Submission statement: I’m sharing this 1914 Musterrolle because it opened up a piece of World War I history I had never really seen discussed before.I first came across it while researching maritime history, and to my surprise I found my own grandfather’s name listed among the young German naval cadets aboard the four-masted barque Herzogin Cecilie.
That changed the whole investigation for me. It was no longer just an old ship’s document. It became a direct link to a group of young men who were caught far from home when the war began. When WWI broke out, the Herzogin Cecilie was in Chilean waters. Chile was neutral, and these cadets suddenly found themselves thousands of miles from Germany, with no safe route back. What interests me most is how a single crew list can reveal a much wider and often overlooked consequence of the war: the lives of young naval personnel stranded far from the main European fronts.
I have been researching this episode through the Musterrolle itself, Hapag-Lloyd historical material, Chilean historical context from the Biblioteca del Congreso Nacional, and maritime/naval sources in Chile.
What happened to them? It lasted several years, did they just hang out in Chile the whole time? Were there any friendly countries they could have sailed to? When and how did they get back to Germany?
While most crew members of Herzogin Cecilie remained aboard the interned ship until the end of the war, some were send to an internment camp on Quiriquina Island together with the survivors of the light cruiser SMS Dresden, which had been sunk in the Battle of Más a Tierra in March 1915.
Most of the sailors had to remain in Chile until being repatriated in 1920 with several men staying in South America. However, some of them managed to escape during the war. The most famous case was that of Wilhelm Canaris, who crossed the Andes and boarded a Dutch merchant ship in Buenos Aires and reached Germany after two months. He later became head of the German military-intelligence service and was executed in April 1945 for his opposition to Hitler.
Another case was Lothar Witzke, who managed to board a merchant ship bound to San Francisco in May 1916. Unable to continue to Europe he remained in neutral USA, but was soon employed as spy and saboteur and eventually caught in February 1918. His life was saved when the US president commuted his death sentence to life imprisonment after the armistice. He was eventually deported to Germany in 1923 and was later employed by the intelligence service led by his former crew mate Canaris.
The most daring escape began with the acquisition of the old barque Tinto, bought with funds from Germans living in Chile. With eight crew members of Dresden, four crew members of the German freighter Göttingen and 16 naval cadets from Herzogin Cecilie aboard the sailing ship left Chiloé on 28 November 1916. They managed to reach Norway after 125 days at sea and returned to Germany.
[OP] CaptainCarlosMarsh | 22 hours ago
Submission statement: I’m sharing this 1914 Musterrolle because it opened up a piece of World War I history I had never really seen discussed before.I first came across it while researching maritime history, and to my surprise I found my own grandfather’s name listed among the young German naval cadets aboard the four-masted barque Herzogin Cecilie.
That changed the whole investigation for me. It was no longer just an old ship’s document. It became a direct link to a group of young men who were caught far from home when the war began. When WWI broke out, the Herzogin Cecilie was in Chilean waters. Chile was neutral, and these cadets suddenly found themselves thousands of miles from Germany, with no safe route back. What interests me most is how a single crew list can reveal a much wider and often overlooked consequence of the war: the lives of young naval personnel stranded far from the main European fronts.
I have been researching this episode through the Musterrolle itself, Hapag-Lloyd historical material, Chilean historical context from the Biblioteca del Congreso Nacional, and maritime/naval sources in Chile.
TripleJeopardy3 | 13 hours ago
What happened to them? It lasted several years, did they just hang out in Chile the whole time? Were there any friendly countries they could have sailed to? When and how did they get back to Germany?
Tetrapack79 | 7 hours ago
While most crew members of Herzogin Cecilie remained aboard the interned ship until the end of the war, some were send to an internment camp on Quiriquina Island together with the survivors of the light cruiser SMS Dresden, which had been sunk in the Battle of Más a Tierra in March 1915.
Most of the sailors had to remain in Chile until being repatriated in 1920 with several men staying in South America. However, some of them managed to escape during the war. The most famous case was that of Wilhelm Canaris, who crossed the Andes and boarded a Dutch merchant ship in Buenos Aires and reached Germany after two months. He later became head of the German military-intelligence service and was executed in April 1945 for his opposition to Hitler.
Another case was Lothar Witzke, who managed to board a merchant ship bound to San Francisco in May 1916. Unable to continue to Europe he remained in neutral USA, but was soon employed as spy and saboteur and eventually caught in February 1918. His life was saved when the US president commuted his death sentence to life imprisonment after the armistice. He was eventually deported to Germany in 1923 and was later employed by the intelligence service led by his former crew mate Canaris.
The most daring escape began with the acquisition of the old barque Tinto, bought with funds from Germans living in Chile. With eight crew members of Dresden, four crew members of the German freighter Göttingen and 16 naval cadets from Herzogin Cecilie aboard the sailing ship left Chiloé on 28 November 1916. They managed to reach Norway after 125 days at sea and returned to Germany.