Remembering the Emden

von Muller 

On September 22nd, the day a hundred years ago when the German light cruiser Emden shelled Madras, there came to a close this year a month-long photographic exhibition mounted by the Australian Deputy High Commission in South India of the Sydney-Emden battle that brought to an end the saga of the daring German raider that had terrorised the Indian Ocean for three months

 To have been held with the exhibition were talks by Australian author Mike Carlton who has written the latest in a long list of books on the Emden and its ultimate fate, which offered him the title of his book, First Victory — 1914 , the reference being to the first ever victory in war of the then new nation, Australia, thanks to H.M.A.S. Sydney . Unfortunately, that part of the programme did not come off, but a copy of the book came my way — and I must say it is by far the best of the published material I’ve read of theEmden .

von Mucke

One of the things in the book that grabbed my interest was the example after example of the chivalry and gentlemanliness shown by Karl von Muller and his men to the crews of the ships they captured (not one life of an Allied merchant seaman was lost during the cruise of the Emden ) and the appreciative reports this behaviour received in the English-language press everywhere. “The Gentleman of the German Fleet”, he was called. This appreciation of von Muller almost bordered on reverence — or should I say typical British irreverent humour?

One newspaper, The Empire , Calcutta, carried this classified advertisement:

“ There is no doubt that the German cruiser Emden had knowledge that the Indus was carrying 150 cases of North West Soap Company’s celebrated ELYSIUM Soap, and hence the pursuit. The men on the Emden and their clothes are now clean and sweet, thanks to ELYSIUM Soap. Try it! ”

 Lauterbach

A month later, in October 1914, an Australian newspaper reported that “all British residents in India hold the captain of the Emden in very high regard, although they would like to hear of his capture.” Then the report goes on to burnish von Muller’s reputation further, stating: 

“ When the Medina was at Bombay, an interesting story was going the rounds of official circles there which goes to show that theEmden’s commander is not without a keen sense of humour. Knowing that the ships were hung up at Rangoon (fearing the Emden ) he despatched a wireless message to the authorities there stating that if they wished to send any mails to Calcutta he would take them on .” The Brisbane Courier concluded its report: “The humour of the situation was fully appreciated in Calcutta.”

The couple of stories I’ve related above about the Emden are from the newspapers of the time, but for years now there has been celebrated, beside the Emden plaque on the Madras High Court’s eastern wall, a tale of an Indian being aboard the Emden and “guiding it to Madras” and then visiting kinsfolk in Cochin. 

This well-publicised annual commemoration on September 22nd celebrates these ‘exploits’ of a ‘hero’ from the Nagercoil area, Chempakaraman Pillai. Sadly, none of the material I have read on the Emden by British and German writers, and now this detailed history by an Australian, mentions Chempakaraman Pillai. Nor do a couple of German friends of mine who checked the Emden crew list in the German records.

On the other hand, Chempakaraman certainly deserves remembrance for being in the forefront of the Indian freedom movement, founding one freedom-for-India Committee in Switzerland and then merging it with the Indian Independence Committee in Berlin in September-October 1914 (when he was supposed to have been on the Emden in South Indian waters!).

 He was a student in Germany at the time (of engineering? of medicine? — both are mentioned) and is said to have been the first to raise the ‘Jai Hind’ cry. He also urged Indian soldiers in Europe to revolt. Later, he was associated with Subhas Chandra Bose, after Bose had visited Vienna. Making Berlin his home, Chempakaraman championed Indian freedom till he passed away in 1934.

While there is no evidence to show that Chempakaraman was on the Emden , there is plenty to show that he was one of the earliest and most dedicated champions of Indian freedom. And that certainly deserves commemoration. Even on September 22nd, because, it has been suggested, that one of von Muller’s reasons for shelling Madras was “to stir up local discontent against the British.”

Footnote: To clear up several different stories about what happened to von Muller and what was left of his crew after the ‘Battle of the Cocos Islands’, Carlton tells us: the Sydney took von Muller and most of his surviving crew to Colombo and then to Malta where they remained prisoners till the end of the War; his second-in-command,

 Hellmuth von Mucke, and his landing party who blew up the Cocos Islands’ communications post escaped to the Dutch East Indies, from there to Yemen and, thereafter, by foot and dhow, along the Red Sea coast, to reach Turkey, an ally, and then Germany; and the third group, the prize crew on a captured vessel were imprisoned in Singapore but escaped when the Sikh infantry guarding them mutinied. 

The Emden and von Muller’s story have been the subject of a couple of films, but von Mucke’s and prize captain Julius Lauterbach’s epic escapes would certainly be film-worthy even today, I had long speculated, till a film buff recently told me that the von Mucke story had been made in Germany into an exciting film, Odyssey of Heroes , that was released last year. When do we see it? And will a film of Lauterbach’s peregrinations be made someday?

H S Muthiah 6 Oct 14