Todd war diary, 3 August 1914-29 February 1916 / Arthur Todd - Page 292
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[Page 292]
was with other ships. I fear we scared more honest British traders than we ever knew; at any rate all fled on sight as fast as their old fat sides would let them.
We arrived back at St. Lucia on February 13th, with the ghost of then Karlsruhe still unlaid and with no information as to her whereabouts. We lay awaiting orders in the harbour till February 15th, and then steamed out to do some battle practice off the port, intending to return at nightfall. But it was not to be. Early in the afternoon a wireless came to proceed with all despatch to Lavandeira Reef, two thousand miles away off N.E. Brazil, as the Admiralty had trustworthy information that the remnants of the German Atlantic Squadron were intending to foregather there. The Kronprinz Wilhelm, the Karlsruhe, the Prinz Eitel Friedrich, and their colliers and storeships were expected, and the Sydney was despatched to break in upon the party. It was a pretty compliment on the part of the authorities to send us to tackle three ships, and many and various were the schemes worked out by the local and self-constituted war staff as to how we were to scupper three Huns and keep ourselves reasonably whole. At last it was agreed that if necessary we could politely leg it from the armed merchantmen and the deal with the Karlsruhe if she chased us, and the Engineer Commander was asked what he could whack her up to. The Edinburgh Castle, an armed merchantman, was told off for our assistance, but we did not expect her to arrive in time. We had two thousand miles to go and four days and a half to do it in, and the