Although the shipment was meant to supply the mutiny planned for February 1915 , it was not dispatched until June of that year , by which time the conspiracy had been uncovered in India and major leaders had been arrested or gone into hiding . The plot for the shipment itself failed when disastrous co-ordination prevented a successful rendezvous off Socorro Island with the '' Maverick '' . The plot had already been infiltrated by British intelligence through Indian and Irish agents linked closely with the conspiracy . Upon returning to Hoquiam , Washington after several failed attempts , the '' Annie Larsen 's '' cargo was promptly seized by US customs . The cargo was sold at an auction despite the German Ambassador Count Johann von Bernstoff 's attempts to take possession , insisting they were meant for German East Africa . The Hindu – German Conspiracy Trial opened in 1917 in the United States on charges of gun running and at the time was one of the lengthiest and most expensive trials in American legal history . Franz von Papen attempted to sabotage rail lines in Canada and destroy the Welland Canal . He also attempted to supply rifles and dynamite to Sikhs in British Columbia to blast railway bridges . These plots in Canada did not materialise . Among other events in the United States that have been linked to the conspiracy is the Black Tom explosion when , on the night of 30 July 1916 , saboteurs blew up nearly 2 million tons of arms and ammunition at the Black Tom terminal at New York harbour awaiting shipment in support of the British war effort . Although blamed solely on German agents at the time , later investigations by the Directorate of Naval Intelligence in the aftermath of the '' Annie Larsen '' incident unearthed links between the Black Tom explosion and Franz von Papen , the Irish movement , the Indian movement as well as Communist elements active in the United States
Black Tom explosion
Black Tom explosion
Hindu–German Conspiracy