[Sailor Steve]

September 18:

SMS Leipzig and SS Marie arrive at the Galapagos Islands. There they meet with the supply ship SS Amasis. There they maroon the captured crew of SS Elsinore, thinking it will be some time before the British sailors can be rescued and report the Germans' position.

SMS Dresden departs Hoste Island for the Pacific. Just a few hours after geting underway her lookouts spot the British freighter SS Ortega. Her captain, Douglas Kinnier, decides to make a run for it. He takes his 8,000-ton ship into the rocky uncharted waters of the Nelson Straight, knowing the German cruiser won't dare follow him. Ortega escapes and Kinnier reports Dresden's position. The Royal Navy later gave him a temporary commission just so they could award him with the Distinguished Service Cross.

Just off Rangoon Bay the lookouts aboard SMS Emden sighted smoke coming toward them in the early afternoon. Just before dark they intercepted the new ship. She turned out to be SS Dovre, a Norwegian freighter, headed from Penang to Rangoon. Her captain was friendly, spoke German, and offered to take the prisoners from Clan Matheson off his hands. He also told von Müller that he would steam slowly so he wouldn't arrive until late in the evening. He then gave them newspapers and told them that the French Cruisers Montcalm and Dupleix were docked at Penang. From the newpapers von Müller learned that the insurance companies were limiting shippin in the Bay of Bengal because of Emden's presence there.

Von Müller decided to head back toward Madras, since the British would be unlikely to look for him in a place he'd already been. During the night they picked up an open radio message confirming that 'QMD' was indeed HMS Hampshire. It was the first time they knew for certain what they had long suspected.