiss was responsible, reads as follows: Ship drifted at 9.25 a.m. of 2.8. towards land. Order given immediately to start the engine, but could only start after four minutes. Meanwhile the ship had at 9.27 a.m. struck against coral. No engine manoeuvre had d desired effect. The wind which in the preceding days was blowing to NE had in the gust which drove S.M.S. ‘Seeadler’ on to the reef gone to NW strength 3/4. The stern anchor was lost and bringing out another took too much time. The ship was continuously running hard aground and the rear hold got full of water in the course of the afternoon. At the same time water ran into the engine room and in the course of the afternoon the forecastle had also sprung a leak. The ship was abandoned at 3 p.m.
The force of the water carried Seeadler bodily onto the reef, she was dismasted, and her hull broached by huge lumps of coral. She became a total wreck. That is von Luckner's version, but some of his American prisoners claim the ship ran aground onto the reef whilst the most of her crew and the prisoners were having a picnic on the Island. Tidal wave records make no mention of such activity around August of 1917.
Whatever the explanation, all the crew and their prisoners survived, but were now stranded on Mopelia Island. The crew salvaged what they could from the wreck, two of the ship's boats were still intact, some provisions and firearms were collected.
Luckner decided to sail with five of his men in one of the 10 m long open boats, rigged as a sloop and named Kronprinzessin Cecilie. Ever the optimist, he intended to sail to Fiji by way of the Cook Islands, capture a sailing ship, return to Mopelia for his crew and prisoners, and resume his raiding career.
Three days after leaving Mopelia, the seamen reached Atiu Island in the Cook Islands group, where they pretended to be Dutch-American mariners crossing the Pacific for a bet. The New Zealand Resident, the administrator of the island, gave them enough supplies to reach another island in the group, Aitutaki, where they posed as Norwegians.
The New Zealand Resident in Aitutaki was suspicious, but had no means of detaining the group, and Luckner quickly took his party to the island of Rarotonga. Approaching Rarotonga in the dark, Luckner saw a dark ship which he thought was an auxiliary cruiser, but in fact was a beached ship.
Luckner pressed on to the Fijian Wakaya Island, arriving after a voyage of 3,700 km in an open boat. Most people on Wakaya accepted the Germans' story of being shipwrecked Norwegians, but one skeptic called a party of police from the old Fijian capital of Levuka. Sub Inspector Hills with a party of Fijian policemen manned a cutter and set out to investigate this strange group that had suddenly arrived at Levuka. Bad weather forced them back to harbour, but the German group would have had little trouble in coping with Hills and his party. Now by chance, the inter-island steamer Amra arrived at Levuka, it was requisitioned by Hills, and sailed for Wakaya arriving close to daylight on the morning of the 21st of September 1917. Hills called on von Luckner and his men to surrender, bluffing that the gun on board Amra would blow them out of the water, not wishing to cause any bloodshed, the German Captain decided that for his men and himself the war was over. It was only later that he learned that Hills had tricked him into this surrender, Amra did not mount any guns at all, for this sailor who had lived by his wits and bluff for so long it must have been a sad and bitter moment.
Sydney, October 28. A correspondent of the Sydney "Daily Telegraph"' in Suva, Fiji, has dispatched the following story of the capture of Count von Luckner, of the sea raider, See Adler, his lieutenant, and some members of the See Adler's crew on the day they landed there: On Friday evening, September 21, there landed, under an armed guard, at the Queen's Wharf, Suva, six Germans, two being officers in naval uniform. They had been captured that morning on the nor- thern side of Wakaya Island, between Yiti Lera and Vanua Leru. They were then, in a 24 ft. power boat, armed to the teeth with machine guns, rifles and a supply of bombs, and their capture was the result, of a brilliant piece of bluff on the part of the officers con- cerned, Sub-Inspector H. C. Hills and Inspector A. E. Howard. On Thursday word had been brought by a half-caste to Levuka, "that a party of strange Europeans were at Wakaya, that they refused to talk to the natives, and had taken possession of a cutter there. Sub-Inspector Hills, with a party of Fijians, set out from Levuka in a cutter. Bad weather, much to their good fortune, as it turned out, compelled them to turn back. By this time, the steamer Amra (A.U.S.N. Company), a boat of about 300 tons, put in an appearance at Le- vuka, and she was requisitioned. Early on Friday morning she came to Wakaya and as she made for the entrance the strange boat could be seen making for the pass- age. A 22-ft. boat was lowered, and into this went Sub-Inspector Hills and his party of Fijians, six in number. Inspector N. E. Howard had joined the party by now. The only weapon's they had were an ordinary Colt revolver and an, automatic pistol. The Fijians were not armed, though they were in the uniform of the constabulary. They made straight for the strange boat and cut across its bows. Sub-Inspector Hills stood up and challenged them. By this time he saw they were in German uniform. "I call on you to surrender in the name of the King,'' he said. He made no attempt to draw his revolver, which was I still at his hip. "Who are you?" came the response in excellent English. "What do you belong to?" "I call on you to surrender,'' was the quick reply. "I do not wish to parley.'' After some hesitation, the reply came. The Germans, for such they turned out to be, surrendered. They then suggested that they should tow the other boat to the Amra, but Sub-inspector Hills was taking no chances. After accepting the leader's automatic revolver, and