Down East. Hugus Safe Haven Bar Harbor residents still talk about the morning in 1914 when the town awoke to find a treasure-laden German luxury liner anchored just off shore. By Nan Lincoln L ATE in the evening on July 31, 1914, at 10:35 P.M., as he gazed down at the in the ballroom of the huge German dancers, Captain Pollak was handed a mes- luxury liner Kronprinzessin Cecilie, a sage that had come in over the ship's wire- sixteen-piece orchestra performed a lilting less. He frowned as he read it, then quickly Strauss waltz. Men in crisp dinner jackets rose and left the ballroom. and their gorgeously gowned partners It was a beautiful evening in the north glided across the parquet floor amid fluted Atlantic, as many aboard would later re- Ionic columns which rose to the lofty ceil- count in memoirs, letters, and newspaper ing. Everywhere, mirrored walls repeated stories. Overhead, the horns of a crescent over and over the sparkle of diamond- moon pricked the black sky, while its pale draped bosoms, bejeweled fingers, and light softly gilded the tips of the dark tiara-festooned chignons. Still others of waves below. The sparkling Kronprinzes- the 365 first-class passengers, too tired or sin herself only added to the entrancing perhaps too timid to dance, gazed down at scene. To ships passing in the distance, the the dance floor from brass-trimmed balco- lights from her hundreds of portholes must nies and toasted one another with sparkling have looked like strings of golden beads young champagne or fine old cognac. floating upon the water. The Kronprin- Captain Charles Pollak himself was on zessin, however, was a gold ship in more hand to enjoy the festive scene. Even as he than metaphor. Within her holds she car- tapped his foot to the music, however, his ried more than forty tons of gold and silver thoughts never strayed far from the innu- coins and bars more than $11 million to merable details of his immense command. be delivered to banks in Europe, a sum that The Kronprinzessin Cecilie, named after would today be worth upwards of a quarter the Kaiser's eldest daughter, Crown Prin- of a billion dollars. cess Cecilie, heir to the throne, was one of As Captain Pollak strode down the the largest ships then afloat, stretching 700 mahogany-paneled corridors toward his feet in length and weighing 26,000 tons. cabin, he stared at the telegram in his hand. Three days before, carrying 1,216 passen- At first glance the message seemed in- gers and a crew of nearly 600, the ship had nocuous enough - a curt notice that an left New York and was now approximately obscure member of the German royal fam- 600 miles, or two days steaming, from the ily had taken ill. It was signed "Siegfried." English coast, where she would make a Yet the captain knew the message had brief stop at Plymouth before crossing the nothing to do with a Kaiser's cousin's channel to Cherbourg, France, and thence bellyache. It was actually a code from his to her homeport of Bremen, Germany. So superiors in Bremen directing him to open far, the passage had gone smoothly. Then, a packet of secret orders which had lain, Never before had a ship the size of the 700-foot Kronprinzessin Cecilie put into Bar Harbor. What brought her to town was her effort to elude French and English warships at the outbreak of World War I. Overnight, the giant passenger liner and her officers became the toast of the resort community's lavish social season. 48 DOWN EAST Photographs courtesy Bar Harbor Historical Society AUGUST 1991 49 half-forgotten, in the ship's safe for more tra platform to speak. According to ac- the captain. From a distance she could now than a year. counts that later appeared in German have been mistaken for the Olympic, a Opening the safe, Captain Pollak re- newspapers, the usually affable officer British luxury liner and sister ship to the ill- moved the envelope and broke open the was looking uncharacteristically solemn. fated Titanic, which had gone down just blood-red Imperial German seal on its "Ladies and gentlemen," the captain two years before. front. His frown deepened as he read his announced, "I regret to inform you that as instructions. of yesterday, Germany, Austria, England, and France have been at war. For the safety A S the Kronprinzessin Cecilie sped westward through the night, her B ACK in the ballroom, the orchestra of the passengers, the vessel, and our cargo, propellers churning at full speed, the took its last break near midnight and I have been ordered to return as quickly as first-class passengers slowly drifted back a small group of young men went up possible to the United States, which re- to their staterooms. Long after most were to the port deck to smoke cigars. As they mains neutral in this conflict. I have al- in bed, one group, angered at the new leaned against the rail, one of them looked ready changed course to comply with those course of the luxury liner, gathered in the over his shoulder and noticed the moon. orders." He paused briefly before adding: smoking room to mull