CAPTAIN MORS THE AIR PIRATE (1908-1911) STORIES ELEVEN TO FIFTEEN

For Balladeer’s Blog’s overview of the entire Kapitan Mors der Luftpirat series click HERE. For my look at the first five stories in the weekly text series click HERE.

THE AIRSHIP IN A WHIRLWIND – As the early pulp adventures of Kapitan Mors continue, his Luftschiff (Air Ship) is still incredibly damaged in the aftermath of his first clash with Ned Gully, his archenemy. That battle happened in the previous installment.

Gully himself turns out to have survived, after all, and he finds allies to help him try to stop Mors from repairing the Luftschiff piecemeal in a running battle from France to Italy across the Mediterranean and culminating over the Red Sea. A “high tech” (for 1908) inflatable raft is used at one point.

A BATTLE IN THE SKIES – Time has passed. The masked Kapitan Mors and his crew are back to their usual pirate raids, stealing from the rich to distribute among the world’s poor. They’ve been plundering a lot of gold in Australia, where Schrecken, one of Mors’ engineers, gets reunited with a woman from his past.

Meanwhile, over California, Ned Gully’s tycoon backers have financed his construction of an airship which Gully takes to the air. With a flying ship and a crew of his own, Ned once again tries to fulfill his contract to kill the Luftpirat and his international crew while Mors continues working on a spaceship. 

THE MINE OF CAPTAIN MORS – Having pushed his luck in the Australian gold fields a little too much, Kapitan Mors and his crew look for a different supply. Inside a volcanic mountain in Japan, our Luftpirat uses his advanced technology to find and mine a vein of gold in that dangerous spot.

Mors gives part of the proceeds to the poor, spends some on his spaceship project and mints his own counterfeit gold coins. The coins are being passed off as Japanese and American currency, but the two furious nations catch on and jointly launch a dragnet for our hero in hopes of shutting down his operations. 

THE IVORY TREASURE IN THE ARCTIC OCEAN – Given how Kapitan Mors remains in romantic mourning for his slain wife and children, his crew members once again step up to provide some romance to these tales. Fred, an American air pirate, has a Canadian girlfriend with whom he corresponds.

That young lady, Bessy Hunter, has a scheming friend named Ellen Waters. Ellen has learned about Fred and his captain by intercepting letters sent to the ailing, bedridden Bessy. The traitorous friend tries to lure the Luftschiff and its notorious captain into a trap in order to claim the enormous reward on their heads. 

THE MALAY’S REVENGE – In the Java Sea, the Luftschiff drops down near sea level in order to come to the aid of a Dutch steamship whose engines have failed. Thus begins an action-packed adventure of Kapitan Mors and his crew. 

Our heroes drive off an initial band of Borneo pirates who were trying to board the stricken vessel, then learn that the beautiful daughter of a Dutch official is one of the steamship’s passengers. She is being lecherously pursued by the ship’s captain as well as a Malaysian prince whose hand she rejected. Mors and his men face more pirates as well as headhunters and the prince’s navy.

*** I’ll examine the next several tales in the near future. FOR THE NYCTALOPE, A NEGLECTED HERO SIMILAR TO CAPTAIN MORS, CLICK HERE.