Part 8

While I was in the Captain’s room the Second Engineer came up, and after searching him to see if he had any revolvers on him, I told him to sit down and make himself comfortable. I asked the Captain if he had any whiskey, as I was cold and had not had much to eat for five days, so the Captain gave me a bottle of whiskey and biscuits. After wishing one another good health we sat there for a couple of hours....

(_From Captain Bergner’s statement_)

At midnight he said that he was going to disable the wireless, and on hearing someone in the chart room he bound me on my honor not to leave the cabin saying that if I did he would shoot me on sight....

(_From the statement of the Second Officer Allen Maclurcom_)

When I came on watch at midnight I passed someone outside the chart room, but it being dark, and thinking it was the Captain, I walked on into the chart room, where this party followed me, and told me to throw my hands up. He told me the ship was under German command, and not attempt to make any resistance as it would mean the sacrifice of the Captain’s and Second Engineer’s lives. He said if the ship had been going to England he would have destroyed her immediately, but as she was bound for Russia he would probably spare her. Then he told me to walk ahead of him to the port-after-lifeboat, and get the axe, which was in the forward end of it. He then took me back to the Marconi room....

(_From the statement of the wireless operator, Alexander Dunnett_)

I was on watch in the wireless room when this man came along with the Second Officer. He held me up with two revolvers, and brought me along to the apprentice’s room, together with the Second Officer. The latter told the apprentice, who acts as second operator, to come out. Schiller held him up, and told us both to go up to the chart room....

(_From the Second Officer’s statement_)

He then took me back to the Marconi room, and proceeded to demolish the installation, holding the revolver against my ribs. From there he went to the Chief Engineer’s cabin and demanded his rifle, I accompanying him, and after obtaining it, threw it overboard. From there he made me walk ahead of him to the Chief Officer’s cabin, who he disarmed whilst he was asleep. He then ordered me to the bridge to steer south-west by compass, and as I was going on the bridge the Third Officer came down and he held him up, I going on the bridge in the meanwhile.

(_From the Wireless Operator’s statement_)

Schiller came back again, and took us into the Captain’s room. Some time later he came back again and brought me down to the wireless room to see if I could repair the wireless installation, which he said he had smashed. I told him it might be possible to repair one instrument, and he said, “We will leave it until morning,” and then brought me along the deck to the Fourth and Fifth Engineers’ cabins and I opened the door and he went in. Both engineers were asleep and he made me search all the drawers; he brought out a revolver and a box of cartridges, which he made me throw over the side. He then took me to the Third Engineer’s cabin, and searched all the drawers there. He brought out of there a bottle of whiskey, and asked me if I had any money. Then he marched me up to the Captain’s cabin and ordered me to remain there until 6 A. M.

(_From “Schiller’s” statement_)

I went into the various officers’ rooms and took all the revolvers from them. From the Steward I took ten dollars, and a two-dollar bill from the Second Mate.

(_From the Second Officer’s statement_)

At 1:30 A. M. he returned to the bridge and ordered me to steer south by compass.

(_From the “Schiller” statement_)

Then I went to the Captain’s cabin again, and told him I should sink the ship, but the Captain said he has worked since a boy on ships for a few shillings a week and he has worked himself up to this and surely it has not come to this. He said he has a wife and a child--a girl--and showed me on the wall the portrait of the child, and I asked him suppose the ship went down would he get another job, and he said he would have to work as a longshoreman. He said it was too rough for the boats to be lowered, so I did not want to commit murder. And knowing that the Captain would lose his position, and as I am a young man and can always find work, I asked the Captain if he will put me ashore in the morning. He gave me his word of honor that he would....

(_From Captain Bergner’s statement_)

At 5:30 A. M. ... he let me take charge of the ship, and I made for Delaware Breakwater....

(_From the Wireless Operator’s statement_)

At 6 A. M. he told me I could go below, but not to go into the wireless room. I was along near the carpenter’s room when he was searching it, and he made me bring out an axe and took me to the wireless room again; there he told me to smash up one of the instruments, and he stood in back of me threatening me. I asked him then if that would do, after I had partly demolished the instruments, and he told me to leave the axe and lock the door, which I did. He then left me.

(_From “Schiller’s” statement_)

When we sighted shore the Captain said that we would have to go straight towards the lighthouse, or else, if we went the other way (the way I wanted to) we should run ashore, so I left it to the Captain and trusted to his word, as he said he would land me....

(_From Captain Bergner’s statement_)

On approaching land he ordered one of the ship’s boats to be manned, and said that he was going to take two of the ship’s officers along as hostages to guarantee that I should not run him down, and he wanted three Chinese from the crew to row him ashore....