over the situation. That seemed peculiar to him. When he'd "It is my earnest hope that we will not be These were powerful men, accustomed to come up on deck for a breath of fresh air intercepted by a foreign ship." having their way - a handful of bankers, only fifteen minutes before, he'd also seen The announcement was greeted by Delaware Governor Charles B. Miller, stunned silence as the Utah copper magnate Samuel Newhouse, first-class passengers ab- Congressman A.J. Barchfeld, of Pennsyl- sorbed the momentous vania, and Congressman Richard Bartholdt, news. Then a babble of of Missouri. One can only imagine the voices began to fill the scene they made the next morning, August ballroom, swelling louder 1, as they emerged from the smoking room and louder. Some passen- with reddened eyes, rumpled evening gers laughed nervously, clothes, and an offer they were sure the others shouted patriotic German captain could not refuse. slogans for the Fatherland. When they found Captain Pollak, they Others voiced their dis- immediately offered to buy the ship for appointment and con- five million dollars, a sum they could eas- cern. Whether headed to ily raise among themselves and one that no Europe for social, busi- doubt seemed like a fair price to them. Not ness, or political reasons, unaccustomed to the brashness of first- the first-class voyagers class passengers, particularly American were none too pleased to tycoons, the captain told them directly that have their plans disrupted. the Kronprinzessin Cecilie was not for sale Everyone on board and that he had no authority to entertain was further alarmed to such a proposition. His orders were to learn that the ship's wire- return to the United States and that is what less could not be used to he intended to do. notify their families, for fear of betraying the ship's AUGUST 2. As the Kronprinzessin Cecilie location. In fact, Captain approached Newfoundland, she plunged Pollak was not the only into a bank of fog. Such weather was both person aboard who was a blessing and a curse; the fog would acutely aware that the for- provide cover, but with the Kronprinzessin tune in gold and silver speeding ahead at twenty knots or better, stashed in the ship's hold the close-to-zero visibility could have been now made her an ex- dangerous in the iceberg-studded waters. the moon over his shoulder. But then he tremely tempting prize for enemy ships. Nevertheless, Captain Pollak was adamant had been standing on the starboard deck. Already the ship's wireless operator had about maintaining top speed. Icebergs in His companions laughed off his confu- intercepted messages between French and late summer were not as much of a threat sion, suggesting that perhaps he'd had too English war vessels trying to pinpoint the as interception by allied warships. By now much champagne. The young man, how- Kronprinzessin's location. Her return to he was certain that at least one British ever, had done a good deal of night sailing, the states would have to be swift and silent. cruiser, the Essex, was tailing him, and he and he was certain that it wasn't his head Portholes were covered and smoking was thought a French ship might also be clos- that had been turned around, but the ship. banned on deck. The Kronprinzessin still ing in. As things turned out, he was right. By the flew the German flag, but the distinctive Once again Captain Pollak was report- time the group returned to the ballroom yellow bands on her four smokestacks edly visited on the bridge by a contingent Captain Pollak had climbed to the orches- were painted black that night, by order of of angry passengers, panicked by the 50 DOWN EAST memory of the Titanic's disastrous colli- the thick glass of the lighthouse tower, he ened to a thunderous blast of a steam sion with an iceberg in the North Atlantic would certainly have noticed that the fog, whistle coming from the harbor. Towns- two years earlier, which had been attrib- which had blanketed the area for the past people living near the waterfront later re- uted to the ship's imprudent speed. They three days, was finally rolling back and ported that the Kronprinzessin's greeting demanded that the captain slow the that dawn lay pink along the horizon. whistle had rattled their windows as well as Kronprinzessin The captain ignored Perhaps he had just jotted down his ob- the cups and saucers in their cupboards. their complaints and the ship continued to servations in his logbook when some- The rattling sound of chain lowering a hurtle blindly toward the American coast. thing caught his eye. massive anchor could be heard miles away. Off the eastern shore, the dark wedge AUGUST 3. On the third day of the headlong of a vessel's prow was breaking through the fog bank - a common enough sight T HE Kronprinzessin Cecilie and her flight, still another passenger came to see passengers were hardly the first sum- the captain on the bridge. According to an for the veteran lighthouse-tender. But this mer visitors to arrive in Bar Harbor account later given