and _Nebraskan_ were American. The Norwegians lost four
steamships and the sailing craft, the Swedes four, the Danes one, the
Greeks one, and the Portuguese one. It was stated that several vessels
believed to have been sunk by submarines, where proof was lacking, had
not been taken into account.

Although this compilation included the _Lusitania_, the _Arabic_, and
other big vessels on which many lives were lost, the list seems of
small consequence in view of later raids upon allied and neutral
shipping by the German undersea boats. It was destined to reach an
ominous length in the succeeding months.

CHAPTER XVII

CRUISE OF THE MOEWE--LOSS OF BRITISH BATTLESHIPS

The cruise of the _Moewe_ stands out as one of the heroic, almost
Homeric achievements of the war. She left Bremerhaven on December 20,
1915, according to one of her officers who afterward reached the
United States, and calmly threaded her way through the meshes of the
British navy's North Sea net. After leaving the shelter of home
waters, with the Swedish colors painted on her hull, the _Moewe_
boldly turned her nose down the Channel. She answered the signals of
several British cruisers and on one occasion at least was saluted in
turn. Having a powerful wireless apparatus aboard, her commander,
Count zu Dohna-Schlobitten, a captain-lieutenant in the Imperial navy,
was able to keep up with the movements of British patrol vessels.
Several intercepted messages told of a strange white liner that
refused to answer questions. This was the _Moewe_, and before passing
into the Atlantic she had changed her coat to black. She was sighted
by probably a dozen British warships before reaching the North
Atlantic. By refusing to heed the signals of distant vessels, which
she had a good chance of outdistancing in a race, and showing every
courtesy to those close at hand, the raider made her escape.

The _Moewe_ had about three hundred men aboard. They were a picked
crew, and her commander a man of daring. Within a period of less than
three months he sunk fifteen merchant ships, captured the _Appam_ and
sent her to Norfolk, Va., then returned home with 199 prisoners and
$250,000 in gold bars. And he may have been responsible for the loss
of the British battleship _King Edward VII_, of 16,500 tons, which
struck a mine in the North Sea on January 9, 1916. It is certain that
the _Moewe_ left a chain of mines behind her on the outward voyage,
some of which undoubte