Under pressure from the German ship Franziska, Kosrae’s chiefs sign Hernsheim’s copra-indemnity agreement, a 133,000 lb claim.

What happened

Kosrae’s chiefs had let a trader of the rival Capelle company set up a post, and Hernsheim demanded 133,000 lb of copra as an “indemnity,” plus payment for trade goods; the agreement was signed while the German ship Franziska lay at anchor. Later that year Hernsheim threatened to land a hundred Solomon Islanders and make one of them king if the chief did not pay, and a Capelle-chartered schooner helped the chief settle the debt. The COM-FSM outline calls this the “Hernsheim scandal.”