by one of the ship's time instead of looking down on the ap- in 1914. August was the height of the Bar officers, the visitor was an investment proaching boat - his usual perspective Harbor social season and the American banker from New York, C. Ledyard Blair, from the lighthouse tower - the keeper aristocracy was in residence. The J. Pierpont who had dined at the captain's table the must have found himself staring upward. Morgans were holding court at their estate, second night out of New York. Once more The ship was immense and growing larger (Continued on page 78) the weary captain steeled himself for an onslaught of criticism. The banker, how- ever, merely complimented the captain on his superb skill in maneuvering the ship through the fog. "What port are we headed for, Cap- tain?" Blair asked in a friendly tone. "Well, sir," he replied, "I cannot tell you which port as I do not know myself." He then explained that French and Eng- lish ships were patrolling the waters out- side all the major ports from Halifax, Nova Scotia, to the British West Indies. He would have to be very lucky, indeed, Pollak told Blair, to slipa 26,000-ton vessel through such a sweeping blockade. Still, the cap- tain could see no alternative, since he knew of no small port along the East Coast that could safely accommodate a ship the size of the Kronprinzessin. "Oh, but I know one," Blair told the captain. "It's well protected, has water deep enough to float a battleship, and the British and French navies have probably never heard of it." "Where is this place?" the captain asked, glancing down at his chart of the North Atlantic. Blair studied the chart briefly, then placed one finger on the edge of a little heart-shaped dot off the coast of Maine. "Here it is, Captain," he said. "Bar Harbor, still as her seemingly endless hull emerged The Kronprinzessin carried more on Mount Desert Island. I've summered from the mist. Smoke billowed from four than forty tons of gold and silver bars and sailed around there since I was a boy, black smokestacks and a German flag which were off-loaded (above) and and if you'll allow me to help, I'm sure I fluttered on her superstructure. As she shipped to New York by armed train. can get us there safely." passed by the island, heading toward Bar The treasure was hardly all that glittered Harbor, the big white letters painted on aboard the luxury liner: first-class AUGUST 4. At 4:55 A.M. on Baker Island, her side could hardly go unnoticed: accommodations included an one of many small islands that lie off Kronprinzessin Cecilie. extravagantly appointed ballroom and Mount Desert, lighthouse keeper Vern It wasn't long before most Bar Harbor rococo dining room (opposite). King was no doubt enjoying his morning residents knew something big was afoot. cup of coffee. Looking eastward through At 6:00 A.M. hundreds of them were awak- AUGUST 1991 51 Peneboect Meaders Safe Haven (Continued from page 51) Kronprinzessin Cecilie?" telegraph opera- RESTAURANT AND COUNTRY INN tor P.E. Hodgkins snorted at a Boston re- "A shining example of all that's s good Schooner Head; the Peabodys had opened porter. "Why, I can spell it backward, for- in country inn cooking" (The Maine up their Nasturtium Cottage; the Dupont ward, sideways - you name it!" Times, 3/90). The restaurant has re- family was summering at Edgemere; the The first order of business was to get ceived many outstanding reviews Astors and the Auchinclosses were in town; the passengers off the ship. Customs offi- and features outdoor dining over- looking Penobscot Bay, an exten- and the McCormicks, of the McCormick cials were summoned and specially sched- sive wine list and full bar. The charm- reaper fortune, would enjoy a grand view uled trains transported the 1,200 passen- ing rooms, all with private baths, of the hubbub surrounding the Kron- gers from the Mount Desert Ferry terminal include a continental breakfast. Call prinzessin from their lofty cottage, known (on the mainland across Frenchman's Bay or write for brochure. 207-338-5320. as the Mizzentop, on the hip of Green from Bar Harbor) to Boston, New York, Mountain (later renamed Cadillac). The and beyond. 90 Northport Ave. Belfast, Me. 04915 days when a less exalted class of vacation- One mother and daughter didn't have ers filled Bar Harbor's mammoth 400- and far to go. Mrs. A. Howard Hinckle owned 500-room hotels were gone by 1914, but a a shorefront summer cottage in Bar Har- respectable number of garden-variety bor: the rambling, turreted, and gabled ISLAND ESCAPE. resorters had still taken rooms at the "Donaque" on Cleftstone Road. All the romance of being marooned on a beautiful Belmont, the Newport, the Malvern, and "When I woke up that morning and island. Plus the comfort and convenience of 10 modern units, some with kitchens. Dining out the Louisburg. looked out my cabin window and saw my nearby. Featured in "Best Places to Stay in Within hours of her arrival, the Kron- own house, I just burst into tears," Miss New England." Write or call us