(_From the statement of John S. Wingate, Keeper of the Cape Henlopen Coast Guard Station_)

At about 11:30 A. M. I noticed a steamship coming in from off shore. I said to the crew that it was a war vessel coming but I didn’t know whether it was German or British. At 11:45 the lookout reported to me that the steamer was headed direct for Hen and Chicken Shoal. I immediately ordered the signal “J. D.” hoisted on the pole, which means, “You are standing into danger.” When we supposed the ship saw our signal, he stopped, and laid to for about ten minutes, when he hard a-port and went clear of the shoal.

A few minutes later he lowered a boat--we thought to take soundings, for the boat pulled away from the ship and headed direct for the beach.

(_From the Second Officer’s statement_)

At approximately 11:45 A. M.... I got into the small boat at his command, with four of the crew, and we proceeded toward shore, but were stopped by the pilot cutter _Philadelphia_ who told us that if we attempted to land we would be drowned. The _Philadelphia_ then towed us into smooth water....

(_From Captain Wingate’s statement_)

Meanwhile the pilot boat was heading down on the ship, blowing her whistle to warn the ship of her danger. By this time the ship hoisted a signal “K. T. S.,” which means “_Piracy_.” I ordered my boat made ready at once when I saw the “Piracy” signal; five minutes later he started for the ship. At 12:20 I had called Keeper Lynch of the Lewes station telling him what I was going to do, and to meet me off the Point.

(_From the statement of Captain John S. Lynch of the Lewes Coast Guard Station_)

I and my crew launched our power lifeboat and started for the steamer. Before I could get to the steamer I saw the pilot boat towing in the steamer’s skiff. The pilot boat let go of the skiff right off the Capes, and the occupants of the skiff started to row for shore. I called to them and they stopped. We went alongside, and I told them I would take the man ashore and save them the trouble. So he got into our boat.

I then run off and picked up Captain Wingate, whose boat is a rowboat, and we went alongside the steamer. I asked for the Captain of the steamer, and they told me he was going ashore in the sail pilot boat, so we run alongside the sail pilot boat, and I asked the Captain of the steamer to come along with me. He says, “I will not. Not with _that_ man in your boat. He’s got five guns on him!” I then told him that I did not care how many guns he had as I was not afraid of him and he requested me to take the man ashore myself. Then this man Ernest Schiller began to throw his guns overboard: Schiller throwed one gun overboard, Captain Wingate, who had come aboard my boat throwed two overboard, and C. A. Jenkins throwed another one overboard, Schiller having thrown them into the bottom of the boat. He, Schiller, throwed a lot of cartridges overboard, and when we came ashore we searched him and took the balance of the cartridges which he had on him and throwed them overboard. I then brought him up to the Customs Office and left him there.

(_From “Schiller’s” statement_)

I am willing to go back to New York ... immediately, and confess my guilt. I swear on oath that there are no bombs placed on the ship, to my knowledge. I simply made that statement to the Captain as a bluff.

Thus this venturesome Russian, Hodson by birth, Schiller by preference, and German by conviction, who single-handed captured a steamship, returned to New York, thirty-six hours after he had left port. He walked the plank to the United States Penitentiary at Atlanta for life, for “piracy on the high seas.”

VI

ALONG THE WATERFRONT

I

_Sugar and Ships and Robert Fay_

Anyone familiar with the waterfront of a great port can appreciate its difficulties as an area to be policed. One of the busiest sections of the community during the daytime, it is little frequented at night. In districts where you find few people you will rarely find lights, and where there are no lights you may well expect crime. The contours of the shoreline are irregular, following usually the original margins of solid ground lining the natural harbor, and for every thoroughfare which can pass as a street there are a dozen or two alleys, footpaths, shadowy recesses and blind holes. Locks and keys and night watchmen will protect the land side of the piers, but from the water side entrance to any pier is easy, concealment still easier, and flight no trick at all.

If New York harbor in 1914 had presented the aspect of the same harbor of twenty years before, I could hardly estimate the confusion which would have resulted from the coming of war. But there is probably no port in the world which handles New York’s volume of shipping with greater orderliness--I speak now from the standpoint of “law and order” rather than of the terminal facilities of the port. Its waterfront was physically clean and its longshore population, thanks to a competent police force, manageable. And yet, as Shakespeare said, “there are land rats and water rats--”

