554 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



The Dismantled French Gunboat Zelee. 



the french ship arriving at papeete with the captured german tramp " walkure, "august 13, 1914. the 

 " walkure" is in the distance awaiting medical inspection. note the upper rigging of the "zelee" 

 which has been sent down so she could be sunk, if necessary, without betraying the blockade 

 thereby of the passage in the reef. she was sunk by the german cruisers later. photo by e. t. 

 allen as the zelee brought in her prize. 



front of the mail steamers wharf. 

 The firing was pretty straight con- 

 sidering. 



"After two and a half hours firing 

 the Zelee sank with her colors 

 flying. Two blocks of building were 

 in flames. By supposition one of the 

 cruisers was hit by the shots fired from 

 the fort and when they sheered off 

 at 11 a. m., the smaller of the two had 

 a very bad list and seemed to be heavy 

 in the bows. Anyhow, when the two 

 steamed away the big cruiser kept quite 

 close to her consort, so close that the 

 two of them looked as one. From the 

 Signal Station the cruisers appeared 

 in a battered condition and had very 

 few boats. They looked as if they had 



been in a fight. Found out by Moana 

 (a later British steamer) they were the 

 two vessels that escaped from Kiau 

 Chau and one was the Admiral's of the 

 cruiser fleet on the Pacific Station. 



"On the day of the bombardment 

 some plucky actions were done by the 

 French sailors on the Zelee. Three of 

 them stuck to their guns until they could 

 not fire any more, as the vessel was 

 sinking. The water had reached their 

 feet when they jumped overboard and 

 swam ashore. 



'The big cruiser wirelessed ashore to 

 surrender the place, but the commander 

 of the Zelee, M. Decrement, refused 

 and sent back the answer that he would 

 fight the cruisers until there were no 



