nt ships as
the _Friedrich der Grosse_ and the _Grosser Kurfuerst_ eluded capture. In
the harbor of New York was the _Kronprinzessin Cecilie_, a fast steamer
of 23.5 knots. She left New York on July 28 carrying a cargo of
$10,000,000 in gold, and was on the high seas when England declared war.
Naturally she was regarded by the British as a great prize, and the
whole world awaited from day to day the news of her capture, but her
captain, showing great resourcefulness, after nearly reaching the
British Isles, turned her prow westward, darkened all exterior lights,
put canvas over the port holes and succeeded in reaching Bar Harbor,
Me., on the morning of August 5.

Similarly the _Lusitania_ and the French liner _Lorraine_, leaving New
York on August 5, were able to elude the German cruiser _Dresden_, which
was performing the difficult task of trying to intercept merchantmen
belonging to the Allies as they sailed from America, while she was
keeping watch against warships flying the enemies' flags. Still more
important was the sailing from New York of the German liner _Kaiser
Wilhelm der Grosse_. This ship had a speed of 22.5 knots and a
displacement of 14,349 tons. During the first week of the war she
cleared the port of New York with what was believed to be a trade
cargo, but she so soon afterward began harassing British trading ships
that it was believed that she left port equipped as a vessel of war or
fitted out as one in some other neutral port. The continued story of the
German raids on allied trading ships must form a separate part of this
narrative. It was only a month after the outbreak of hostilities that
the fleets of the allied powers had swept clean the seven seas of all
ships flying German and Austrian flags which were engaged in trade and
not in warlike pursuits.

The first naval battle of the Great War was fought on August 28, 1914.
"A certain liveliness in the North Sea" was reported through the press
by the British admiralty on the 19th of August. Many of the smaller
vessels of the fleet of Admiral von Ingenohl, the German commander, such
as destroyers, light cruisers, and scouting cruisers, were sighted.
Shots between these and English vessels of the same types were exchanged
at long range, but a pitched battle did not come for still a week.
Meanwhile the British navy had been doing its best to destroy the mine
fields established by the Germans. Trawlers were sent out in pairs,
dragging between them la