10 September 1914
The Australian government was advised that it was' very likely that Japanese ships and destroyers may cruise in the Pacific around Marianne and Caroline islands in order to hunt down the German squadron. In the following two weeks, Vice-Admiral George Patey, in command of HMAS Australia which was helping the Commonwealth's troops to take control of German New Guinea, endeavoured to contact the Japanese squadrons in order to plan a joint sweep through the North Pacific islands. Patey realised that the Japanese and Australian roles would have to be rationalised at some point.
SMS Emden, in company with Markomannia and Pontoporos steamed west by northwest to reach the sea-lane between Colombo and Calcutta. At about 0900 from the north, smoke was spotted and the cruiser accelerated towards the source of the smoke. As the target became visible, it was clearly not a purpose built warship, but structures that could be seen on the deck indicated that it may have been a converted auxiliary cruiser. It was however flying a blue British flag instead of the White Ensign which would have marked a warship. As the ships closed, it became clear that the strange structures were not gun emplacements. As they drew near, Emden fired a warning shot and signalled the merchant to stop and not use their wireless. The message not to use the radio as repeated by megaphone when the ships were within shouting distance. Out of the stern porthole of the freighter, smoking papers flew overboard as the captain destroyed important documents that must not fall into enemy hands.
On the British flag, the sign of the Indian government was displayed indicating that they had chartered the vessel.
The ship was boarded by a search and prize led by Leutnant von Levetzow. According to its papers, it was the British 3.413 ton Indus, built in 1904 which was plying a course between Calcutta and Bombay. Property of the shipping company James Nourse, the Indus had been chartered by the Indian government to take on troops in Bombay and had already been converted for troop carrying duties. The structures on the deck turned out to be horse stalls. Muller, running short on all sorts of provisions, ordered loading of what ever could be removed from the freighter, during this time the Markomannia and Pontoporos caught up.
Muller ordered the crew of the Indus to be transferred to the Markomannia which was completed at around 1pm that afternoon and that scuttling charges be prepared for sinking the ship. At 3pm, ten shots were fired and the scuttling charges were used to finish her off. Mr George Reed, Second Officer of the Indus, remarked that the marksmanship of the Emden was poor.