BOMBARDMENT OF PAPEETE 



555 



The German "Walkure" Sunk by German Shells. 



a humorous incident of the bombardment was the sinking of the german steamer " walkure." she 

 was captured by the french gunboat "zelee" shortly before the bombardment (practically the 

 first french naval exploit of the war) and with her captain and crew prisoners lay in papeete 

 lagoon. the attacking german crusiers supposed her to be a french vessel and promptly sunk 

 her with her captor, "the zelee." 



more men to fire the guns in the forts. 

 Vive La France ! 



"Of course, there was a regular 

 stampede for the mountains. Houses 

 were left, some open, some shut. Other 

 houses were locked up and the doors 

 nailed. I don't think the ones who live 

 in these houses ever intend to come 

 back. Our troops behaved splendidly. 

 They went straight to the beach to cut 

 up the landing party: but no such 

 party came. Something else was going 

 on, too. 



"A native of Faaa called Taihia had 

 been out fishing on Monday night and 

 caught quite a lot of fishes which he 

 took to Papeete market in his canoe at 

 four in the morning of the twenty- 

 second. He sold his fish and was 

 returning back home by way of Pare's 

 saloon. At 7 a. m. he saw the two 

 cruisers trying to come in and saw the 

 firing of the first gun. Some wag told 

 him that the shore batteries were 

 saluting the cruisers because they were 

 English and when the ships began to 

 bombard the town he though it was a 

 return of the compliment. So he quietly 



paddled his canoe back home to Faaa. 

 A lot of people who saw the man pad- 

 dling back admired his pluck. But 

 when Taihia arrived at Faaa and saw 

 the people running along the road, he 

 asked: 'What is this 5 Why are you 

 all running away?' 



'Don't you know,' was the answer, 

 'that Papeete has been fired upon and 

 is in flames?' 



'"No! Taihia replied. 'Is it true 5 

 What an escape for me!' He turned 

 and looked at the burning town. 

 'Well, I am going to get.' 



"And he got and he did not stop 

 getting until he had reached the 'fei' 

 valleys up in the mountains. He told 

 me that seeing the smoke rising over 

 Papeete in thick clouds, and thinking 

 of the narrow escape he had paddling 

 his canoe past the passage, made him 

 lose all his sang froid, made him fly 

 right up the valley. 



"Later we found out that the two 

 cruisers were the Scharnhorst of 11,420 

 tons, 1,200 men, Admiral Graff von 

 Spee and the Gneisenau. On the 

 twenty-first of September these two 



