Emden: My Experiences in S.M.S. Emden
European history, War, World War I
Synthetic audio, Automated braille
Summary
During World War I Franz Joseph Prinz von Hohenzollern served in Germany s Kaiserliche Marine Imperial Navy as the second torpedo officer on the light cruiser SMS Emden at the Battle of Cocos The… SMS Emden had an extraordinary record capturing British ships This book which was first published in its English translation in 1928 is a fascinating record of Franz Joseph s naval service on the SMS Emden SMS Emden His Majesty s Ship Emden was the second and final member of the Dresden class of light cruisers built for the Imperial German Navy Kaiserliche Marine Named after the town of Emden she was laid down at the Kaiserliche Werft Imperial Dockyard in Danzig in 1906 Her hull was launched in May 1908 and completed in July 1909 She had one sister ship Dresden Like the preceding K nigsberg-class cruisers Emden was armed with ten 10 5 cm 4 1 in guns and two torpedo tubes Emden spent the majority of her career overseas in the German East Asia Squadron based in Tsingtao in the Kiautschou Bay concession in China In 1913 she came under the command of Karl von M ller who would captain the ship during WWI At the outbreak of hostilities Emden captured a Russian steamer and converted her into the commerce raider Cormoran Emden rejoined the East Asia Squadron after which she was detached for independent raiding in the Indian Ocean The cruiser spent nearly two months operating in the region and captured nearly two dozen ships On October 28 1914 Emden launched a surprise attack on Penang in the resulting Battle of Penang she sank the Russian cruiser Zhemchug and the French destroyer Mousquet The SMS Emden s extraordinary record capturing British ships resulted in all those who served on her including Franz Joseph being given the right to add the ship s name to the end of their surnames