ENEMY RAIDER.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 309, 30 December 1940, Page 4

ENEMY RAIDER.

VESSEL DESCRIBED.

VIEWED FROM LIFEBOAT.

Members of the crew of the Port Brisbane, who escaped in a lifeboat when their ship was sunk in the Indian Ocean on November 21, had a clear view of the enemy raider, which had previously sunk the Maimoa.

Mr. T. C. Lloyd, a quartermaster on the Port Brisbane, who is now in Auckland, said that the lifeboat which he was in with 2(i other members of the crew was the only one to avoid capture. At one stage the raider came close to them, and they were able to see that she wa« a vessel of about 0000 tons with a high and sharp cutaway bow and a long, low well-deck stretching from the forecastle to a low poop, which ended in a cruiser stern. The line of the deck was broken only by the bridge superstructure and a squat funnel. The vessel had "goalpost" masts fore and aft with a topmast. rising from the crossbeam. Mr. Lloyd said that the raider was painted a light colour and could be easily disguised. The searchlights were apparently mounted on the masts and were very powerful. Her low freeboard would make her a difficult target, ami being a motor ship, the funnel gave off only a light 3inoke. The raidej* had torpedo tubes, which were inounted # ju«t forward of the housing on the well-deck. The track of one torpedo was seen, and the Port Brisbane was struck under the forepart of the bridge.

Mr. Lloyd added that it was thought that the raider had hydrophone apparatus to listen to the beat of other ships' engines, and such equipment would increase her radius of effectiveness. It was also thought that she had a seaplane which could be lowered over the side.