he Sydney left here yesterday, and our
few hours of war excitement were over."

Captain Mucke's return home from the Cocos Island was filled with the
most extraordinary adventures, and when he finally arrived in country
controlled by his Allies he was greeted as a hero.

While the story of the Emden especially interested the world, the
Koenigsberg also caused much trouble to English commerce. Her chief
exploit occurred on the 20th of September, when she caught the British
cruiser Pegasus in Zanzibar harbor undergoing repairs. The Pegasus had
no chance, and was destroyed by the Koenigsberg's long-range fire.
Nothing much was heard later of the Koenigsberg, which was finally
destroyed by an English cruiser, July 11, 1915.

The exploits of these two German commerce raiders attracted general
attention, because they were the exceptions to the rule. The British, on
the other hand, were able to capture such German merchantmen as ventured
on the sea without great difficulty, and as they did not destroy their
capture, but brought them before prize courts, the incidents attracted
no great attention. The Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse, which had been fitted
up as a commerce destroyer by the Germans at the beginning of the war,
as was the Spreewald of the Hamburg-American Line, and the Cap
Trafalgar, were caught and sunk during the month of September. On the
whole, English foreign trade was unimpaired.

But though the German fleet had been bottled up in her harbors, Germany
was not yet impotent. There remained the submarine.

Up to 1905 Germany had not a single submarine. The first German
submarine was launched on August 30, 1905. Even then it was considered
merely an experiment. In February, 1907, it was added to the register of
the fleet. On January 1, 1901, there were only four nations that
possessed submarines, France, with fourteen; the United States, with
eight; England, with six, of which not one was completed, and finally
Italy, with two. In 1910, Germany appropriated 18,750,000 marks for
submarines, and in 1913, 25,000,000 marks. On January 1, 1914, the total
number of submarines of all nations was approximately four hundred.

Early in the war the submarine became a grave menace to the English navy
and to English commerce. On the 5th of September the Pathfinder, a light
cruiser, was torpedoed and sunk with great loss of life. On September
22d, three cruisers, the Cressy, Hogue, and Aboukir were engaged in
patrolling the c