A hundred years ago today, November 10, 1914, the American papers were all reporting the sinking of the SMS Emden in the Cocos Islands. The headline shown here is from the New York Evening World.

Upon learning of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, her captain, Karl von Müller, anticipated war and prepared for commerce raiding in the Indian Ocean. He captured a Russian freighter soon after the outbreak of hostilities, and continued to operate in the region, terrorizing allied commerce, capturing almost two dozen ships. In October, Müller decided to attack the British coaling station in the Cocos Islands, which was equipped with a wireless station. Müller’s intention was to destroy the wireless station, and also attempted to jam the signal. But the station was able to get out a message that an unidentified ship was off the entrance of the harbor. The Australian cruiser HMAS Sydney was only 60 miles away. The Emden picked up the Sydney’s wireless signals, but believed that the Australian ship was much further away.

The Sydney’s six inch guns were able to inflict serious damage to the Emden. The Emden was ultimately beached, and scrapped in the 1950’s. A raiding party had already landed on the island, and was left to its own devices. The landing party seized another ship and sailed to Yemen, which was then part of the Ottoman Empire, an ally of Germany.

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