[Sailor Steve]

September 27:

Group de Bombardment No. 1, the world's first bomb group, is organized in France under Major Louis de Goÿs.


In Africa HMS Chatham arrives at Mombasa, and Captain Drury-Lowe is relieved to find the city still under British control. On the other hand he is amazed to find German citizens roaming freely in the town, and he telegraphs the Governor of British East India to arrest all Germans in the colony, and have them interred at Nairobi. Before departing he sets up defenses with barbed wire and machine guns, and mines the entrance to the harbor.


In the Indian Ocean, at about 0300 hours lookouts aboard SMS Emden sight the lights of yet another ship apparently believing itself to be safe. Behind is another ship, blacked out. Captain von Müller immediately orders Emden cleared for action on the assumption that they are facing a warship. Upon approach it turns out that the second "ship" is actually a large cloud of smoke thrown out of the real ship while cleaning the fireboxes. Leutnants Levetzow and Gyssling go aboard and report that the ship is SS Buresk, 4,350 tons, chartered by the Admiralty and carrying 6,600 tons of prime Cardiff coal from England to Hong Kong. This is more coal than Markomannia carried when they departed Tsingtao on August 6, and it is the best in the world. Emden is now set for a good long time.

Von Müller now plans to use Markomannia's last coal reserves and abandon her. To this end Kapitanleutnant Klopper is made captain of Buresk, with Leutnants Schmidt and Gyssling as watch officers and Torpedomaschinist Wittkopf as Chief Engineer. Two machinist's mates, two sailors and three stokers are also sent over, with the bulk of Buresk's original arab crew being retained. The captain, Chief Engineer, Second Engineer, a Steward, and the Norwegian Cook all ask permission to remain with their ship. Von Müller finds this an odd request, since if they go aboard Gryfevale they will soon be free and remaining on Buresk means they will be prisoners for as long as their ship is needed. Still, a sailor's ship is his home and the request is granted.

Prince Franz Joseph of Hohenzollern gives a nice description of the ship's Sunday services. Protestant services are conducted by the senior Protestant officer, in this case the Captain himself, on the aft middle deck. Catholic services are held in the forecastle and conducted by the senior officer of that faith, the ship's adjutant Leutnant von Guerard. On this day he is on duty in the wireless room, and the worship service is run by Leutnant Hohenzollern. He describes the ship's band playing hymns and gives details of each service. Captain von Müller places great importance on these proceedings, since they break up the monotony of the weekdays. Afterward the crew are allowed as much freedom of activity as is possible in wartime.

On this particular Sunday the afternoon is interrupted by a message from Lt. Lauterbach aboard Gryfevale: "The captured ships' companies are making trouble through drunkenness. Some fighting. Have put a number of men in irons. Urgently request reinforcement." Apparently it started when an English sailor insulted a Chinese cook, and recieved a tureen of soup on his head in return. Von Müller takes Emden alongside the prison ship and hails Lauterbach with a megaphone. He orders the leutnant to confiscate the liquor, which is almost gone anyway. The English captains apologize for their men's behavior and get everything calmed down.

Emden's officers are eating their lunch of soup, corned beef with rice, and stewed fruit when they notice the ship is picking up speed. They rush to advantageous viewpoints and are rewarded with the sight of a smoke column far ahead. The search party and prize crew are organized under Oberleutnant Geerdes and Leutnant Schall. When they are close enough the new ship is ordered to stop and the prize crew sent across. The ship is English, SS Ribera, 3,500 tons, travelling in ballast. The Emden takes aboard as much of the provisions as she can hold, sending the rest to Gryfevale along with Ribera's crew. Kapitanleutnant von Gaede gets to use his guns again, and Ribera sinks quickly.

From Ribera's signal book it is discovered that she recently passed a British troop convoy consisting of around seventy ships and escorted by the battleship Swiftsure and the Russian armored cruiser Askold. The Emden's officers start thinking that maybe it's time to disappear again.

At nightfall they encounter yet another British merchant, this time SS Foyle, 4,147 tons, again travelling without cargo. As they are preparing to sink her another set of lights is spotted. Emden runs this new ship down, but it turns out to be the Dutch mail packet Djocja. Before letting her go Geerdes and Schall manage to buy some cigarettes from them. After the Dutch ship is out of sight Foyle is scuttled and left to sink.