Heligoland (15 page)

There was no let-up in the activity and animation on the morning of Saturday 9 August. The weather was beautiful and the island thronged to excess with sightseers. The Lower Town was decorated from end to end, with the Heligoland and German flags being most prominently displayed. The first move towards the official evacuation of the island by the British took place that morning when the Trinity House lighthouse-keepers and the families of the six British coastguardmen embarked on board the tender
Seamew
. At 1pm Arthur Barkly, in full dress uniform, was joined at Government House by Colonel Whitehead and the chief officials of the island, and soon they all proceeded to the landing stage to receive Herr von Bötticher, the German Secretary of State assigned to represent the Kaiser in accepting the transfer of authority. A guard of honour, consisting of a detachment of marines from the
Calypso
, was drawn up at Government House, while another guard of honour awaited Barkly at the landing stage, where he and his officials were met by Captain Metaxa of the
Calypso
, Captain Sanderson of HMS
Wildfire
and various other naval officers.

Fully an hour passed before the German corvette
Victoria
and artillery training ship
Mars
hove into view, followed by the despatch vessel
Pfeil
. A further delay was caused by the low state of the tide which compelled the little flotilla to circumnavigate the island before anchoring off the north harbour. From the outset, navigation of the waters around Heligoland was proving trickier than the German Navy had anticipated. Once the ships were riding, they fired a 21-gun salute in honour of the British flag, a tribute that was acknowledged by a similar salute from the
Calypso
. Then there followed a salute of 17 guns in honour of the British Governor. Just after 3pm von Bötticher arrived by boat at a jetty richly decorated with flags, palms and garlands of flowers. With him was Privy Councillor Lindon, the new civil and naval governors, and a financial comptroller. As soon as they were safely ashore, a cordial greeting took place between this party and Arthur Barkly, who introduced Colonel Edward Whitehead, Heinrich Gätke, and a small knot of other British officials. The entire group then proceeded to Government House where Fanny received them, accompanied by a large party of wives and daughters of the other officials, as well as many of the leading islanders, whom the Barklys had invited to witness the ceremony. Fanny positioned herself in an upstairs window of Government House to gain the best view of the proceedings.

The guard of honour was stationed in the Englishstyle garden. The officials and naval officers, all in full uniform, accompanied Arthur to a place close to the flagstaff, where he performed the brief but impressive ceremony of handing over the island to German control. The proceedings were simple and uncomplicated, consisting only of the reading of a clause from the Anglo-German Agreement. For the few Britons present it was a very sad and moving occasion, especially when the German flag was hoisted beside the Union Jack. This caused ecstatic cheers from the countless German trippers crowded along the esplanade, who burst into an impromptu chorus of the patriotic song
Deutschland über Alles
, which von Hoffmann had composed on the island many years earlier. The hoisting of the German flag was also greeted by a salute of 21 guns from both German and English warships in the harbour. Herr von Bötticher then called upon the excited crowd to give three ‘Hochs’ for Queen Victoria, which was done with great enthusiasm. The ceremony passed off without the slightest hitch, and with the utmost cordiality on both sides. The two flags were left to flutter side by side until sundown.
¹⁶

Meanwhile, some 4,000 miles away in Africa, other pieces on the gigantic colonial chessboard Salisbury had devised with Bismarck’s successors were being fitted into place. At the precise hour that the German flag was hoisted in the garden at Government House in Heligoland on 9 August, it was lowered for the last time in parts of East Africa, most notably in Zanzibar.

Barkly next proceeded down to the Conversation House in the Unterland where he held a farewell reception with forty of Heligoland’s leading citizens, in the presence of the British naval officers, his official entourage and the German officials. Even there, as he had throughout the day, Arthur Barkly received telegrams from the Foreign and Colonial Offices in London, and was obliged to hurry off to deal with the special instructions they contained. When the lunch ended he was present to hear the final speech, made by von Bötticher. In the name of the inhabitants and all succeeding governors, he thanked Barkly ‘For all the good seed he and his predecessors had sown; the fruit of which was now to be reaped.’ For Arthur, it was almost too much. Deeply moved and struggling to keep his composure he responded in a low voice. The strain increased when an island dignitary, the Baths Director, stood up to express a few simple words: ‘Our present rulers will not think ill of us if, in bidding farewell to the Queen of England, who has ruled us so kindly, we do so with heavy hearts.’

Soon it was time for the governor to go. By the late afternoon the Barklys’ children and servants, together with Colonel and Mrs Whitehead and their family, had boarded the Admiralty yacht
Wildfire
. Shortly before 6pm, having made the final arrangements at Government House, Arthur sadly made his way down through the narrow streets to the landing stage, past the good-natured faces he had come to know so well. He was warmly cheered by the spectators, as everyone pressed forward to shake hands with the last of the English governors. At the pier he boarded the
Calypso
’s steam pinnace. Fanny was overwhelmed by bouquets of flowers, tied with the Heligoland ribbon; there were so many she could not hold them all and they had to be accommodated in the pinnace. As the boat speedily puffed and hissed towards the warship, everyone shouted and waved their last farewells.
¹⁷

Instantly Arthur set foot on HMS
Calypso
the corvette commenced firing a 17-gun salute. Each deafening boom of the cannon thudded like a quivering arrow into his breaking heart. As the tide ebbed further, at just after 7pm the 21ft draught
Calypso
shifted berth out to deeper water. There was one last duty to perform. At 11pm a party of six British coastguards, under Royal Naval command, made for Government House and lowered the Union Jack for the last time, before returning to the
Calypso
. They were the last British officials to leave the island.
¹⁸
At 11.40pm the Barklys stood solemnly on
Calypso
’s quarter-deck as the warship weighed anchor. Slowly she gathered steam, gracefully moving as she cleared the southern tip of the island. Then, in company with the
Seamew
and
Wildfire
, she headed for England. Large drinks in hand, the Barklys watched the twinkling lights of the island until they faded out of sight over the horizon.