From August, when war was declared and the Bomb Squad formed, through the fall of the year 1914, certain changes came over the waterfront. Great German liners of the Hamburg-American and North German Lloyd Lines, freighters of the Atlas Line, and a miscellany of other vessels flying the red-white-and-black lay idle in port when England’s fleet blockaded the seaward channels. Some eighty German vessels were tied up at their piers. They dared not move, for Germany’s only available convoys were in southern waters trying to dodge the British and prey upon shipping. The Hamburg-American Line and Captain Boy-Ed made several abortive attempts to supply the raiders, but the considerable merchant fleet caught in port by the war stayed in port. This dumped on the longshore population some thousands of ardent Boches. Meanwhile the great steamship lines owned by neutral and allied capital entered on a period of activity such as they had never seen before. The first ships from abroad brought purchasing agents and European money to barter for American supplies, for immediate delivery. Any man who owned anything that bore a speaking likeness to a cargo-boat suddenly found himself potentially wealthy. The whole United States began to pour into the New York waterfront a huge volume of supplies for the Allies--and for a time for Germany, via neutral Holland and Scandinavia--and out of the Hudson and East rivers flowed a steady, swelling current of this overseas trade.

By the arrival of the year 1915 the current was well under way. The piers were extremely busy and the facilities for trouble were multiplying. On January 3 there was an explosion on the steamship _Orton_ in Erie Basin for which there was no apparent explanation. A month later a bomb was discovered in the cargo of the _Hennington Court_, but no one could say how it came there. Toward the end of February the steamship _Carlton_ caught fire at sea--mysteriously. Two months passed, then two bombs were found in the cargo of the _Lord Erne_. We might have had a look at them, for that was the business of the Bomb Squad, if those who had found the bombs had not dumped them overboard rather hastily. A week later a bomb was found in the hold of the _Devon City_. Again no explanation. Nor any reasonable cause why the _Cressington Court_ caught fire at sea on April 29. Our attention had been directed to each of these instances, and we had investigated, and folders waited in the files for the reports which properly developed would lead to an arrest, and the sum total of those reports was--nothing. Then our luck turned for a moment.

The steamship _Kirkoswald_, out of New York, laden with supplies for France, docked at Marseilles, and in four sugar-bags in her hold were found bombs. The French authorities commandeered them, and removed and analyzed the explosive charge. The police commissioner cabled at once to Marseilles requesting the return of one of the bomb-cases, together with the bag in which it had been found, and an analysis of the contents. No answer. So he cabled again. The bomb-case then began a journey back to the United States, presented with the compliments of the Republic of France by M. Jusserand to the State Department at Washington, and forwarded in turn to Mayor Mitchel of New York. Our study disclosed that it was of a new type: a metal tube some ten inches long, divided into two compartments by a thin aluminum disc. One compartment had held potassium chlorate, a powerful explosive, and the other had contained sulphuric acid. The acid had been expected to eat through the thin disc separating the compartments, and explosion was to have followed, but for some reason it had failed. The metals were of good quality, and the workmanship was thorough.

Here was our first clue on the case. Many policemen work on theory so determinedly that they exclude really important facts which do not fit comfortably into the theory. I have always believed in taking the evidence, building a theory upon it, and then trying to confirm or reject that theory as new facts appear. It was well that we followed such a policy here, for we had nothing but the bomb-tube itself to build our theory upon. What did it offer? First, we were fortunate in having a bomb to study, for usually the fire following an explosion leaves no trace of its origin. We had its construction and ingredients as real, if vague, clues. Second, we knew that the _Kirkoswald_ had carried supplies to France, and that all of the vessels on which bombs had been found or fires had broken out, had also been carrying supplies to the Allies. The list, by this time, had grown, for there were three more ship cases of fires or bombs in May, one in June, and five in July. Our primary theory was, therefore, that the bombs were made and placed on the vessels either by Germans or their paid agents.

The _Kirkoswald_ carried sugar. By examining the cargo-records of the other ships which had suffered near or actual mishaps, we found that they had also carried sugar, and that in the instances when fire broke out, the highly inflammable sugar gave a lot of trouble to the fire crew. The vigilance of the waterfront and harbor police had of course been keyed up to detect anything suspicious, but a bomb-planter does not often carry his bomb under a policeman’s nose, and it seemed not unreasonable to suspect that the bombs had gone aboard with the sugar. So I went to a sugar refinery to see how sugar was made.

I followed the process from the entry of the raw sugar to the bagging and shipping of the finished product. All of the sugar shipped abroad went in bags, which were sewn tight either by hand or by machinery. After considerable testing I found that it was fairly easy to open a hand-sewn bag and sew it up again without leaving evidence of what I had done; the machine stitches, however, resisted any intrusion, and were hard to duplicate once they had been taken out. I put that fact away for future reference and looked in on the shipping department, to learn there that the only two persons who could know of the destination of a consignment of sugar before it was actually loaded into a vessel’s hold were the shipping clerk of the refinery and the captain of the lighter who took the sugar from the refinery to the ship.