disarming the rest of the men, he ordered them into his boat, all but one, whom he retained to run the engine, a motor engine. The other boat, with one German prisoner in it, was then towed to the Amra now lying near by. When they boarded the Amra it became apparent to the Germans they had been bluffed. There was not a weapon of any kind, much less a gun. The only weapons were those in the possession of the two officers, and their own boat was practically chock-full of weapon and munitions. "We did not come this distance to be captured by an unarmed boat," exclaimed the loader They were brought to Suva and disembarked at night on the wharf. They marched through the streets, which were crowded with Europeans, Indians, and Fijians. For a time all went well until an Indian called out in tones of disgust "Baby-killers," and for a time it was, bedlam let loose, the Indians and Fijian giving vent to their feelings. The leader claims to be Count von Luckner. He declares that he was in the battle of Jutland, "and escaped from Germany in the See Adler, which was operating off Brazil. His story is that his vessel caught fire in the Pacific, and they had travelled 2,000 miles in the boat after abandoning the See Adler. He says, it is stated, that there are other boats from the vessel, but he will give no idea when they arc. At the time of writing there are rumours that another party is at large somewhere on Viti Levu. The military are under arms, and search parties' bay been organised. Von Luckner claims that he had not taken any lives, although he says the life of one boy from a captured vessel was lost accidentally through a falling spar. He declares he has sunk 23 ships, five in the Pacific. In his boat were found many charts and logs belonging to other vessels but the Government have not per mitted any information to be disclosed in this direction. The crews of the vessel sunk in the Pacific, von Luckner says, he has landed, and has, it is understood, made known the locality to the Governor. A story, is told that the party called at one of the Cook Islands, where they obtained provisions, for which they paid in gold and insisted on having a receipt. As matter of fact, there were some hundreds of pounds in gold in the boat, and the usual excellent cigars and champagne.
Whilst von Luckner and his five men were enroute to a Prisoner of War Camp on Motuihe Island near Auckland New Zealand, back at Mopelia Island, the small French Island Trader Lutece, anchored off the reef. Leutnant Kling from Seeadler had learned by radio that his Captain had been captured, now rowed out to this schooner and captured her at gunpoint. The crew of Lutece were quickly put ashore to join the American prisoners, and all the German sailors went aboard, and course was set for the west coast of South America. The boat left behind by Kling was now sailed by the Master of A B Johnson, Captain Smith, and three American seamen some 1,600 kilometers to Pago Pago, arriving on the 4th of October 1917, here, they were able to alert the authorities all about the exploits of Seeadler, and to report that forty four sailors were still stranded at Mopelia Atol. But back to Kling, hoping to refit Lutece, now renamed Fortuna, at Easter Island, prior to attempting to round Cape Horn, this vessel now ran into uncharted rocks off Easter Island, and sank. All the German sailors scrambled ashore to be collected by Chilian authorities and be interned for the remainder of the war.
Although it appeared that the war had ended for von Luckner, still he plotted. The Commandant of the prison camp, Lieutenant Colonel C. Harcourt Turner had at his disposal was a fast motor boat Pearl. With Leutnant Kirscheiss and a few other prisoners, von Luckner, on the 13th of December grabbed Pearl and sped off to freedom, making for Mercury Island close to the tip of the Coromandel Peninsula.
Oddly a photo exists of them leaving the prison camp on the Pearl
This Pearl was fitted with a dummy machine gun and then von Luckner boldly stopped Moa, a 90 ton scow owned by Leyland O'Brien Timber Company, she was only carrying the Master and four other men, Moa was boarded, von Luckner indicating "You are Prisoners of War to Germany." Up fluttered the German Ensign, and they set off for Kermadec Islands, north east of New Zealand, reaching this destination in five days.Pearl which was being towed, was suddenly swamped by an inrushing wave, she quickly sank, taking the very valuable radio with her to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, thus depriving von Luckner of his major source of information. At the time of seizing Moa, she had been close to another scow Rangi, her Captain had observed a party board Moa from a boat, and then noted that she sailed off away from New Zealand. He took his ship into Port Charles to report his suspicions. It so happened, that an hour later, the government cable layer Iris, armed with two six pounder guns arrived on the scene, having been given the story about Moa, she set off in pursuit, rightly assuming that Moa would make for the Kermadec Island group. On the 21st of December, Moa made it to Curtis Island in the Kermadec group, and von Luckner sent off a boat to raid the stores depot that he knew was there. Smoke now appeared on the horizon, sail was quickly raised, but in ninety minutes Iris overhauled Moa, and firing shots across her bows brought von Luckner to once more surrender. As he came aboard Iris, he commented " You left the door open, you cannot blame me for walking out!"
At last, this time the war really was over for this wily German Naval Officer, von Luckner had indeed put up a good fight. He spent the remainder of the war in various prison camps around New Zealand until he was repatriated to Germany in 1919. In the mid thirties, von Luckner sailed around the world in his private yacht Vaterland, and when he visited New Zealand , was very warmly welcomed. During WW2 he lived in Germany, and moved to Sweden, dying there in 1966.