The most famous captain of a German merchant raider, Felix von Luckner, used a sailing ship SMS Seeadler for his voyage during World War I.

However, the city did not sustain further damage because a planned aerial bombardment was canceled, after a former Commander of the First World War, Count Felix von Luckner and the city's Mayor negotiated the surrender of the city to the American army.

However, Germany put several armed merchant vessels into service as commerce raiders until the end of the war ( for example, see Felix von Luckner ).

He was the great grandfather of Count Felix von Luckner, a German World War I naval officer who commanded the famed merchant raider SMS Seeadler.

The young Felix von Luckner, a German war hero noted for his long voyage on the Seeadler during which he captured 14 enemy ships.

Felix Graf von Luckner ( born Dresden, Germany, 9 June 1881, died Malmö, Sweden, 13 April 1966 ) was a German nobleman, navy officer, author and noted sailor who earned the epithet Der Seeteufel ( the Sea-Devil ) -- and his crew that of Die Piraten des Kaisers ( the Emperor's Pirates ) -- for his exploits in command of the sailing commerce raider SMS Seeadler ( Sea Eagle ) in 1916-1917.

In the early part of the war, Felix von Luckner saw action at the Battle of Heligoland Bight, and during the Battle of Jutland he commanded a gun turret aboard the battleship Kronprinz Wilhelm.

A year after his mission began, the war finally ended for Felix von Luckner.

On 29 March 2004 the society " Felix Graf von Luckner Gesellschaft e. V ." was founded in Halle, with the objective of commemorating Luckner's life and work, especially his role in safeguarding the city of Halle during April 1945.

Count Felix von Luckner in New Zealand and the South Pacific.

* Frankenstein, Norbert von, " Seeteufel " Felix Graf Luckner: Wahrheit und Legende, Hamburg, SSC-Verlag 1997.

* Fraser, Eleanor, " Count Felix von Luckner and the ' Pinmore, Sea Breezes 66, 1992, pp. 772-776.

* Luckner, Felix von, Seeteufel erobert Amerika, Koehler & Amelang, Leipzig, 1928

* Luckner, Felix von, Ein Freibeuterleben, Woldni & Lindeke, Dresden, 1938.

* Luckner, Felix von, Out of an Old Sea Chest, trans.

* Luckner, Felix von, Seeteufel: Abenteuer aus meinem Leben, Koehler, Berlin and Leipzig, 1926.

* Luckner, Felix von, Seeteufels Weltfahrt: Alte und neue Abenteuer, Bertelsmann ( Gutersloh ) 1951.

The story of C. Felix v. Luckner, the German war raider.

* Felix Count von Luckner Society Homepage, Halle, Germany.

de: Felix Graf von Luckner

fr: Felix von Luckner

ga: Felix Graf Von Luckner

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The carillon of the town hall in the Bavarian town of Cham rings the Marseillaise every day at 12. 05 p. m. to commemorate the city's most famous son, Nikolaus Graf von Luckner.

de: Nikolaus von Luckner

sv: Nicolaus von Luckner

The ensign von Luckner would raise on the Seeadler to convey hostile intent is now on display at the Auckland War Memorial Museum.

By coincidence, von Luckner had sailed in Pinmore in his civilian sailing days, back in 1902.

By this time, von Luckner had the problem of feeding and keeping safe nearly 300 prisoners, in addition to his own crew.

Consequently, when on 20 March, the French four-masted barque Cambronne was captured, von Luckner arranged for the ship's topgallant mast and additional spars and sails to be removed, before putting his prisoners aboard Cambronne under the command of Captain Mullen of Pinmore.

According to von Luckner, the ship was struck by a tsunami which wrecked Seeadler on the reef.

The New Zealand Resident in Aitutaki was suspicious, but had no means of detaining the group, and von Luckner quickly took his party to the island of Rarotonga.

Approaching Rarotonga in the dark, Luckner saw a dark ship which he thought was an auxiliary cruiser, but in fact was a beached ship, von Luckner pressed on to the Fijian Wakaya Island, arriving after a voyage of 3, 700 km in an open boat.

Not wishing to cause bloodshed, and not realizing police were unarmed, von Luckner and his party surrendered and were confined in a prisoner-of-war camp on Motuihe Island, off Auckland, New Zealand.

The commander of the POW camp at Motuihe had a fast motor boat, Pearl, at his disposal, and on 13 December 1917, von Luckner faked setting up a play for Christmas with his men and used his provisions for the play to plan his escape.

On 12 May 1921, Luckner became a Freemason of the Lodge Zur goldenen Kugel ( Große Landesloge von Deutschland ) in Hamburg.

Count von Luckner wrote the introduction for Alfred von Niezychowski's book The Cruise of the Kronprinz Wilhelm, 1928, published by Doubleday & Company, about the auxiliary cruiser Kronprinz Wilhelm ( Note: though she had the same name, this was a different ship from the Kronprinz Wilhelm that Count von Luckner was on during the Battle of Jutland )

* Alain Dunoyer de Segonzac, " Luckner, l ' aigle des mers ", Magazine " Chasse-marée ", n ° 40, march 1989.

Initially, Jean-Claude Duvalier resisted the dynastic arrangement that had made him Haiti's leader, having preferred that the presidency go to his older sister Marie-Denise Duvalier, and was content to leave substantive and administrative matters in the hands of his mother, Simone Ovide Duvalier, and a committee led by Luckner Cambronne, his father's Interior Minister, while he attended ceremonial functions and lived as a playboy.

The commanders-in-chief of the armies became political " suspects "; and before a serious action had been fought, the three armies commanded respectively by Rochambeau, Lafayette and Luckner had been reorganized into two commanded by Dumouriez and Kellermann.

Three of his predecessors, Nicolas Luckner, Adam Philippe, comte de Custine, and Jean Nicolas Houchard were under arrest and later executed by guillotine.

He served in the army as maréchal-de-camp under Nicolas Luckner and the Marquis de la Fayette, but was accused of treason on 15 August 1792, fled the country, and was imprisoned by the Austrians.

He was the great-grandson of Nicolas Luckner, Marshal of France and commander-in-chief of the French Army of the Rhine, who had been elevated to count in the 18th century by the King of Denmark.

Luckner was also an accomplished magician – Kaiser Wilhelm was fascinated by his tricks and frequently invited Luckner aboard his yacht to entertain important dignitaries.

Many of the crew of 6 officers and 57 men were selected for the ability to speak Norwegian, including Luckner, in case they were intercepted by the British.

Later, Captain Bannister told Luckner that he had previously been captured by a German raider, and had given his parole which he had broken ; thus he was not anxious to be a prisoner of war again.

Luckner continued his voyage southwards, and by 21 January, he was in mid-Atlantic between Brazil and West Africa when he found the 2, 199 ton French three-masted barque Charles Gounod, loaded with corn.

Luckner refused to renounce his membership of the Masons or the various honorary citizenships granted in the US, and consequently he suffered by having his bank account frozen.

Episode 26 of the TV series Tales from Te Papa featured the sextant used by von Luckner in his escape attempt from New Zealand.

* Life as a prisoner of von Luckner, account by Carl Singer, captured on the Moa.