RAIDER TO TRAMP.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 199, 23 August 1926, Page 9

RAIDER TO TRAMP.

WOLF IN PEACEFUL GUISE.

AUXILIARY CRUISER IN WAR.

HER CRUISE RECALLED,

Once a well-armed auxiliary cruiser, the former German raider Wolf, whose whereabouts caused so much anxiety to ; shipping men in this part of the world , during the latter half of the war, is to-day a peaceful trader, tramping the seas in search of cargoes. On her recent trip to Noumea the Union Co.'s freighter Waipori rubbed sides with the ex-German steamer, which was loading ; for the New Hebrides. The Wolf now : ilies the tricolour of France, being listed in Lloyd's as the Antinous. The cruise of the Wolf forms an extraordinary chapter in the naval his- . Tory of the Great War. Converted from a merchantman into an auxiliary ■cruiser, the Wolf sailed from Germany late in 1016 At first glance, she looked i innocent enough, but in reality she was ! a well-armed raider. A vessel of 7138 '• tons, the Wolf, which had previously been known as the Wachtfels, carried a battery of seven o.9in guns, several , torpedo tubes, and telescopic masts and J funnel. The latter could be raised or j lowered at a moment's notice, thus (changing the steamer's appearance. But perhaps the raider's greatest asset was i a powerful seaplane, which was used to jsean the sea from high altitudes. Sinks Her Sister Ship. I It was in the Arabian Sea that the i Wolf, which since the war has underI gone a few structural alterations, was I first heard of, the occasion being the i sinking of the Britisli Imperial Oil Com- ! pany's teamer Turritella. By a strange i coincidence the Turritella was the Wolfs I full sister, being originally the German [ steamer Guttenfels. Passing through I the Indian Ocean the Wolf kept clear of [ nII steamer lanes and was not observed Iby any other ship. Later she spent four weeks at an anchorage at Sunday : Island, in the Kermadecs. within five j hundred miles of the Xcw Zealand I coast!

The Union Company"s cargo steamer Wairuna, bound from Auckland to San Francisco, was the second vessel to fall into the clutches of the raider. Passing close to Sunday Island the freighter received a wireless message from the Wolf, ordering her to stop. Stripped of everything of use and with her crew taken off and transferred to the Wolf as prisoners of war. the Wairuna was sunk by gunfire. The steamer's whereabouts, it will be remembered, remained a mystery until the freighter's fate became known several months afterwards. From Sunday Tsland the Wolf steered a course for Auckland, layinp mines off the North Cape. Thence she went down the west coast of New Zealand, passing under cover of darkness within a mile or two of New Plymouth.

A minefield was laid off Cape Farewell and the raider then proceeded to Cape riobo. where further "eggs" were dropped. Tt was in tho lattor field that the Foderal Line steamer Cumberland, hound from Sydney to London, struck a. mine, being beached in a sinking condition. She became a total loss. Wimmera Disaster Recalled. A week after.the Cumberland had been mined, the Wolf claimed one of the richest prizes of her cruise. This was the steamer Matunga, on her way from Sydney to Rabaul with a large number of paesengefs and a rich cargo. A wireless message from the Matunga to the vessel' 3 agente in Rabaul was intercepted by the raider, which awaited the arrival of the merchantman Tho Matunga shared the same fate as the Wairuna, being looted and sunk.

Of the more serious casualties resulting from the depredations of the Wolf, the. case of the Huddart Parker steamer Wimmera was of chief concern among Aucklanders. TTie vessel left Auckland on June 26, 1017, for Sydney, and struck a mine before leaving the New Zealand coast. So violent was the explosion that the steamer went down within ten minutes of striking, the captain and a number of passengers and crew being drowned. Another instance was provided by the Commonwealth and Dominion Line steamer Port Kembla, which was mined about 25 miles off Cape Farewell. All the crew were saved,. but the ship, with her cargo, valued at £500,000, went to the bottom. Brief mention may also be made of the barque Handa Isle, which struck a mine and sank, and of the Sydney owned collier Undalla, which is believed to have fouled one of the mines laid by the Wolf. Fifteen Months at Sea. After sinking the Matunga the Wolf again entered the Indian Ocean, where she captured the Aitachi Maru. Being loaded with a cargo consisting largely of foodstuffs, this Japanese steamer was a grand prize for the raider. The Wolf's next capture, the coal laden Igotz Mendi, was manned by a German crew, her cargo being of too great a value to the raider to be sent down with the ship. The Igotz Mendi ..railed the Wolf down the Indian Ocean and into the South Atlantic, and when the greater part of her coal had beer consumed took on board the raider's war prisoners and eet a course for a German port. She finally went ashore on the Danish coast, becoming a total wreck.

Various other vessels were captured and sunk by the Wolf. On March 2, 1018, the raider arrived back at Kiel. Shu had been at sea- for more than fifteen months and was badly in need of cleaning. On board the vessel were 600 prisoners.

The ex-raider must not be confused with the British steamer Antinous (3GOO tone), which is expected to arrive at Auckland from Cuba early next month.