Alexander V. Kircheisen and his application for a certificate as able seaman
V
A TRUE PIRATE TALE
Of all the stories of the sea to which the war has given rise, here is one that is certainly not the least entertaining. It is not a story of hunting a criminal. The only part which the Bomb Squad played in it was bringing the prisoner back to justice. It called for no service on our part save that of examining the prisoner, and returning him, with his statements and the statements of others who had dealings with him, to New York. And I think those statements themselves had best tell the story.
(From Detective Corell to the Commanding Officer of the Bomb Squad, April 1, 1916)
Sir: In compliance with orders received I went to Lewes, Delaware, to investigate and if possible bring back one Ernest Schiller, an alleged German spy....
(From, a statement taken by Corell at Lewes, Del., March 31, 1916)
My name is Ernest Schiller. I am a native of Russia, 23 years of age.... My occupation is that of textile engineer. I arrived in New York in April, 1915, in the steamship Colorado from Hull, England, as a member of the crew, my assignment on the ship being greaser. My name on the ship was Frank Robertson. When I arrived at New York the captain gave me some of my money and I left the ship. I worked all told about eight or nine months, in Pawtucket, R. I., Lawrence, Mass., Whitinsville, Mass., Newton Upper Falls, Mass., and finished erecting a factory in Salem, Mass....
(From the examination of Clarence Reginald Hodson, alias Ernest Schiller, Robinson, Robertson, A. Henry, New York, April 1, 1916)
Question. What is your full name?
Answer. Clarence Reginald Hodson.
Q. What other names are you known by?
A. Robinson, Robertson, A. Henry, and Ernest Schiller.
Q. Where were you born?
A. Petrograd, Russia.
Q. Where were your father and mother born?
A. My father in Russia, my mother in Germany. We lived in Petrograd until I was about 10 or 11. Then we went to England. My father and mother left me in Chatham House College, in Ramsgate. I stayed there three years....
Q. What is the name of the head of that college?
A. A. Henry.
Q. Did you graduate?
A. No. I was put on a Cadet—a Marine ship—named Conway, to train as a marine officer. I was on that ship two years. I left when I was 17 and went to work in a machine shop in Oldham, outside Manchester, and learned the trade of machinist there. I left there in August, 1914, and I joined the English Army.... I was asked to leave the job—was told that they would not have any young fellows on the job.... My boss said that sooner or later I should have to leave and that it would be better to go now, and that there would be a better opportunity.
Q. At that time were your sympathies with the English?
A. They were never with England. I just wanted to see what it was like to be a soldier. I didn’t intend to fight against Germany. I did not think the war would last long—only a few months—and I knew all the time I could run away if I wanted to. So in December I left.
Q. What was the occasion of your leaving?
A. I commenced to discriminate the soldiers and make them out as to what they really were, and I found them a lot of rats. I saw that I was not a Britisher in my ideas, and that I favored the cause of Germany. I used to stay away from the other soldiers all I could, and go out with a newspaper and read in the fields. They were always bullyragging me, and one time I almost killed two soldiers for it. They chastised me for a German spy. I got away, and worked in Bath for a week, and then the police caught me and brought me back, and I was later discharged by my colonel when I explained that I could not agree with their theory of the war....