WATCHING BRITISH VESSELS
Seated in his room 801, Captain Boy-Ed gathered a great mass of facts of value to Germany from enemy sources and from neutral nations. From his room, which was stacked with maps of the sea and steamer routes, he sent directions to his spies. He forwarded information about ships—English merchantmen and British warships—that could be utilized by the German Government in raids on Allied commerce. He also gave directions for provisioning the German raiders scouring the Seven Seas for enemy ships—an enterprise just as romantic—though in violation of American laws—as the spectacular dashes of the Karlsruhe, Emden and the Prince Eitel Friedrich.
Here was a project in which before the war and in preparation for it, the German Admiralty and the Hamburg-American Steamship Company participated; and after hostilities began, it was simply necessary for the captain through his staff of assistants or in person to issue orders. The Atlantic phase of the enterprise, its financing, its spectacular features and its illegality were presented to a Federal court in New York by Roger B. Wood, the Assistant United States Attorney, at the trial and conviction of several Hamburg-American Line officials: Dr. Karl Buenz, its general representative in America, George Koetter, supervising engineer, Adolf Hachmeister, purchasing agent, and Joseph Poeppinghaus, second officer and supercargo, on the charge of conspiring to obtain from the collectors of the ports false clearances for ships in connection with the coaling and provisioning of raiders. The Pacific phase of the scheme has been unearthed by United States District Attorney Preston in San Francisco.