What happened at the Battle of Penang?
At first light on 28 October 1914 the German light cruiser SMS Emden, disguised with a dummy fourth funnel, slipped into the harbor of Penang in British Malaya. She torpedoed the Russian cruiser Zhemchug, which blew up and sank within a quarter of an hour, and on her way out sank the French destroyer Mousquet. No one aboard the Emden was hurt.1
In the last of the dark a grey cruiser with four funnels glided in from the north, past the fishing boats and the harbor patrol, toward the lights of the anchorage. Those who saw her took her for a British ship. A few minutes later a torpedo tore open the stern of the Russian cruiser Zhemchug, and the most daring raid of the Emden's cruise had begun.2
Background: a lone raider in the Indian Ocean
In August 1914 the light cruiser SMS Emden was part of the German East Asia Squadron under Admiral Maximilian von Spee. Her captain, Karl von Müller, proposed that she be detached to raid Allied trade in the Indian Ocean, and Spee let her go while the rest of the squadron steamed east across the Pacific toward the coast of South America.3 › Battle of Coronel, 1914
Over the following weeks the Emden became the most successful German commerce raider of the war. She stopped and sank British merchant ships in the Bay of Bengal and off Colombo, and in September she shelled the oil tanks of Madras on the Indian coast and set them ablaze. The Naval Historical Society of Australia counts 23 merchant ships captured or sunk in three months, and a growing number of Allied warships were sent out to hunt her.4
By late October the hunt was closing in, and Müller decided to strike at one of the ports the hunters used. Penang, an island harbor at the northern end of the Strait of Malacca, was the base of a French patrol guarding the western entrance to the strait. Müller hoped to find a French cruiser there at anchor.5
Ships and commanders
The Emden displaced about 3,600 tons: 3,544 tons according to the British official history by Julian Corbett, 3,650 according to the Naval Historical Society of Australia. Her captain was Karl von Müller.6
The largest Allied ship in the harbor was the Russian protected cruiser Zhemchug, of about 3,100 tons (Corbett gives 3,130, John Rickard of HistoryOfWar.org 3,080), armed with eight 4.7-inch guns, heavier than the Emden's own. She had just finished a sweep of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in search of the raider's colliers and had come into Penang for work on her engines, a week's overhaul in Corbett's account and boiler repairs in The Vibes.7
Her captain, Ivan Cherkasov, had gone ashore and spent the night at the Eastern and Oriental Hotel in George Town. On board, most of the crew were below decks, scarcely any of the guns were cleared for action and no proper lookout was kept. Rickard says only twelve shells were ready.8
The French squadron at Penang was the old gunboat D'Iberville and three destroyers. That morning the D'Iberville was overhauling her engines, two of the destroyers lay alongside, and the third, the Mousquet, was at sea on night patrol.9
The battle, phase one: the approach
Müller timed the attack for first light, with the dummy fourth funnel raised. Accounts differ on the hour: Corbett's official history and the New Straits Times put it at about five in the morning, The Star of Malaysia at 4:30.10
The disguise worked. The harbor patrol let her pass without a challenge. The French later told the Germans that they had taken her for the British cruiser HMS Yarmouth, and Malaysian accounts of the raid say the same. Corbett adds that she flew a flag taken for the British white ensign, which Hellmuth von Mücke, an officer aboard the Emden, flatly denied in his account of the cruise.11
Phase two: the Zhemchug is caught
Among the lit merchant ships the Germans picked out one dark hull and, closing to a few hundred yards, recognized the Zhemchug. The Emden hoisted German colors and fired a torpedo, which struck the Russian ship aft. Her guns then raked the forepart of the cruiser, where the crew was asleep.12
The Emden ran on past the anchorage, turned hard about and came back past the burning cruiser. At close range she fired a second torpedo, which hit below the bridge and set off the ship's magazine. The Zhemchug broke in two and sank in seconds; when the smoke cleared, only the top of her mast showed above the water. Corbett and a Penang history of the ship both put the whole attack at about a quarter of an hour.13
Whether the Russians hit back is disputed. Mücke remembered shells whistling past from several sides and splashing among the merchant ships, and wrote that the Zhemchug herself opened fire. Corbett, using British reports, says scarcely a Russian gun was manned and the Emden passed untouched.14
Local Malay fishermen rowed out among the shells to pull Russian sailors from the water, and boats from the harbor joined them.15
Turning point, phase three: the Mousquet comes home
Rather than fight torpedo craft in the narrow harbor, Müller headed for open water. On the way out the Emden fired on a fast ship coming in, which proved to be a government pilot vessel, and stopped the British steamer Glenturret, which was carrying ammunition and flying the warning flag for explosives.16
Before her boarding party could take the prize, another warship was seen coming in through the dim light. The cutter was recalled and the Emden turned to meet her. It was the French destroyer Mousquet, returning from her night patrol and still unaware of what had happened.17
The fight was hopeless for the small destroyer. She fired two torpedoes, both of which missed, while the Emden's salvos wrecked her. Corbett says she went down in seven minutes, Mücke "in a few minutes".18
The Emden then stopped and lowered her boats to pick up the French survivors, with her doctors aboard. Accounts of their number differ slightly: 36 seamen and one officer in the Naval Historical Society of Australia's account, 33 Frenchmen and one wounded officer in Mücke's. With French ships stirring in the harbor behind her, the Emden made for the open sea.19
Even her course is disputed. Rickard says she escaped south, Corbett that she made off to the north, and Mücke that she steered west at high speed.20
Aftermath
Not one man aboard the Emden was wounded. On the Russian side the figures differ from source to source. The New Straits Times counts a midshipman and 80 ratings dead, the British Malaya history blog 82 of the crew of 348, The Vibes 88, and Corbett's official history one officer and 90 men killed, with two officers and 106 men wounded. The wounded were cared for in the hospital in George Town.21
A few days later Müller transferred his French prisoners to a captured British steamer and sent them on their way.22
Captain Cherkasov paid for the disaster. A court-martial found him guilty of gross negligence, and he was stripped of his rank and sent to prison.23
The raid did little to lengthen the Emden's career. On 9 November 1914 the Australian light cruiser HMAS Sydney caught her at the Cocos (Keeling) Islands. After a gun battle that Corbett puts at an hour and forty minutes, the burning Emden was run onto the reef of North Keeling Island.24 › Battle of Cocos, 1914
Legacy and memory
Penang became one of the episodes that made the Emden's name, and with it Müller's reputation for chivalry. Rickard calls the rescue of the Mousquet's crew typical of his conduct throughout the cruise, and Mücke proudly quoted an English report that praised his captain for stopping to save the survivors when every minute counted.25
Russian accounts carry a different date. The New Straits Times gives the sinking as 15 October, the Julian calendar date still used in Russia in 1914, which in the Western calendar was 28 October.26
The Russian dead were not forgotten. Sailors from the Zhemchug were buried in the Christian cemetery on Western Road in George Town, where a stone memorial with a ship's anchor now stands over their grave. The British Malaya blog dates its unveiling to December 1975, the New Straits Times to February 1976. Its inscription is dedicated to the officers and men of the cruiser from their grateful motherland.27
Members of the Russian community in Malaysia still gather there to lay wreaths, and an Orthodox memorial service is held at the grave.28
Visiting today
The memorial can be visited in the Western Road Christian Cemetery in George Town, the old town of Penang. Not every body was recovered from the wreck, so the grave holds only some of the crew.29 › 28 October in military history
