The _Appam_ was a rich prize indeed. Having a registry of 7,781 tons, she was a modern vessel throughout, having been employed for several years in the trade between South Africa and England. She was worth $1,000,000 stripped, while her cargo sold for $700,000. The $250,000 in gold bars which subsequently went into the Berlin strong box also came from the _Appam_--a round $2,000,000. Altogether it was a very good day's work for the _Moewe_.
Not till the _Appam_ arrived in the Virginia harbor was it positively known that a raider had eluded the allied navies. The search that followed was conducted on a broader scale and with more minute care than any similar hunt of the war, but to no avail. On February 20, 1916, the _Westburn_, a British vessel of 3,300 tons, put into Santa Cruz de Teneriffe, a Spanish port. She, too, had a German captor aboard. One officer and six men brought in 206 prisoners from one Belgian and six British ships. Having landed all of those on board the German lieutenant in command asked for permission to anchor at a different point, and, this being granted, steamed beyond the three-mile limit, where the _Westburn_ was blown up. Long use of sea water in her boilers caused the explosion, her commander said. He was arrested along with his half dozen men, then paroled. It was the fortune of war. Once more the Germans had won, the British lost.
Again word was passed that the _Moewe_ must be found. The British public took her feats much to heart. They rivaled the finest accomplishments of British sailormen in the days when privateers went forth to destroy French commerce. But the _Moewe_ never was caught. On the morning of March 5, 1916, she put into Wilhelmshaven with 4 officers, 29 marines and sailors, and 165 men of enemy crews as her prisoners. And the gold bars were secure in the captain's safe.
Immediately a fervor of enthusiasm ran through Germany. The _Moewe_ was back after a trip of many thousand miles, with prisoners and bullion aboard. She had sunk fifteen allied vessels--thirteen British, one Belgian, and one French--with an aggregate tonnage of nearly 60,000. This had been accomplished in the face of her enemies' combined sea power. The _Moewe_ first sailed through the blockade and then came home again by the long way round. She skirted the whole of Iceland to reach Wilhelmshaven safely, making a perilous voyage into Arctic waters at the worst season of the year. All this and more the German papers recounted with pardonable pride. It was said that Germany had flung the gauntlet in the British face and escaped unscathed.