SMS Seeadler (1888)

SMS Seeadler (Ger: sea eagle) was a three-masted steel-hulled sailing ship. She was one of the last fighting sailing ships to be used in war when she served as a merchant raider with Imperial Germany in World War I. Built as the British-flagged Pass of Balmaha, she was captured by the German submarine SMU U-36, and in 1916 converted to a commerce raider. As Seeadler she had a successful raiding career, capturing and sinking 15 ships in 225 days until she was wrecked, in 2 August 1917, in French Polynesia.

Pass of Balmaha
The ship was launched as Pass of Balmaha by Robert Duncan & Company, Port Glasgow, Scotland, on 9 August 1888 as a steel-hulled ship-rigged sailing vessel measuring. She was 245 ft long, 39 ft in beam and with a depth of 23 ft. Delivered in the following month to the ownership of David R. Clark, a partner in Gibson & Clark, Glasgow, she was registered at that port with Official Number 95087 and signal letters KTRP.

In February 1908, Pass of Balmaha was sold at Leith by Gibson & Clark for £5,500 to The River Plate Shipping Company Ltd of Montreal. Her port of registry remained Glasgow, but she was managed by American interests in Boston, Massachusetts. By 1910, she had been transferred to the Ship Pass of Balmaha Company Ltd, Montreal, and under the management of George I Dewar, Toronto. Both of these companies were controlled by American shipping and lumber interests.

Soon after the outbreak of World War I in 1914 Pass of Balmaha was transferred to the neutral United States flag and registered at Boston in the ownership of the Harby Steamship Company Ltd of New York, part of the Harris-Irby Cotton Company.

Capture
Pass of Balmaha was captured by SMU U-36 in the North Sea in 1915 under somewhat peculiar circumstances. She departed from New York Harbor in June 1915, bound for the Arctic port of Arkhangelsk with a cargo of cotton for Russia. She was intercepted by the British auxiliary cruiser Victorian off the coast of Norway. Victorian's captain led a boarding party to inspect the cargo for contraband. The British captain found reason for suspicion, and ordered Pass of Balmaha to sail to Kirkwall in the Orkney Islands for further inspection. A prize crew of an officer and six marines was left aboard to ensure compliance.

The British also ordered the neutral American colours struck and replaced with the British flag, against the will of Pass of Balmaha's Captain Scott, who realised that this would mark the ship as a belligerent. Soon after, U-36 intercepted Pass of Balmaha. To avoid being impounded, Scott hid the British prize crew in the hold and replaced the Union Jack with the Stars and Stripes. The commander of U-36, Captain Ernst Graeff, was not entirely convinced by this ruse and ordered Pass of Balmaha to sail for Cuxhaven for inspection. Since U-36 was short of personnel, the German prize crew consisted of only one man, Steuermannsmaat (Mate) Lamm. A German ensign was left aboard. Scott and his crew, resentful of what they perceived as British meddling, kept the British marines locked in the hold.

Pass of Balmaha reached Cuxhaven without major incident, and was boarded by a German inspection party. Captain Scott then revealed the British prize crew to the Germans, who took them prisoner. For their cooperation, the Americans were allowed free passage to a neutral country, but Pass of Balmaha became property of the German Navy.

SMS Seeadler
By 1916 the Allies had blockaded German warships in the North Sea, and any commerce raiders that succeeded in breaking out lacked foreign or colonial bases for resupply of coal. This gave rise to the idea of equipping a sailing ship instead, since it would not require coaling.

Seeadler was equipped with an auxiliary engine, hidden lounges, accommodation for additional crew and prisoners, two hidden 105 mm guns, mounted on either side of the forecastle, two hidden heavy machine guns, and rifles for boarding parties. These weapons were rarely fired, and many of the 15 ships encountered by Seeadler were sunk with only one single accidental casualty on either side during the entire journey.

On 21 December 1916, she sailed under the command of Kapitänleutnant Felix von Luckner. The ship was disguised as a Norwegian wood carrier and succeeded in crossing the British blockading line despite being boarded for an inspection. The crew had been handpicked partly for their ability to speak Norwegian. Over the next 225 days, she captured 15 ships in the Atlantic and Pacific and led the British and US Navies on a merry chase.

Her journey ended wrecked on a reef at the island of Mopelia 450 km from Tahiti in the Society Islands, part of French Polynesia. The ship needed maintenance so that her hull could be scraped clean but she was too big for Mopelia's harbour and so had to lay anchor outside the reef. Disaster struck when on 2 August 1917 a tsunami wave lifted the ship and smashed her on the reef, totally destroying the ship. No prisoners or crew were killed. The ship was burned in an attempt to hide their presence from Allied ships.

Captured ships
Sixteen ships, totalling 30,099 tons, were captured by Seeadler between 21 December 1916 and 8 September 1917. Unless otherwise noted, all vessels in the list were steamships.

Captain Felix von Luckner
On 23 August 1917 Felix von Luckner and five of his crew sailed for Fiji on one of Seeadler's open boats. In Fiji, they were captured and imprisoned. Luckner spent his time as a prisoner of war (POW) on Motuihe Island which lies between Motutapu and Waiheke islands in the Hauraki Gulf of New Zealand, near Auckland. On 13 December 1917 he stole the prison commander's motor boat and seized the 90-ton scow Moa. Allied ships were able to guess his destination and arrested him on 21 December 1917.

Leutnant Kling and the remaining crew
On Mopelia, the remaining 58 crew of SMS Seeadler that were left behind by Luckner heard of his arrest on the ship's radio. A small French schooner Lutece, of 126 tons, anchored outside the reef, lured to the island by the idea of salvaging the wreckage of the Seeadler. The Germans were able to board and seize the ship, its crew left with the other POWs on the island. On 5 September 1917, they set sail for South America after renaming the ship Fortuna. They sailed to Easter Island as Fortuna, arriving on 4 October and running aground there, after which they were interned by the Chilean authorities.

POWs left behind
After being abandoned by Lt Kling when they sailed off on the Fortuna, the master of the 14th ship SMS Seeadler sank, the A. B. Johnson, Captain Smith, then took the remaining open boat from Seeadler. He set off from Mopelia with three other American seamen, and sailed 1,600 km to Pago Pago, arriving on 4 October 1917, where they were finally able to inform the authorities of the activities of Seeadler and arrange for the rescue of the other 44 sailors left stranded on Mopelia.