So we first paid court to the lighter captains and their aids. We followed shipments of sugar from the refinery doors to the lighters, saw the shipping clerk hand over his bill to the captain, saw the lighter pull out for a pier somewhere about the harbor, followed him to the pier, and watched the transfer of the cargo into the vessel’s hold. If a lighterman knew that hand-sewn bags could be ripped open, and wished to insert a bomb and close the bag again, he would have to do it on the way from the refinery to the pier--of that we were confident, for as soon as the lighter pulled up to the vessel’s side the stevedores rushed the cargo into the hold, the hatches were sealed, and the cargo-checker, employed by the vessel, turned over to the lighter captain his receipt for the consignment. There was apparently no other time for tampering with the bags.

How to watch the bags themselves from the refinery into the vessel was a troublesome problem. The river, during the daytime, is in constant traffic, and navigation for a cumbersome lighter in the river-paths is about as comfortable as crossing Fifth Avenue on foot at rush hour. The river at night was comparatively free, and it was then that most of the lightering was done. A waterman can identify the uncouth shapes of queer craft on dark waters, a landsman cannot, but we had to make the best of a bad bargain and chase the lighters in a motorboat, often diligently following a blinking light through the mist for hours to discover finally that it was on the wrong ship. Ships on a dark river are like timid spinsters in a dark street--they exhibit, perhaps through fear of collision, perhaps because ships are feminine, a strong suspicion of anything that approaches. Our barking motorboat advertised itself half a mile away. If we drifted we lost our quarry. We tried to smuggle men aboard the lighters, but there were so many, and they were bound in so many different directions, that we were not manned for this.

So passed June and July. It was a thankless task, and one which had its risks. Detective Senff fell into the river one night when he was chasing a suspicious character around under a pier at the foot of West 44th Street and nearly drowned before he could be pulled out. The case seemed to be getting no further than abstractions. Ashore, however, we learned that most of the lighter captains in the harbor were Germans, and in an effort to reduce the field we learned the names of the captains of the lighters which had most frequently visited the vessels on which fires had occurred. This took time and an exhaustive study of lighterage receipts, but it brought out the fact that in every case of a delivery of sugar to an outward bound vessel, the captain of the lighter had returned a full receipt--which exploded the possibility that a lighterman might take a bag from one shipment, put a bomb in it, and add it to the next.

I am happy now to say that we did not give up. We couldn’t, for the ship fires were going right on, increasing in frequency, and somebody was making bombs, for they continued to be found. On the assumption that a lighter captain who would place a bomb in a sugar-bag must first get the bomb, we began to shadow the captains, not only afloat but ashore, and then suddenly the case took a queer twist and our theory of German intrigue got badly balled up.

We followed certain lightermen to their homes, their drinking haunts, and their other places of business, and among their other places of business found the residence--on the lower West Side of Manhattan--of a man known to be a river pirate. That was enough for an arrest, and on August 27 we brought Mike Matzet, Ferdinand Hahn, Richard Meyerhoffer and Jene Storms, Germans, and John Peterson, Swede, to headquarters for examination. Matzet confessed that he, and “all the rest” of the lighter captains, as he expressed it, had been regularly stealing sugar from the consignments, and selling it to river pirates for ⅙ the market price, which allowed the pirates to re-sell it at ⅚ the market for 400 per cent. clear profit. The pirates in a motorboat would steal into the shadow of a lighter as she lay at her anchorage, take off a few bags, and slip away. We had seen such boats, but had never been able to close in and see what they were doing. The checkers who were supposed to render a true and just account of the number of bags which later passed into the hatches of the ocean vessels were merely accomplices who shared in the profits when the stolen sugar was sold.

There were no bombs on the captains (who presently went to jail) but they were all fully aware of the conditions along the waterfront, for one said to a pirate who was “buying” sugar: “Take all you want--the damn ship will never get over anyway!” No bombs--and what if there had been? We were reasonably certain that the ships were being fired, but we did not know now whether it was for German reasons, or merely to efface the sugar thefts before the cargoes reached the other side of the ocean and were discovered by the consignees. The conviction of the thieves was not much consolation for the slow development of the case, and it fixed no guilt for bombs.

But when you are bound on a long trip, and you have mislaid your ticket, it is second nature to go through your pockets one by one, knowing full well that it is not in any of them, for you “just looked there.” Then you find it in one of the pockets where you knew it could not be. Acting on a not dissimilar instinct we began to retrace our steps from June to September, and to follow again the progress of sugar from the refinery to the hold of the outward bound steamer. Our theory that the bombs had some connection with the sugar was either to be proven or destroyed this time. It was in this more or less dull review that we made the acquaintance of the Chenangoes.