one plucky little ship

As Ireland commemorates the centenary of the Easter Rising, I’ll chip in with what little I know about a relative of mine who played a small role in this story, as second officer on the Aud (Libau), which was to deliver weapons to the Irish rebels.

UPDATE:
Date/Time: Saturday 17th December 2016
Event: Official Launch of The Aud Exhibition on Spike Island
Location: Spike Island, Cork Harbour
Additional Information: With the support of the Department of Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, Cork County Council is undertaking an exhibition to the Aud on Spike Island; Spike Island having been the only Irish soil that the crew of the Aud set foot on in 1916. The exhibition will be launched by County Mayor Cllr. Séamus McGrath. Places on the boat over and back will be limited but for those interested in attending more information is available by emailing cork.heritage@corkcoco.ie. - source

Walter Düsselmann was born at Krefeld 22.12.1882 the third of five children of August Düsselmann (1844-1899) and Anna Josephine Hagermes. August was the founding director of Krefeld’s fire brigade when it became professional in 1890. He was one of 13 children from this "Krefeld clan" benefiting from that town's silk weaving boom.

In 1904, Walter was steward on the ship Elfrieda, from Rotterdam to Portland, Oregon, arrival 21.5.

In 1913, he was third officer on the Volturno, which caught fire in the North Atlantic on 11.10. 1913. The ship carried 657 people including 500 migrants from Rotterdam to New York. It had to be evacuated completely, with nine other vessels coming to the rescue. Heavy seas made the rescue operation difficult, and 136 people died in the disaster.

In March 1916, he was recruited as second officer on the Libau, with the mission to evade the sea blockade and to deliver arms to Ireland’s Easter revolution. Masquerading as the Norwegian fishing vessel Aud, the Libau took the long route to Ireland, via the Arctic circle.

Against considerable odds, the ship reached its destination, the town of Tralee on Ireland’s west coast, on April 20, but its signals remained unanswered. (The Easter Rising began on Monday 24.4.) It was then captured by the Royal Navy and escorted to the harbour of Queenstown on the southern coast, where the crew destroyed the ship to keep the weapons out of enemy hands.

The crew were held prisoners between two and four years. The captain of the ship, Karl Spindler, later wrote a book about the adventure, with the occasional honourable mention of Walter's contributions.

At Christmas 1921, Walter gave a copy of Spindler’s book, published that year, to his cousin Josephine Bender (1881-1966). The book is still in the possession of Josephine’s descendants.

On 17.10.1943 Walter died in the war, not clear where.

In 2012, one of the anchors of the Aud is retrieved from the wreck and conserved under the supervision of the National Museum of Ireland.

Descendants of Aud crew members have called for the crew to be honoured in the course of the centenary celebration, but no specific recognition has been offered so far.

Strangely, I can't even find a crew list online, so I'll just type it out here, as given in Spindler's book (leaving out military titles, filling in first names where I know them):
1. Kommandant: Kurt Spindler
2. I. Offizier: O. Heß
3. II. Offizier: Walter Düsselmann
4. Obermaschinist: P. Rost
5. II. Maschinist: K. Hauenschild
6. III. Maschinist: Wilhelm Augustin (1890)-1972)
7. W. Bruns, Steward
8. R. Strehlau
9. P. Mathiesen
10. Friedrich Schmitz (1892-1977)
11. A. Schabbel
12. A. Hoffmann, Schiffskoch
13. Signalgast K. Battermann
14. Chr. Meyer
15. F. Schildknecht
16. P. Gutzner
17. H. (Jans) Dunker (1891-1978)
18. G. Pöhlmann
19. I. Kuligofski
20. A. Böthling
21. G. Schmidt
22. H. Brock

Map from Spindler's book.

Sources:

Arthur Spurgeon: The burning of the Volturno, Cassell and Company Ltd. London, 1913.

Karl Spindler: Das geheimnisvolle Schiff. Die Fahrt der Libau zur irischen Revolution, August Scherl Verlag, Berlin, 1921. English translation published as: Gun running for Casement in the Easter Rebellion, 1916. W. Collins 1921.

