File No. 763.72111B46/–
The Vice Consul General at Rio de Janeiro (Burnell) to the Secretary of State
Rio De Janeiro, September 21, 1914, midnight. [Received September 22, 4:30 a.m.]
[Telegram]
Master American steamer Berwind, owners, New York and Porto Rico Steamship Company, states that the vessel, chartered to Hamburg-American Line, sailed from New York August 5 laden with coal for Buenos Aires or other ports; arrived Rio de Janeiro September 18; that he has no manifest of cargo; that orders were given to him at New York to follow instructions of supercargo who was provided by the Hamburg-American Line; that by the direction of supercargo he discharged at sea in or near Northwest Bay, Brazilian Island Trinidad, practically entire cargo of coal into the German merchant vessels Cap Trafalgar and Eleanore Wörmann; that the Berwind arrived off north coast of island August 25 and sailed from there for Rio de Janeiro September 14 immediately after a naval engagement between the Cap Trafalgar and an unidentified. British auxiliary cruiser; that the Cap Trafalgar was sunk and the cruiser was last seen enveloped in smoke apparently on fire going to westward; that subsequently [?] receiving 300 tons of coal from the Berwind, Cap Trafalgar was armed with the guns and ammunition of the German gunboat Eber which at the time convoyed merchant [Page 621] vessels above mentioned and the German merchant vessels Santa Lucia and Pontus.
It is known here that the Santa Lucia and the Eber are now at Bahia. Berwind is at Rio de Janeiro for bunker coal which she has not yet been able to procure from local British coal dealers because of suspicious circumstances of her arrival. Master states that the local agents Hamburg-American Line have placed the vessel entirely in his control and that he has the assurances of a cargo of sugar and coffee from Rio de Janeiro and Santos to New York.