CAPTAIN MORS THE AIR PIRATE (1908-1911) STORIES FORTY-SIX TO FIFTY

For Balladeer’s Blog’s overview of the entire Kapitan Mors der Luftpirat series click HERE.

SECRETS OF THE METEORITE – Once again Kapitan Mors and his crew take off from their secret island base on a space exploration mission. Among the crew of Mors’ spaceship the Meteor are the regulars – Executive Officer Lindo of India, Engineers Stern and Schrecken, Ship’s Astronomer Van Halen, plus Science Officers Anita and Lucy Long.

Van Halen has discovered a previously unknown meteor but when our heroes approach it they become snared by a tractor beam. They soon realize the seeming meteor is the camouflaged spaceship of a “race” of crystalline robots – and not all of them are friendly.

THE DAMASCUS TOWER OF DEATH – As usual with our Air Pirate, when he returns from a space mission he likes to change things up with a new cruise in his Luftschiff, with many of the crew members carrying over from his spaceship. 

While resuming his and his comrades’ mission of robbing the rich to give to the suffering poor, Kapitan Mors learns of horrific circumstances in Damascus. The latest ruler thrust upon the city by the Ottoman Turkish Empire is a despot who taxes the people blind and also fills the central tower of the great city with political prisoners for torturing. Mors and company intervene to save the innocent.

THE MYSTERIOUS FLYING MACHINE – A plush estate in the Rocky Mountains is robbed by what appears to be Kapitan Mors and his Luftschiff crew. The truth of the matter is, it is the latest act of piracy by impersonators who keep their plunder all to themselves while letting Mors take the heat for the crimes. 

Our masked hero and his crew fly off to the site of the most recent attack by the imitation Air Pirates to begin their efforts to track down and capture or kill the imposters. Ultimately the two vessels clash high above the Earth.

JOURNEY TO THE FIRE PLANET – Kapitan Mors and company return to their island base near New Zealand after defeating their imposters from last issue. Mors throws a celebration for all of his people to mark the victory.

Before long, Ship’s Astonomer Van Halen and Science Officer Anita Long inform Kapitan Mors about unusual phenomena being detected on Venus. The phenomena may imperil the entire Solar System. Mors and his crew head off for Venus in the Meteor, prepared to clash once again with the hostile alien race that they encountered on their previous trip there.

THE AIR PIRATE AT THE NORTH POLE – The Kapitan Mors stories were published at a time before any explorers had officially arrived at the North Pole. Controversy would rage for years over assorted claims by different parties to have been the first to reach the Pole.

A Long Island resident is an old friend of Mors and our hero owes the man a favor from years earlier. The New Yorker’s son has not returned from an expedition bound for the North Pole. The son’s colleague and quasi-rival Phillip Strong claims the younger man is dead but the father wants Kapitan Mors to fly to the Arctic to search for his son and see what secrets Phillip Strong seems to be hiding about what lies at the Pole. 

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

Thank you to the Villa Galactica site for some Kapitan Mors trivia and covers.