The Cruise of the Sea Eagle: The Amazing True Story of Imperial Germany's Gentleman Pirate

On December 21, 1916, a three-masted sailing ship slipped out of the river Weser in northern Germany. Her captain had false papers, a deliberately damaged logbook, and a young sailor with a blonde wig to pose as his wife. The ship sailed under a false flag, and even her name - the Hero - was a ruse. So begins the amazing true story of The Cruise of the Sea Eagle, author Blaine Pardoe's account of Felix von Luckner, the Imperial German Navy raider set upon the high seas to sink Britain's vital wartime supply ships during World War I.

Using sheer determination, pluck, and the quick of his wits, von Luckner steered clear of the British Navy to board and sink as many merchant ships as he possibly could. Within a month, he had already boarded and sunk three vessels. But unlike Germany's vaunted submarine fleet, the gentleman pirate made room on his ship for all prisoners, and never fired a shot unless it was unavoidable.

Von Luckner's adventures include the tale of the Dupleix. When confronted by the Seeadler's message - Stop Immediately. German Cruiser - the French captain thought a colleague was playing a practical joke and rowed out to the German raider. The Dupleix was sunk soon thereafter. When chased by no fewer than three British Navy ships, von Luckner evaded capture by rounding the Horn in a heavy storm, raiding ships all the way. He marked his prisoners' personal effects with the word "Seeadler," causing the British to crow that the Seeadler had sunk, which gave von Luckner more time to slip away. And when the Seeadler ran aground on Mopelia Island in the Pacific, von Luckner and five crew members sailed nearly 2,500 miles in an open boat to raid again in an effort worthy of Shackleton, only to be captured. What happened after he escaped caps what is perhaps the most remarkable tale of piracy and adventure since Daniel Defoe's vivid imaginings, a tale all the more remarkable since it actually occurred in an era when pirates were still possible.

The adventures of Count Felix von Luckner’s three-masted sailing vessel that raided the high seas during the first ironclad sea war.