Scarcely had Governor Barkly’s party made ready to leave Heligoland that evening than thirteen warships of the German fleet appeared and took possession of the anchorage just vacated by the
Calypso
. Several admirals and other senior naval officers landed from the various ships, and strolled about the decorated narrow streets. All was again bustle and confusion, for there seemed to be no time even to make the preparations for the Kaiser’s visit the next day. Government House had to be made ready for the reception and a banquet in the large drawing-rooms for sixty people, including Wilhelm II and his entourage and the chief personages of the mainland and insular governments. Few officials or people on the island slept that night, and most were still working hard at dawn.

At Osborne that week Queen Victoria’s emotions must have been in turmoil. Displeased at being required by Salisbury to hand over a cherished colony, she was cool towards her mistrusted grandson, although she was obliged to treat him with respect as he was a head of state. Would she have been shocked that the Kaiser would so soon take her name in vain? For Wilhelm, the experience of reviewing his grandmother’s impressive fleet at Spithead further fuelled his keenness to get to the North Sea to inspect his latest possession. Hurrying eastwards from the Isle of Wight on the night of 9 August Wilhelm was aboard the imperial yacht
Hohenzollern
, escorted by a fourteen-strong German torpedo-boat flotilla.

Later that week the satirical magazine
Punch
irreverently devised an ‘unreported’ incident that had occurred as the German Emperor approached the island:

Funnily enough, the
Hohenzollern
was actually involved in an impromptu encounter en route to the island, although the details were never revealed to Parliament. Only
The Times
picked up the story, erroneously claiming that the
Hohenzollern
had rendezvoused with a squadron of German ironclads on exercise manoeuvres in the North Sea.
¹⁹
What really happened is recorded in the log-book of HMS
Calypso
. At 5.40am on 10 August, just off the coast of Borkum, the westernmost of the German Frisian Islands, the Sheerness-bound corvette, with the
Seamew
and
Wildfire
, sighted Wilhelm’s steam yacht with its escort of torpedo-boats heading towards Heligoland. Such was the Kaiser’s vanity that protocol had to be observed, even so far out at sea, and there ensued an exchange of masthead flag-hoisting and ceremonial gunfire.
²⁰

Brilliant weather greeted the Kaiser’s arrival in Heligoland. The sun shone brightly on what for the visitors was a cheerful scene. The whole island was decorated with flowers and flags, and the streets were full of sailors in smart uniforms and Heligolander girls in their national costume. The stairs to the Oberland were crowded with people going up and down, and all was excitement and expectation. From the Oberland a rare naval sight was presented to view. All the warships were bedecked with brightly coloured signalling flags. The manoeuvring squadron had positioned itself 2 miles out to sea, anchored in two lines. The warship
Kaiser
, on the right of the outside line, was flanked by the
Deutschland
, the
Frederich de Grosse
and the
Prussen
. The inner line also rode at anchor, somewhat closer in shore, with the artillery training ship
Mars
nearby. Standing on the bridge of the
Hohenzollern
, the German monarch steamed up to the island, between 11am and noon. The imperial yacht approached the German warships from the south-west, and amid the thunder of salutes from the warships made its way between the two lines. Then it steamed round the island, to the delight of the German crowds watching from the Oberland.

The Heligolanders, having had no time to reflect on the British departure, began to feel apprehensive as the unfamiliar fleet lingered off their island like a shoal of hungry sharks. Their initial alarm was caused by the disembarkation of some three thousand German marines in full uniform. The prospect of seeing the Kaiser meant that throughout the morning more and more jubilant visitors arrived from the mainland. Never before had there been so many people on Heligoland. The Germans indulged in every possible form of rejoicing just before lunch when Wilhelm jauntily stepped ashore at the landing stage.

He was greeted by von Bötticher, the two naval and civil governors of the island, and a variety of high-ranking military and official personages in full uniform. A souvenir was presented to him by a committee of Heligolanders, and a number of young Heligoland girls in national costume presented a tribute of flowers in the shape of an immense floral anchor in the Heligoland colours of green, red and white. Then a procession formed up and, walking at its head, the Kaiser paraded slowly through the densely crowded streets, from the Unterland to the Oberland, where a field service was to be performed near the Lighthouse tower. The imperial procession halted within a square formed by about three thousand sailors and marines drawn up in ranks. Wilhelm took his place a short distance in front of the field altar, which had been erected in the centre of the square between two flagpoles. The military chaplain spoke impressively of the day’s events in his sermon, as the Kaiser and all his troops stood with their heads uncovered. At the close of the service, an imperial proclamation by the Emperor was read out by von Bötticher: