On December 21, 1916, a three-masted sailing ship slipped out of the river Weser in northern Germany. Her captain had false papers, a deliberately damaged logbook, and a young sailor with a blonde wig to pose as his wife. The ship sailed under a false flag, and even her name--the Hero--was a ruse. So begins the amazing true story of The Cruise of the Sea Eagle, Blaine Pardoe�s account of Felix von Luckner, the Imperial German Navy raider, set upon the high seas to sink Britain�s vital wartime supply ships during World War I.Using sheer determination, pluck, and quick wits, von Luckner steered clear of the British Navy so as to board and sink as many merchant ships as possible. By the time a month had passed, he had already sunk three vessels. But unlike Germany�s haunted submarine fleet, the gentleman pirate made room on his ship for all prisoners, and never fired a shot unless it was unavoidable.Von Luckner�s adventures include the tale of the French ship, the Dupleix, whose captain, when confronted by the Sea Eagle�s message--STOP IMMEDIATELY. GERMAN CRUISER--thought a colleague was playing a practical joke and rowed out to meet it. The Dupleix was sunk soon thereafter. Von Luckner evaded capture by no fewer than three British Navy ships, by rounding the Horn in a heavy storm, raiding ships all the way. And when the Sea Eagle ran aground on Mopelia Island in the Pacific, he took five crew members nearly two thousand five hundred miles in an open boat to raid again, in an effort worthy of Shackleton,only to be captured. What happened when he escaped caps what is perhaps the most remarkable tale of piracy and adventure since Daniel Defoe�s vivid imaginings, a tale all the more remarkable since it actually occurred in an era when pirates were still possible.