Count Felix Graf von Luckner

When thinking about the Imperial German Navy in World War One, the image of a U-Boat automatically springs to mind. But there were other stories of the sea, and there were other men of the sea that were lauded by friend and foe alike because of their courage, honor and nobility. Felix Graf von Luckner was one such man.

Felix Graf von Luckner was born in Dresden on June 9, 1881 and was quite an adventurer. He had ran away from home at age thirteen to see a Buffalo Bill show, then signed up as an unpaid cabin boy on a Russian sailing ship under the assumed name of “Phylax Lüdecke.” He jumped ship in Australia and spent seven years doing an assortment of things to get by.

He enrolled in a German navigation training school at age twenty and passed the examinations for his mate’s commission. He volunteered service to the Imperial Navy and he took part in the Battle of Heligoland Bight, and during the Battle of Jutland he commanded a gun turret aboard the battleship Kronprinz Wilhelm.

In order to combat the lethal British blockade, Germany had converted several merchant ships into raiders by equipping them with guns and sending them in search of Allied merchant ships, but by 1915 most of the armed raiders had been sunk or interned. Germany could not send out any of the German Grand Fleet as they were involved in a stand off with British and French fleets, and they could not afford to lose any more ships.

All the Germans had left to commission was a 245-foot, full-rigged, Scottish-built three masted wooden bark built in 1888 that the Germans had captured off of Norway. It was close to the end of its life and needed a total rehaul. She was renamed “Seeadler” and she would find herself a perfect captain: the ten year veteran of sailing ships with an outstanding record in the German Navy, colorful aristocrat Count Felix Von Luckner. As virtually the only officer in the German Navy with extensive experience of large sailing ships, Luckner was appointed commander of the impounded ship. The problem was how to get it through the tight British blockade.

The Seeadler, with its bogus name “Irma” and a load of timber supposedly bound for Australia, carried false papers and a pilfered log book when it quietly slipped out of the river Weser on December 21, 1916 and skirted up the Norwegian coast to sneak around the tip of Northern Scotland where it could break free into the Atlantic. Many of the crew of 6 officers and 57 men on the “Irma” were chosen for their ability to speak Norwegian, as could the captain, in case of British interception.
As part of the pretense, von Luckner had a thin young sailor ready to wear a blonde wig and masquerade as his wife.

The Seeadler had only two obsolete cannons and a few rifles for protection when she sailed straight into one of the worst hurricanes that had hit the North Sea in a long time. As Luck(ner) would have it, the hurricane was more of a blessing than a curse. Although Von Luckner, running the frozen ship with the wind, was being pushed dangerously North toward the arctic ice, the storm had dispersed the British blockade and forced their ships back to port. In the nick of time, the winds died down and the crew was able to free the ice from the blocks and the running rigging could finally be used to change sail. The Seeadler sailed toward calmer seas.

After a close call with a boarding party from an armed British merchant cruiser, Von Luckner was cleared to proceed, and on Jan 9, 1917 the Count captured his first vessel, the steamship Gladys Royal, who was carrying 5,000 tons of coal. The entire crew of captured sailors were taken safely aboard the Seeadler while the Gladys Royal was sent to the bottom of the sea. In the next thirty thousand miles of sailing, Von Luckner sunk 14 ships and would never allow any of the crew of his captured vessels to drown. He not only allowed the captured sailors to live, he treated them with the utmost respect and courtesy. They were well-fed, well-berthed and allowed recreation on deck while their Captains dined daily with Von Luckner at the Captain’s table.

About the time the Seeadler’s prisoners’ quarters were bursting at the seams from his generosity, Von Luckner captured a French bark, the Cambronne, which was well stocked with provisions. He extracted a promise from his prisoners that if he let them have the Cambronne, albeit with much-reduced rigging to slow it down, they would not try to converse with any ships and would sail directly to the nearest port, Rio de Janeiro, thus allowing the Seeadler time to make her getaway. He then treated the departing Captains, under the command of Captain Mullen of the Pinmore, to a banquet, and with his own money he paid every captured seaman the same wages they would have earned otherwise during their time of captivity. They sailed off to freedom and all of them kept the promise. The notorious Count was from that time forward given the name “The Sea Devil.”

The Seeadler had successfully sunk 50,000 tons in her short career. Every man of the crew eventually returned home to Germany. Von Luckner had lost not one of his own crew or any of those captured throughout his many raids. After the war, Von Luckner authored a book of his adventures and traveled extensively, lecturing and teaching in the United States and England. Many cities in the United States made him an honorary citizen.