e was the _Koenigsberg_, a third-class
cruiser. When the war came she was in Asiatic waters and immediately
made the east coast of Africa her "beat." While patrolling it she
came upon two British merchant ships, and after taking from their
stores such supplies as were needed she sent them to the bottom.
On September 20, 1914, she made a dash into the harbor of Zanzibar
and found there the British cruiser _Pegasus_, which on account of
her age was undergoing a complete overhauling. She was easy prey
for the German ship, for besides the fact that she was stationary her
guns were of shorter range than those of her adversary. Shell after
shell tore into her till she was battered beyond all resemblance to
a fighting craft. But her flag flew till the end, for though it
was shot down from the masthead, two marines held it aloft, one
of them losing his life. And when the _Koenigsberg_, her task of
destruction complete, sailed off, the lone marine still held up
the Union Jack. The British ships in those waters made a systematic
hunt for her and located her at last, on the 30th of October. She was
hiding in her favorite rendezvous, some miles up the Rufigi River
in German East Africa. The ship which found her was the _Chatham_, a
second-class cruiser, with a draft much heavier than that of the
_Koenigsberg_, and the difference gave the latter a good advantage,
for she ran up the river and her enemy could not follow. Nor could
the English ship use her guns with much effect, for the gunners
could not make out the hull of the German ship through the tropical
vegetation along the river banks. All that the British ship could
do was to fire shells in her general direction and then guess what
effect they had. But to prevent her escape, colliers were sunk
at the mouth of the river. She had come to as inglorious an end
as her victim, the _Pegasus_.

The account of another raider, the _Kronprinz Wilhelm_, which left
New York on the evening that England declared war, with her bunkers
loaded with coal and other supplies for warships, has already been
related. The mystery concerning this sailing was cleared up when
she was caught coaling the _Karlsruhe_ in the Atlantic. Both ships
made off in safety that time, and soon after a British cruiser
reported that she had been heard in wireless communication with
the _Dresden_. Thereafter the fate of this ship remained a mystery
till she put in at Hampton Roads on April 11, 1915.

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