Seaman's cap and tally : SMS Emden, Kaiserliche Marine

German sailor's cap with 'S.M.S. EMDEN' in gold on a black tally band tied around the headband. The cap is made from white cotton with a cane loop stitched inside the upper crown to hold the circular shape. Another piece of wood is sewn vertically into place at the front of the crown to support a red, white and black enameled cockade. To the rear of the cap is the issue stamp 'B A - 18 3 1914 50'.

This cap was worn by one of the sailors on board the SMS Emden. Emden was a light cruiser that formed part of the German East Asiatic Squadron. At the staart of the First World War she was detached to stalk the shipping routes across the Indian Ocean and quickly became the scourge of the Allied navies. Between August and October 1914, Emden captured or sank 21 vessels. In November 1914, nine Allied vessels were involved in the hunt for Emden, and the threat she posed led to a particularly heavy escort of four warships being allocated to the first Australian and New Zealand troop convoy. Surprised by one of these escorts, HMAS Sydney, while in the process of destroying the British radio station on the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, the Emden was destroyed on 9 November 1914. This cap was donated in the mid 1920s, presumably by an australian sailor who had souvenired the cap as a trophy.