Count zu Dohna-Schlobitten had the honor paid him of a visit from the kaiser aboard his ship, where he received the Iron Cross. Wilhelm was much pleased, as may be imagined, and the example of the count was held up to the German navy as an illustration of what daring could achieve.
The _Moewe's_ exploits evidently were part of a concerted plan. Whether the raider actually sunk all of the vessels accredited to her is a question that probably never will be answered. The evidence tends to show that it was Germany's aim to create a fleet of auxiliaries in the mid-Atlantic. It seems likely that the naval board in Berlin conceived the idea of having a number of their interned vessels break for the sea on a stated day and meet at a common rendezvous, or undertake raiding upon their own account.
Whatever the plan, it was carried out in part. Two German liners escaped from South American ports on February 12, 1916, and never were heard from again, so far as the records go. They were the _Bahrenfeld_ and the _Turpin_. As the identity of the _Moewe_ already had been established and allied warships were scouring the seven seas for her, it appears plausible that the _Bahrenfeld_ and _Turpin_ both assumed the same title, and that one or other of the vessels was taken to be the original _Moewe_ by persons on ships which they sunk. Or one or both may have been run down and the fact kept secret.
The _Bahrenfeld_ and _Turpin_ commanders were wily men. They told the authorities at Buenos Aires, where the first named had sought asylum, and Puenta Arenas, Chile, where the second was interned, that the machinery of their ships was suffering from disuse, and requested permission for a day's run in the neighboring waters that the engines might have exercise. This was granted, and they quietly put to sea. That was the last seen of them by the South American folk. But the port officials at Rio de Janeiro were suspicious when the _Asuncion_ tried the same ruse. As she began to edge beyond bounds a shot across her bow cut short the plan.
Both the _Bahrenfeld_ and the _Turpin_ were built in England, the former having a registry of 2,357 tons, and the latter 3,301 tons.
The first day of the new year was marked by the explosion of the British armored cruiser _Natal_ in an east-coast port. Three hundred men of a crew numbering 700 were killed, the others escaping because they had shore leave. Not a man on board lived to tell how the explosion came. It was one of a mysterious chain that had shaken even British nerves in the early days of the war when a half dozen warcraft were blown up in home ports. The explosions were, in every instance, extremely violent, literally blowing the vessels to bits. Several of them were affirmed to have been accidental by the British admiralty, which rendered that verdict upon the _Natal_, but these official explanations never were convincing.