Mystery Raider of Mazatlan

Was the little schooner Alexander Agassiz setting out to raid and plunder under the to have been ordered to Mazatlan in 1917 in powered with a reciprocating steam engine that search of a raider. But, as Ronald T. Strong, an could drive her at more than twelve-knots. German flag, or was she merely the hapless victim of a bizarre set of circumstances? officer serving on this ship at that time and After service in Cuba and the Philippines subsequently a rear admiral in the US Navy, during the Spanish-American War and several Although four widely varying recalled many years later, “My experiences years on the China station, she returned to the accounts were published about would indicate that all the rumors about West Coast of the United States where she German raiders, gunrunning, and radio functioned as one of a number of Navy ships this little-known incident of stations were nothing more than rumors. that were in and out of commission for the next Marblehead spent many miserable days trying decade. Back in service for WWI with a crew of World War I, we leave it to our readers to to run down these rumors, but with very reservists aboard, she was anchored off determine which one may be the truth… disappointing results.” Mazatlan, Mexico, in March 1918. However, even as the end of the war came Mazatlan was the best of Mexico’s west coast BY DAVID H. GROVER near, American authorities had not ruled out ports, located in the State of Sinaloa on the the possibility of German raiders still operating mainland at the entrance to the Gulf of in Pacific waters. In fact, early in 1918, with California, just a few miles south of the Tropic three West Coast ships, in the words of seamen, of Cancer. The US Navy in peacetime had often “gone missing” — the schooner Winslow, the ex- maintained a station ship here, as had the whaler Beluga, and the schooner Encore — British and Germans whose ships departed in uring World War One, the US Navy was about the same time, the US Navy, lacking a there was speculation that another raider was August 1914 when the war began. It was a very concerned over the possibility that ship to make the investigation, asked the at large in the Pacific. As it turned out, these center of both German activity and anti- DGerman raiders might attack Allied Japanese to check out a rumored raider near vessels had indeed been captured by a raider — American sentiment. In 1916, the State of shipping in the Pacific. Early in the war, while Hawaii, which may have been the mysterious the Wolf — operating in the Southwest Pacific Sinaloa, in which Mazatlan was located, the United States was still neutral, the German German-owned but American-operated steamer late in 1917. reportedly declared war independently on the cruiser Leipzig had outwitted American Maverick, which had earlier been involved in a Inevitably, there was an incident United States, a reflection of hostility arising authorities in obtaining coal in Mexico, and had gunrunning plot and had then become a kind of during the last year of the war that from the Mexican revolution, not World War gone on to a brief career as a surface raider on spook ship that accosted and frightened the did appear to confirm the existence One. Although it is not perfectly clear that an the west coast of North and South America. crews of several ships. of German raiders along the official declaration was actually made, it was Such German naval raiders, including the Whether genuine raiders ever reached the Mexican coast. This episode clear that the people of Mazatlan felt that they most famous of them — the Emden — had their west coast of North involved the gun- were at war. brief moment of glory shortly after the outset of America after the time boat Vicksburg Fortunately, however, the Mexican nation the war, after which only rumors spoke of their of the Leipzig is ques- of the US Navy. had not followed this example. By the early part existence. Somewhat later in the war, however, tionable, but the US This vessel, of 1918, the political situation had stabilized the existence of German merchant marauders Navy anticipat- dating from somewhat under President Carranza whose was even better documented than that of naval ed they might. 1897, was a 204- government had been recognized by the raiders. The Moewe made two highly successful The Navy’s official foot steel ship United States. Nevertheless, there was still forays into the South Atlantic, and the Wolf history for the old originally much intrigue generated in the State of came out of the Atlantic into the Indian Ocean unarmored cruiser rigged as a Sinaloa by the restless German colony. and the Southwest Pacific. Count von Luckner, Marblehead, three-masted On 14 March 1918, the Vicksburg, under the the famous privateer, harassed Allied shipping vintage 1890, barkentine, command of Lt. Charles E. Reordan, USN, from his innocuous-looking sailing ship, the indicates that but was arrived and anchored outside the Seeadler, which rounded Cape Horn and came early in 1918 she was mouth of the harbor at Mazatlan in into the Pacific, venturing as far north as the ordered “in search response to a tip received several days equator as late as the summer of 1917. of possible earlier by the American consul. An In the eastern Pacific, there had been raiders informant had reported that German persistent rumors of a German raider base near in the nationals would soon attempt to leave port on Mazatlan on the Mexican coast and, as late as California 1917, the British Admiralty gave serious area.” This SMS Seeadler and its daring Kapitanleutnant Felix von Luckner were exactly the reasons the Allies were scared consideration to the report of a raider off the ship is of the German sea raiders. However, it would seem western approaches to the Panama Canal. At known Alexander Agassiz was an entirely different affair! 20 SEA CLASSICS/January 2020 seaclassicsnow.com 21.

Load more