Captain Fred Jebsen, who was a lieutenant in the German Naval Reserve, took out a cargo of coal, properly bonded in his ship, the Mazatlan, for Guaymas, Sonora, Mexico. Off the mouth of Magdalena Bay the Mazatlan met the Leipzig, a German cruiser, and the cargo of coal was transferred to the battleship. One of Jebsen's men, who had signed on as a cook, was an expert wireless operator, and he went to the Leipzig with three cases of "preserved fruits"—wireless apparatus forwarded by German agents in California. Jebsen, after an attempt to smuggle arms into India, which will be discussed later, made his way to Germany in disguise, and was reported to have been drowned in a submarine. The Nurnberg and Leipzig lay off San Francisco for days in August, the former finally entering the Golden Gate for the amount of coal allowed her under international law. The Olson and Mahoney, a steam schooner, was laden with supplies for the German vessels and prepared to sail, but after a considerable controversy with the customs officials, was unloaded.
Perhaps the most bizarre attempt to spirit supplies to the Imperial navy was that in which the little barkentine Retriever figured as heroine. Wide publicity was given the announcement that she was to be sailed out to sea and used as the locale of a motion picture drama. The Government found out, however, that her hull was well down with coal, which did not seem vital to the scenario, and she was not permitted to leave port.
The major portion of Germany's naval strength lay corked in the Kiel Canal, where, except for a few indecisive sorties, Germany's visible fleet was destined to remain for more than three years. At the outbreak of war, the Emden, Dresden, Scharnhorst, Gneisenau and Nurnberg were at large in the southern oceans. On November 1 the German cruisers met the British Monmouth, Good Hope, Glasgow and Otranto off Coronel, the Chilean coast. The Monmouth and Good Hope were struck a mortal blow and sunk. The Glasgow and Otranto barely escaped. In a battle off the Falkland Islands on December 7, as the German army was being thrown back from Ypres, the Scharnhorst, Leipzig, Gneisenau and Nurnberg were sunk by a reinforced British fleet. (Walter Peters, one of the crew of the Leipzig, floated about for six hours after the engagement, was picked up, made his way to Mexico, and for more than three years was employed by a German vice-consul in Mexico in espionage in the United States. Peters was arrested as a dangerous enemy alien in Crockett, California, in April, 1918.) The Dresden and Karlsruhe escaped, and the former hid for two months in the fjords of the Straits of Magellan. On February 26, 1915, an American tourist vessel, the Kroonland, passed east through the Straits and into Punta Arenas harbor, while out of the harbor sneaked the little Glasgow, westward bound. The Dresden, after the American had passed, had run for the open Pacific; the Glasgow, hot on her trail, engaged her off the Chilean coast five days later and sank her, leaving only the Emden and Karlsruhe at large. The Karlsruhe disappeared.
The last lone member of the pack was hunted over the seas for months, and finally was beached, but long before her activities became public the necessity for supplying the German ships expired, from the simple elimination of German ships to supply. Captain Boy-Ed's first enterprise had been frustrated by the British navy and he turned to other and more sinister occupations. Buenz, Koetter and Hachmeister were sentenced to eighteen months in Atlanta, and Poeppinghaus to a year and a day—terms which they did not begin to serve until 1918.[1]
FOOTNOTE:
[1] Dr Buenz' case is an enlightening example of the use made by German agents in America of the law's delays. He was sentenced in December, 1915, for an offence committed in September, 1914. He at once appealed his case to the higher courts, going freely about meanwhile on bail furnished by the Hamburg American Line. In March, 1918, the Supreme Court of the United States, to which his case had finally been pressed, denied his appeal. His attorneys at once placed before President Wilson, through Attorney-General Gregory, a request for a respite, or commutation of his sentence, which the President, on April 23, 1918, denied. Buenz pleaded the frailty of his 79 years—which had not prevented him from keeping his social engagements while his appeal was pending.