SMS Nurnberg & SMS Leipzig

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Fairwind
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SMS Nurnberg & SMS Leipzig

Post by Fairwind »

Hello gentlemen..I am researching an obscure event that may or may not have ever happened..While reading a book about the Sea Of Cortez (Gulf Of California) I came across a few sentences that claimed a German "battleship" had once taken refuge in Conception Bay, a snug anchorage near the town of Mulege on the east coast (not the Pacific coast) of the Baja peninsula. I have discovered that this "battleship" COULD have been either the Nurnberg or the Leipzig, two light cruisers that were stationed off the west coast of Mexico in the 1912-1913 time-frame when this could have happened.. Both of these ships met their fate about a year later in an engagement with the British off the Falkland Islands...

As it stands, this is just a yarn told while drinking beer around the campfire..Can any of you experts shed any light on this story? The story goes, this ship was hiding out, awaiting orders as World War One approached...An equally plausible story is that this ship was there to protect Germany's interests during the Mexican Revolution, raging at the time...Anyone?
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RF
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Re: SMS Nurnberg & SMS Leipzig

Post by RF »

These two cruisers were stationed to the west of Mexico at the time of the Mexican Revolution, though I think it is unlikely that they would be positioned in the Sea of Cortez itself.
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Fairwind
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Re: SMS Nurnberg & SMS Leipzig

Post by Fairwind »

These fables can be hard to sort out when the ships logs never make it back to dry land...Something that would have interested the Germans, 30 miles north of Muleje and Conception Bay is Santa Rosalia, a virtual French colony, completely isolated on the Baja coast, a huge copper mine and smelter critical to France's defense industry at the time. It was undefended, an easy target. With the defeat of the German Pacific squadron, Santa Rosalia was never threatened..
simonharley
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Re: SMS Nurnberg & SMS Leipzig

Post by simonharley »

it's not unlikely that the German ships had cruised in the Gulf of California. In 1911, the British sloop "Shearwater" had cruised from Guaymas to La Paz before sailing up to San Quintín on the west Baja coast, where she acquired some notoriety by landing a party of sailors and marines to hold the town after Government troops fled in the face of insurrectionists.

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Gary
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Re: SMS Nurnberg & SMS Leipzig

Post by Gary »

The crew also partook in a spot of shark fishing around that time

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