today. Tidewater Motel prinzessin became the summer's star at- Hinckle later told a group of admiring Phillip and Elaine Crossman, Proprietors Vinalhaven, Maine 04863. traction. Breakfasts forgotten, swarms of friends. It is unclear whether her tears were TIDEWATER people quickly gathered along the shore due to relief at arriving home safely or MOTEL path to gawk at the behemoth which now disappointment at ending up more or less blocked the Porcupine Islands from view. where she had started. In comparison, the steam-powered pas- The most exciting aspect of the senger ferries, which ordinarily shuttled Kronprinzessin's arrival, however, was her passengers from the island to the main- cargo - the forty tons of gold and silver. VINALHAVEN, MAINE land, resembled bathtub toys. Soon after her arrival in Bar Harbor, U.S. 863 Amid the excitement, nervous ru- customs officials tried to persuade Captain mors spread through the throng. Every Pollak to sail the Kronprinzessin to New soul present realized that Europe had York, which was better equipped than Bar been at war for the past four days. Now, Harbor to deal with the large number of here in their own harbor was the biggest passengers as well as the treasure. The ship they had ever seen, from one of those captain refused, pointing out that to navi- warring foreign countries. Was she armed? gate safely out of Bar Harbor, he would Was she the vanguard for a fleet of war- have to take the ship outside the three-mile Tea Pond Camps ships? Was Bar Harbor to come under limit. By now a small armada of French blockade? and British ships were patrolling interna- Century old, carefully restored log camps on pristine Tea Pond with nearby Little Tea tional waters off the Maine coast like hun- Pond and many picturesque trout streams. American plan with charming central dining C ACK Frost and Carroll Murphy, both gry sharks awaiting prey. of whom still live in Bar Harbor room serving three home-cooked meals. After weeks of diplomatic jockeying, Hunting, fishing, vacations, cross country today, were fourteen years old at the the customs officials gave in, and the U.S. ski trails, snowmobiling, hiking. time, and to them, the possibilities were Coast Guard oversaw the removal of the Live a bit of history! Ed & Shelley Bear Open Year Round more thrilling than frightening. If the war gold and silver from the ship and their P. O. Box 349 Free Brochure had come to Bar Harbor, they wanted to be transport to the train terminal at Mount Stratton, Me. 04982 207-243-2943 a part of it. As they watched a man with a Desert Ferry, where an armed train carried spade-shaped beard come ashore from the them back to New York. Donald Marston, ship in the harbor-master's boat, the boys an eleven-year-old whose father was em- were somewhat disappointed to learn that ployed as conductor of the Bar Harbor he was the captain of the vessel and not the Express, the swank passenger train fa- Stephen Zeh Kaiser himself. vored by summer visitors, later remem- When it soon became clear that the ship bered the awe with which he watched the Basketmaker was not going to blast their town to shining gold and silver ingots being loaded smithereens, that she was actually just a into the "gold train's" five baggage cars. large commercial ocean liner seeking safe haven in an emergency, the residents of Bar Harbor - summer folk and natives T HERE still remained the problem of what to do with the 700-foot ship alike - greeted her and her crew with and her nearly 600 crewmen. Bar W.M. Thuss open arms. A horde of big-city newspa- Harbor was delighted to keep both. During per reporters quickly descended on the a summer in which syndicated society TRADITIONAL MAINE BASKETS town to cover the story, besieging the West- columnists of the day complained that the Catalogue, $2. (207) 778-2351 ern Union office in Bar Harbor with in- war in Europe was casting a dreadful pall P.O. BOX 381D, TEMPLE, MAINE 04984 coming and outgoing messages. "Spell over the summer's social events, parties in 78 DOWN EAST Bar Harbor couldn't have been more fes- while a New York Times columnist quipped tive. No guest list was complete without a that, since the Bar Harbor social season few of the Kronprinzessin's dashingly uni- was over, the Kronprinzessin Cecilie might Whitehall Inn formed officers. The presence of Captain consider making her winter port in Palm Pollak, whose social status had risen to that Beach. Bar Harbor's town council quickly Since 1901 of epic hero, assured the success of any leapt to defend their harbor, their town, Box 558 D, Camden, Maine 04843 social endeavor. and "their" ship. "Anyone in the least Bar Harbor society matrons scrambled familiar with this area, knows that our Lodging - Fine Food to outdo each other in staging the most harbor remains ice-free throughout the Wines - Spirits opulent social affair for the 1914 season. A winter," the councilors sternly editorial- sure contender for the distinction was the ized in the Bar Harbor Times. Further- Room and dining reservations