Mario Vargas Llosa: El sueño del Celta. / The dream of the Celt

the dream of the celt

review of

The Dream of the Celt
by Mario Vargas Llosa
Faber and Faber (7 Jun 2012)
ISBN-10: 0571275710
ISBN-13: 978-0571275717

This fictionalised biography of Roger Casement should be one story, as it is the story of one man’s life, but strangely it feels like two stories glued together that don’t really fit. First there is the story of the man who successfully exposed the cruelty of colonialism in the Congo and in Peru in the late 19th and early 20th century. Especially in the latter episode, where the sheer greed of the (London-based) rubber company fuels a culture of violence and torture against the indigenous workers who harvest the caoutchouc, the theme of corporate responsibility chimes very nicely with today’s concerns, and Casement emerges as an undisputed hero. As a dramatic historical development with interesting characters, exotic locations and clear relevance for today’s world, this would have made a very nice book on its own, either as a factual or as a fictionalised work.

The other story is Casement’s role in the much messier business of Ireland’s struggle for independence, culminating in the Easter uprising of 1916. Here he joins the more radical camp of those who don’t believe in the promise of autonomy and go for full independence, even if it takes armed conflict to achieve it. Even more controversially, at the beginning of World War I, he tries to forge an alliance with Germany. In the end, however, he wavers and wants to call off the uprising, while a shipload of weapons from Germany is already on its way and cannot be contacted. Under circumstances that are still debated, the arms delivery finds no recipients at the arranged rendez-vous, Casement gets arrested, and the uprising fails. He is sentenced to death, and his appeal is quashed amid the revelation of homosexual adventures detailed in his “black diaries.”

Vargas Llosa tells the whole life story in long flashbacks remembered by Casement in his final days in Pentonville prison. On the highly controversial issue of the diaries, he assumes that they are genuinely Casement’s writing, but that some of the events recorded are imaginative extrapolations of more innocuous beginnings, rather than precise records of a steamy (and at that time illegal) love life.

I mainly read the book because of the Irish part of the story (as a cousin of my great-grandfather was second officer on the Aud (Libau), which successfully broke the sea blockade but failed to find a recipient for those weapons), but found that part of the book less engaging than the Congo and Peru story. I wasn’t getting much of a sense of place of Ireland, or a sense of why Casement became so obsessively nationalistic. I understand why Vargas Llosas, coming from Peru, wants to tie in the Irish story along with the history that is closer to home for him, but maybe – memo for anyone who wants to make a film out of this – I might have focused on the colonial locations a bit more, covering only as much of the Irish tragedy as is necessary to explain his fall from grace and ultimate execution.

amazon.co.uk

PS The original (El sueño del Celta) came out in November 2010, I can't think why it took the UK publishers more than 18 months to bring out a translation???

all at sea

My great-grandfather, Julius Düsselmann, was a bit of an adventurer, but eventually settled down to have a family (lucky for me!). Apparently his cousin Walter never did. He sailed the seas all his life and survived some dangerous adventures. Here is what we know about him so far.

CV Walter Düsselmann

22.12.1882 born at Krefeld , parents: August Düsselmann (*1844) and Anna Josephine Hagermes

1904 Stewart on the ship Elfrieda, from Rotterdam to Portland, Oregon, arrival 21.5.

1913 11.10. Third officer on the Volturno, which burns out in the North Atlantic.
Even though 9 other ships come to help, the heavy weather makes any rescue efforts dangerous. Of 657 people on board, 136 die. See Volturno pages for a full account of the disaster.

1916 Second officer on the Libau, which is trying (but failing) to deliver arms to Ireland’s Easter revolution. The captain of the ship, Karl Spindler, writes a book about the adventure a few years later.

1921 Christmas. Dedication from Walter to his cousin Josephine Bender (1881-1966) in a copy of Spindler’s book he gave her for christmas.

17.10.1943 died in the war, not clear where.


sources:

Arthur Spurgeon: The burning of the Volturno, Cassell and Company Ltd. London, 1913.
Karl Spindler: Das geheimnisvolle Schiff. Die Fahrt der Libau zur irischen Revolution, August Scherl Verlag, Berlin, year?.
Mario Vargas Llosa: El sueño del Celta

PS (Jan 2012): A new(ish) blog dealing with the Volturno has come to my attention: Fire on the ocean
PS (Sept 2013): A page about the wreck of the Libau / Aud is here PS (Aug 2014): An English translation of Spindler's book, Gun running for Casement in the Easter rebellion, is freely accessible on Google Books.