The Red Buoy
On a recent visit to Penang, our cruise ship berthed at the Georgetown
passenger ship terminal, beside Fort Cornwallis.
As we arrived I noticed a red buoy a hundred metres or so
east of the berth. My knowledge of navigational buoys being somewhat rusty, I
couldn’t recall exactly what the mark signified. Closer examination (having
taken a photo with the zoom lens) revealed a buoy with a black body and a red
top, on which was mounted a latticework pyramid painted black and red. Atop the
pyramid were two vertical black spheres. It took subsequent reference to my old
seamanship books, purchased during my oh-so-long-ago cadetship, to confirm that
it was an “isolated danger mark.”
But what danger did it signify? As usual, a very good friend
of mine, and ex-merchant marine captain knew the answer.
“You obviously don’t know about the Battle of Penang,” he
said.
Of course I knew that Penang had been overrun by the
Japanese in mid-December 1941, after extensive bombing and the destruction of
the Royal Air Force and Royal Australian Air Force squadrons at Butterworth.
Wrong war, was the answer. He then told me the story, which
he had learned from his previous visits to Penang, including stays at the
famous Eastern & Oriental Hotel. Had I known, I could also have looked it
up on Wikipedia.
The Battle of Penang, it transpired, was a naval engagement
fought between German, Russian and French ships in Penang harbour on the night
of the 28th October 1914. The German ship was the light cruiser Emden under the command of Lt. Commander
Karl von Muller. His mission was to raid the harbour and sink any enemy vessels
sheltering there. To disguise the three funnelled Emden, von Muller added a fourth dummy funnel which, on superficial
inspection, changed her appearance to resemble a Royal Navy Town Class
cruiser. One of that class, HMS Yarmouth, was known to be operating in
eastern waters at the time.
![]() |
Emden |
Very early on the morning of 28th October, von
Muller sailed boldly into the roadstead between Penang and Butterworth. Anchored
there he saw the Imperial Russian cruiser Zhemchug,
one of the handful of ships to survive the guns of the Japanese Navy at the
Battle of the Tsushima Strait in 1905.
She had arrived in Penang for a boiler
clean on 26th October. Most of her crew were on shore leave, the
remainder had hosted a late night party on board, and her captain, Commander
Cherkassov was entertaining a lady friend at the Eastern & Oriental Hotel
in nearby Georgetown.
![]() |
Zhemchug |
Von Muller approached to within 300 yards of the
unsuspecting Zhemchug, ran up his
Imperial German Navy battle ensigns, launched a torpedo and opened fire.
Although taken completely by surprise the Zhemchug’s
crew managed to bring her guns into action, but it was all too late. Von Muller
calmly sailed past, turned about and sailed back to launch a second torpedo
while his guns continued to hammer away at the Zhemchug. Alerted by the gunfire Commander Cherkassov and his
girlfriend could do nothing but watch from the safety of the E&O Hotel.
Badly damaged and on fire the Zhemchug
finally exploded and sank.
Unharmed, the Emden
turned seaward, encountering the French destroyer Mousquet returning from patrol. Taken by surprise she was also
quickly sunk.
The Eastern & Oriental, now much enlarged and currently
undergoing refurbishment, still stands on the western end of the Esplanade. The
red “isolated danger” buoy marks the final resting place of the Zhemchug. Her unfortunate captain, Commander
Cherkassov, was court-martialled and dismissed from the Imperial Navy.
As for the Emden?
Von Muller’s luck ran out 10 days later when he ran into the Australian cruiser
HMAS Sydney. Outgunned, von Muller
was forced to run her aground and surrender at the Battle of Cocos.
Comments
Post a Comment