Ahoy Shipmates

Count Felix von Luckner the early life

The first journey

At the age of only thirteen years, von Luckner ran away from home to see Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show.

He signed up, under the assumed name of "Phylax Lüdecke", as an unpaid cabin boy on the Russian sailing ship Niobe travelling between Hamburg (Germany) and Australia.

His story might have ended there, since the Russian Captain refused to turn the ship around just to pick Felix up out of the water when he fell overboard in the middle of the ocean. The Chief Mate negotiated the costly delay of turning the ship around by pointing a harpoon directly at the captain. The story goes that a huge albatross swooped down and seized Luckner’s hand in its beak but Luckner grabbed a leg of the albatross. Although pecked severely, he hung on for his life. The flapping of the huge wings and the gathering of other birds gave the crew of the lifeboat a point to aim at in his rescue.

Arriving at Fremantle, Western Australia, he jumped ship and for seven years followed a bewildering array of occupations: seller of the Salvation Army's War Cry, assistant lighthouse keeper (having to abandon the job when discovered with his hotel keeper's daughter by her father!), kangaroo hunter, circus worker, professional boxer due to his exceptional strength, fisherman, seaman, a guard in the Mexican army for President Díaz, railway construction worker, barman, and tavern keeper.

He also served a short time in a Chilean jail accused of stealing pigs, suffered broken legs twice, and was thrown out of hospital in Jamaica for lack of money.

Luckner was also an accomplished magician – Kaiser Wilhelm was fascinated by his tricks and frequently invited Luckner aboard his yacht to entertain important dignitaries.

At the age of twenty he entered a German navigation training school, where he passed the examinations for his mate's commission.

By 1908 he had joined the Hamburg-Südamerikanisch Line steamer Petropolis, intending to serve for nine months before volunteering to serve in the Imperial Navy for a year, to obtain a naval commission.
He had vowed not to return to his family except in uniform and was eventually welcomed back by his family, who had given him up for lost.
He was finally called up by the Navy in February 1912 and served on the gunboat SMS Panther.

The next instalment will cover Felix von Luckner’s WW1 career.

Regards


Sean