United States or Libya ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Within a period of less than three months he sunk fifteen merchant ships, captured the Appam and sent her to Norfolk, Va., then returned home with 199 prisoners and $250,000 in gold bars. And he may have been responsible for the loss of the British battleship King Edward VII, of 16,500 tons, which struck a mine in the North Sea on January 9, 1916.
Much more interest was aroused by the arrival on the 15th February, 1916, of the Appam, because it was then a long time since the German flag had been seen on the American side of the Atlantic. The facts are familiar to German readers from Count Dohna's Möve book.
Without actually affirming one or denying the other, the United States allowed the Appam to remain in German hands, enjoying the same privileges as other interned ships. The Appam was a rich prize indeed. Having a registry of 7,781 tons, she was a modern vessel throughout, having been employed for several years in the trade between South Africa and England.
And, like a good stage director, he pointed significantly to rifles, bayonets, and bombs. There were several notables among the prisoners, including Sir Edward Merewether, Governor of Sierra Leone, and his wife. They were homeward bound from his African post for a vacation when the Moewe took the Appam. All of the persons aboard, save the Germans, were released and the ship interned.
The case was not settled until after the breaking-off of diplomatic relations, when it was no longer of any importance to us. The interest roused by the Appam shrank into nothing before the excitement caused by the arrival of the submarine Deutschland on the 8th July, 1916.
In the far-off future, students of international law will quote the Appam case as a classic. At the German Embassy in Washington volumes were filled with the opinions of eminent lawyers, for the incident was not treated politically by the American Government, but submitted to the courts. Meanwhile the Appam remained interned in Hampton Roads as a prize.
Were the Appam thus forcibly released she would at once have been recaptured by British cruisers waiting off the Virginia Capes. The view which prevailed officially was that the case must be governed by the Prussian treaty, a liberal construction of which appeared to permit the Appam to remain indefinitely at Newport News.
The British Government contested the German claim by demanding the release of the Appam under The Hague Convention of 1907.
Count von Bernstorff, the German Ambassador, immediately notified the State Department that Germany claimed the Appam as a prize under the Prussian-American Treaty of 1828, and would contend for possession of the ship. This treaty was construed as giving German prizes brought to American ports the right to come and go.
The appearance of a captured British steamer, the Appam, at Newport News, Va., on February 1, 1916, in charge of a German naval lieutenant, Hans Berg, and a prize crew, involved the United States in a new maritime tangle with the belligerents. One of the most difficult problems which Government officials had encountered since the war began, presented itself for solution.
Word Of The Day