Their Warship Sank in Flames. So 50 Sailors Stole a Ghost Ship.
[!NOTE] Historical File: Their Warship Sank in Flames. So 50 Sailors Stole a Ghost Ship. Location: Germany | Era: Archival History | Format: Documentary & Narrative Record
The Untold Story
Fifty stranded sailors watched their warship sink in flames, and refused to surrender.
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In November 1914, a German landing party destroyed a British communications station on the remote Cocos Islands.
Cut off with enemy warships circling, their lieutenant commandeered a rotting, thirty-year-old wooden schooner in the lagoon.
Islanders warned the leaking hull was suicide, but the men pumped water around the clock, slipping seventeen hundred miles across the Indian Ocean.
After transferring to a freighter in Sumatra, they landed in Arabia, fighting running battles on camels across the desert.
Six months later, the fifty stranded sailors marched into Damascus alive. Follow along for more unbelievable survival history.
Historical Discussion
💭 Trapped on a remote island with their cruiser destroyed, fifty sailors sailed a rotting wooden ship across 1,700 miles of ocean and fought across the desert. Would you have attempted this escape?
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