Tropical Trivia of Tahiti - September 1914

Tropical trivia for the day:

From the 'La Depeche Tahiti' (the Tahiti daily newspaper): "Depuis plus de deux ans, le service des archives de la mairie de Papeete a entrepris un travail de mémoire sur le bombardement de Papeete, en septembre 1914, par deux navires de guerre allemands,..."

Basically, the Germans in WWI shelled Papeete to steal the coal piles (a rare and valued commodity in the South Pacific) needed to operate their warships. The French destroyed the coal first but the Germans sank a freighter and a small French warship. It actually had an impact on the German fleet in the Pacific for a) not getting the coal, and b) using up a lot of ordnance that was needed later.

The things one learns while looking up something else...