Captain's Log SMS Emden 1914 Part I

After months of dormancy, I've decided to give this blogging thing a go again.

Overview

This Summer and Fall I took part in an PBEM Naval Campaign run by the Mad Padre covering the German Far East and East African squadron's.   I was assigned the role of Captain Muller of the SMS Emden.  After a tense campaign and several very narrow escapes, I emerged as the last German ship afloat and steamed out of the Campaign area to wind up the Campaign.

Here's the map of the Campaign that I worked with, cobbled together from images sent on my Mike.  Higher trade numbers indicated better hunting for raiders, I can't recall if higher hurricane numbers correspond to higher chances of storms or vice versa, but we never had a storm.  The map extends east to Africa, but Emden never got that far.  The Germans have bases at Tsingtao, Rabaul and Das Es Salaam in East Africa.  The Royal Navy has bases (I assumed) in Hong Kong, Singapore, Cape Town and Sydney.  There were other Allies with bases in Vietnam (French), Japan, Vladivostok and probably others.

Emden started in Tsingtao along with the converted liner Prinz Eitel Frederich.  Admiral Von Spee had the Scharnhorst, Gneisenau and Nurnberg in Rabaul (although I missed that detail, see below), and Kongisberg was in Das Es Salaam.

Operational Orders for SMS Emden

I received the following from Von Sped

Your designated area of operations is to the West of the Caroline Islands. Your designated resupply area is the South China Sea, where you will find a depot of coal and ammunition, to be used once.

Your area of operations is where the most merchant traffic is to be expected, which also means that this will be the area where the most enemy warships will hunt for you. I trust in your judgement and prudence.

The Kaiser counts on you. Good hunting!

That's all she wrote, plus some generally good instructions for good behaviour and keeping safe.  I had a lot of freedom, but no idea what any other German ships were doing.

I made an initial blunder making a single to Von Spee with suggestions, thinking that he was in the same port.  Instead it went by wireless and the response was basically "stay in your lane and off the airwaves"!  Fair enough, I wouldn't have sent it if I had realized that it could be overheard.

I therefore took our steam pinnace to visit the Prinz Eitel Frederich and confer with her captain.  He had similar orders to operate West of the Carolines.  We agreed to meet up in the Coral Sea onTurn 12 if possible.

Early Moves

First order of operations was to get out to sea before Tsingtao became blockaded!  We sailed in company with Prinz Eitel Frederich into the Bonin Islands sea zone on turn 1.  We arrived with 16 of 18 coal points remaining.  Our transit was uneventful, calm weather, no encounters. 

On Turn 2 we parted company with Prinz Eitel Frederich and steamed into the rich hunting grounds of the Dutch East Indies, meeting our first encounter.  Our lookouts spotted smoke and judge it to be a merchant steamer. She is riding heavy with cargo, steaming north, and is flying the Japanese flag. Tempting, but since our last intel indicated that Germany was not at war with Japan we let her sail on untouched.

Also on Turn 2 we received two wireless signals.  

• From Port Commander, Tsingtao: under blockade by at least four ships.
• From Kriegsmarine Command to all ships: be advised that Japan has declared war on Germany. All Japanese ships to be considered hostile.

Our GM Mike confirmed that our encounter was before Japan's declaration of war, so we did avoid committing war crimes by attacking a Neutral.

Turn 3 Hunting in the Dutch East Indies

We had three encounters, but sadly not quite the ships that I wanted to meet.

1. The Brazilian merchant steamship SS Araraquara transporting a cargo of textiles from Madras, India, to South America. Her captain politely noted that his country was neutral and requested that he be allowed to proceed.  We wished our Brazilian friends a safe journey.
2. The Dutch warship De Ruyter, and her captain noted that we were not welcome in Dutch waters and invited us to be careful of our navigation. She spent the better part of the day shadowing us but broke off at sunset.   We sent a bottle of schnapps and a case of Tsingtao beer to the Captain and informed him that would be leaving Dutch East Indies waters.
3. The British SS Diplomat, carrying a cargo of cured beef and pork from Australia for a military port in Madras.  We put a prize crew on her and had them accompany us with a view to transferring her coal to Emden.

Sparks picked up another two signals as follow.

• A German coded message from port commander, Dar Es Salaam, port blockaded by at least one hostie warship, believed to be a cruiser.
• Late in the turn we detected a strong wireless signal, a short message in what is believed to be a British code. Sparks indicated the sending ship was within the Dutch East Indies sea zone.

So after three turns and using up 1/3 of our coal we have encountered four ships, three os them neutrals and one of those a warship telling us to PFO.  Not the best results, but not the worst either.

Turn 4 Encounter in the Timor Sea

With the Royal Navy breathing down our necks and the Dutch anxiously watching us, it was time to sail on to new seas.  I figured that we could emulate Emden's historic path and sail south into the Timor Sea, and then on to the Indian Ocean.  I planned to take our prize along and transfer coal from her a suitable quiet point.  

However, this was not to be.  The early morning was showery but the clouds had cleared somewhat and visibility was several miles.  As we came into the open sea our lookouts first spotted smoke, and then a ship.

According to Jane's she. looks like a British Town Class, both faster and better armed than Emden.  Later we learned that she was in fact HMAS Sydney, Emden's historical nemeses. 

Our gunnery officer estimated that it was at least several hundred metres outside of extreme long range.  The ship was off your port bow, steering left to right across your path, and signal lamp sent “WHAT SHIP?”