The story of the Emden and her crew would make for a great fiction novel - but this isn't fiction, it's a true story.

Caught in China at the beginning of the First World War, SMS Emden has no chance to make it back to Germany. Instead she and her captain, Fregattenkapitän Karl von Müller, made headlines around the world. In the process she single-handedly crippled Allied shipping in the Indian Ocean. But von Müller's war was an echo of an earlier time, a time when chivalry still existed and civilians were not targets. In the process of sinking or capturing 22 British and allied merchant ships only one merchant seaman was lost. The Emden carefully protected the passengers and crew of the ships that fell victim to her, even as she herself was hunted by a number of warships from several nations. So much so that von Müller was to become a hero even to his enemies.

Alone and isolated from any external supplies or support, it is obvious from the beginning that there can only be one end to this story. Eventually she is caught by HMAS Sydney, an Australian cruiser that out classes her in every way.

But the end of the Emden, has Churchill once said, was not the beginning of the end but rather the end of the beginning. Prior to being caught by the Sydney the Emden had put a 50 man landing party under the command of her First Lieutenant, Kapitänleutnant Hellmuth von Mücke, ashore on Direction Island to destroy a cable and wireless station. Witnessing the Emden sailing off to duel the Sydney, and not willing to surrender when the Sydney returns, von Mücke and his men hijack a small sailing ship and escape.

The second half of the book is the remarkable story of the Emden's landing party as they make their way many thousands of miles to an eventual triumphant return to Germany.