Description
This Commerative medal was presented to the Captain von Muller for duty meritorious from the 2nd August 1914 to the 9th November 1914. It reads and we can we quote TATIGKEIT DES KREIUZER,S.”
EMDEN. CA P MULLER.
This Commerative token was presented to Captain P Muller, in recognition of his service to the Fatherland. The medal itself was worn my Captain Muller until his untimely death., some five years after the end of hostilities in 1923.
From this time the medal of honour was maintained within his immediate family.
Grade: Is described as Very Fine, it has a wonderful patina, and all aspects are readable. The token itself reads In memory of The Emden, after careful research this medal of honour was issued to Captain Muller himself in 1915.
Price: $3000.00. is offered for a very rare piece of history that time=links Australia to Germany.
SMS Emden was a Dresden class light cruiser who became the best known German commerce raider of the First World War. At the start of the war she was present in Tsingtao, Germany’s colony in China.
Emden left Tsingtau on 31 July under the command of Captain von Müller. Once at sea she received news of the outbreak of war between Germany and Russia, and steamed toward the Korean Strait, where on 4 August she captured the Russian steamer Riasan. As she sailed back to Tsingtau with her prize she learnt of the outbreak of war with Britain. Riasan was armed and turned into the commerce raider Cormoran, and Emden set off again, this time to join Admiral von Spee at Pagan Island in the Mariana Islands, part of Germany’s Pacific Island empire.
The Emden reached von Spee at Pagan Island before 13 August. While von Spee pondered his options, and moved west to the Marshall Islands, on 13 August Emden was detached into the Indian Ocean, supported by his supply tender, the Markomannia.
From the Mariana Islands, the Emden sailed south, before turning west along the southern coast of Java and then Sumatra, just missing a an encounter with British warships in the Java Strait, and then at Simalur Island, off the west coast of Sumatra. From there she sailed directly into the Bay of Bengal. By 10 September she was on the shipping lane between Colombo and Calcutta, just north of Sri Lanka, and her successful career was about to begin.
Her first capture was the Greek steamship Pontoporos, carrying 6,000 tons of coal. Although a neutral ship, she was carrying contraband cargo, and so was commandeered, to serve as a second collier, with the Markomannia.
For the moment the Emden was just about the only warship in the Bay of Bengal. The British fleet that should have been there was accompanying the Indian Army expedition in the Arabian Sea. Meanwhile, trade had picked up after a brief pause at the start of the war.
Over the next few days the Emden captured and sank the Indus, Lovat, Killin, Diplomat, Trabboch and Clan Matheson (the last of these was captured at just before midnight on 14 September). The Kabinga, carrying a neutral cargo was also compelled to accompany the Emden, and then on 14 September released with all the prisoners captured from the other ships. Finally, a neutral Italian ship, the Loredano was encountered but let go. The captain of the Loredano spread the news, although his ship lacked a radio, and at 2 pm on 14 September the message finally reached Calcutta.
From the vicinity of Calcutta, the Emden sailed east towards Burma, but news of her presence had prevented any ships from sailing. At the same time the British response was developing. HMS Hampshire, HMS Yarmouth and the Japanese cruiser Chikuma were dispatched from Singapore into the Bay of Bengal to begin the hunt. Their search would be largely futile, with news of the Emden reaching them too late to be of use.
Captain von Müller then turned west. Aware that the British would be patrolling the entrance to the Bay of Bengal he decided to attackMadras, then escape south out of the bay. She arrived at Madras at 9.20 pm on 22 September, just over twelve hours after the Bay of Bengal had been declared safe for shipping
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