sea-nymph costume ball held at Greenway more, they wrote, a more hospitable an- 207-236-3391 Court, cottage of steel magnate Warner chorage for the Kronprinzessin could not Leeds. The ballroom had been transformed be found for the duration of the winter or, by professional decorators into a fan- for that matter, the duration of the war. tastical ocean floor, glitteringly awash Toward the end of October, however, with a coral forest, giant shellfish, bril- the ship's owners and the U.S. government liant sea flowers, and fountains bubbling finally agreed to move the Kronprinzessin over with imported champagne. Lavishly to Boston. The French and British govern- costumed guests were greeted by Leeds ments, for their part, promised not to seize himself, attired as King Neptune, while her, provided that the ship remain in U.S. Mrs. Leeds appeared diaphanously clad jurisdiction for the remainder of the war. In The Ruggles House as his consort, Queen Titania. turn, Captain Pollak gave his word that he Local businesses were equally thrilled would not try to slip away from his naval Columbia Falls, Maine Just off Rt. 1 to have the Kronprinzessin anchored just escorts and steam for Germany. offshore. Although much of the food to At 6:00 A.M. on November 6, Bar Har- Ruggles House, built in 1820. Adams- style architecture. Delicate interior and feed the ship's crew was shipped from bor residents were once again awakened exterior hand carvings. Period furniture. New York, local grocers benefited enor- by the blast of the Kronprinzessin's whistle. Open June 1 to October 15 Monday-Saturday 9:30 to 4:30 mously from the dinner-dance wars waged This time she was saying good-bye. As she Sundays 11:00 to 4:30 by status-conscious matrons. Even those steamed out of the harbor, she sounded her not invited to these extravagant affairs whistle again and then gave a final salute in could attend the weekend concerts given passing by the Baker Island lighthouse. by the ship's orchestra on the village green. Throughout much of the war, the The Maine Moose Few townspeople passed up a chance for a Kronprinzessin and most of her crew re- and Spruce Watch guided tour aboard the ship, an opportunity mained in Boston's Chelsea Shipyard. to marvel at her pillared ballroom, indoor Upon entering the war in 1917, however, designed exclusively for pool, solarium, mammoth dining rooms, the United States government quickly con- Blueberries & Granite and the magnificent library, its floor-to- fiscated the gold and silver, which had This watch is the ceiling shelves crammed with leather- been stored for the previous three years in Ultimate Maine bound first editions. various banks. The crew, including Cap- Gift: a brown moose tops the Bar Harbor residents, rich and poor tain Pollak, were sent to detention camps. dial, surrounded alike, began to take a proprietary pride in Stripped of her finery and her royal name, by 11 green the Kronprinzessin. She was beautiful and, the Kronprinzessin Cecilie rechristened spruce trees, on a white face. Gold for a while, she was theirs. Although the the U.S.S. Mount Vernon and served as one hands, including war continued to be a hot topic, the German of the troop transport ships carrying young sweep second ship and its crew sitting right in their harbor men like Bar Harbor natives Cack Frost hand, circle the State of Maine. seemed oddly unconnected to newspaper and Carroll Murphy to a war that had Classic textured accounts of the bloody havoc wreaked by waited for them to grow up. Once peace black-leather band the Kaiser's army in the Low Countries. was declared, the old liner was mothballed Gold bezel with stainless-steel back at a berth near Patuxent Naval Station, in Quartz B ENEATH all the social flurry, how- Maryland, where she rusted for twenty movement ever, serious negotiations were pro- years until, in 1940, her vast hull was One-year guarantee ceeding between the captain, the reduced to munitions in preparation for yet Easy to read and great fun to wear, ship's owners, and the U.S. government. another war. this watch will be treasured for many Nearly every week, the Bar Harbor Times The true end of the Kronprinzessin seasons to come. published a regretful - if premature Cecilie and the era she represented, how- $55 Mail orders: add $5 for article reporting the ship's imminent de- ever, was signaled the moment she blew shipping and handling. parture. At the end of September, however, her final salute to Bar Harbor. For three Blueberries+Granite even though most of the summer crowd magical months a great ship and a small had departed, the Kronprinzessin still re- Maine town had managed to insulate 422 Fore Street, Old Port mained. themselves from the madness of the world. Portland, Me. 04101 207-761-5690 Inearly October, a Boston paper opined When the great liner sailed away that ME Mall 207-775-4268 10-6 Mon.-Sat., 12-5 Sun. that the Kronprinzessin would have to de- November morning, the magic was lost part Bar Harbor to avoid being iced in, forever. 80 DOWN EAST