Born of a Turkish father and German mother—the latter, Ida Boy-Ed, a novelist much loved in Germany—he possessed an unusual combination of traits, a mingling of Oriental subtlety, the brutal frankness of the Prussian, and the artistic genius of his mother. He elected for the navy, and early displayed qualities that attracted von Tirpitz’s attention. The admiral took him up and made him one of his “Big Six,” young German officers who were admitted to the naval lord’s most secret councils and trained for just such executive work and such emergencies as the great war produced. Having both a literary and constructive ability, in addition to unusual qualities as a tactician and naval officer, he was selected by Grand Admiral von Tirpitz as his chief lieutenant, and was made the head of the news division. As such, he had charge of propaganda enlightening the German people and arousing a demand for a bigger navy. He prepared articles for the newspapers and compiled pamphlets arguing for many battleships, in all of which he cleverly instilled a distrust of England. Prior to each appropriation for an increase in the German fleet, Boy-Ed carried on a Press campaign designed to educate the public as to the urgent necessity for more Dreadnoughts and submarines. By this means, an appropriation equal to a hundred million dollars was obtained in 1910.
For five years, prior to his arrival in Washington in 1911 as the Kaiser’s naval representative, he served under von Tirpitz, making trips around the world, observing and working out the details of Germany’s plans for breaking Great Britain’s sea-power. Because of the work which he performed, the unusual ability which he displayed, and because Germany was seeking to surpass the naval power of the United States, then the second only to Great Britain, he was sent to this country. When he arrived here, he impressed Americans by his knowledge of America and American ideas. With ample tact and keen insight into American customs, he began immediately to make himself almost an American. Speaking English fluently and possessing an unusually attractive personality, he made himself extremely popular.
NAVAL STUDENT IN TIMES OF PEACE
His duties in peace times, naturally, were to study the American Navy and gain whatever facts he could about American war vessels, the personnel of the navy, the government’s plans for increasing the fleet’s power and building up coast defences; also to pick up whatever he could, openly or stealthily, about the secret plans of America in the use of her battle-fleet. When the war started, a thousand and one more tasks devolved upon him. As von Papen was in Mexico, he had for a time to look after the military attaché’s secret service, and, after being relieved of that, he devoted himself to the manifold details peculiar to naval intelligence. Like von Papen, he, too, had a staff of experts. They began, under his direction, delving into every phase of American naval activities, seeking information about the naval plans of the Allies, striving to exert their influence to prevent the shipment of arms and ammunition from this country. Boy-Ed’s work lay also in supervising the registration of naval reservists with the German consuls, providing for the return of as many as possible of them to the Fatherland, assigning spies to the country’s enemies, and collecting all naval information bearing upon the war.
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.
SMUGGLING SUPPLIES TO RAIDERS
Two years before Germany sent a declaration of war to England, and just when a crisis in European affairs was impending, Dr. Karl Buenz, who never before had engaged in steamship business, came to New York as the American head of the Hamburg-American Line. Prior to that he had been a judge in Germany, a consul in Chicago and New York, and a minister to Mexico. One of the first things which came to his attention was the completion of a contract between the Admiralty Division of the German Government and the steamship company for the provisioning, during war, of German warships at sea from America as a base. Arrangement also was made for communication between these ships and the company by the Admiralty’s code. The documents dealing with this agreement were kept locked up in the German Embassy in Washington, and the Hamburg-American officials declined to produce them at the trial, “because in that agreement,” Prosecutor Wood asserted, “I venture to say the whole plan whereby false clearances should be obtained is worked out in detail.”
When Germany stood on the brink of war and England stood ready to pen her in by a blockade, the Admiralty Division sent its orders to make ready to provision the raiders. Dr. Buenz himself, on July 31, 1914—before the war—received a cable which he read, and then at once sent to the German Embassy for safe-keeping. Straightway Boy-Ed was in and out of Dr. Buenz’s office, giving directions as to the warships needing supplies and whither the provision ships should proceed by routes outside the regular freight lines. He kept urging upon Dr. Buenz the necessity of haste, and even before the German Government advanced the cash, the ships were chartered—others purchased—under bonds that guaranteed payment to the owners in the event of seizure. Twelve or more ships in all set forth from Atlantic ports, carrying coal and food supplies bought with Hamburg-American cash.