NAVAL PRIZES

Auckland Star, 12 May 1941, Page 5

NAVAL PRIZES

I TWO SHIPS CAPTURED BY LEANDER AND CANBERRA A German merchant ship, which [has been supplying a raider, and a Norwegian tanker captured earlier by the raider, have been intercepted by H.M.S. Leander, New Zealand Division of the Royal Navy (Captain JR. H. Bevan, R.N.), and H.M.A.S. 'Canberra, Royal Australian Navy ; (Captain H. B. Farncomb, M.V.0., JR.A.N.). This information was confined in a statement by the Prime iMinister's Department last night. i The German merchant ship intercepted by the cruisers Leander and J Canberra was the 7400-ton Coburg, and the tanker was the Ketty* Brovig, 7031 tons, says the statement. Eighteen German officers and 47 ratings were made prisoners of war, and a number of Norwegians and ; Chinese imprisoned on one of the ships were rescued. A London cable reports that the German armed merchant cruiser sunk by the British cruiser Cornwall in the Indian Ocean was a former Hansa Line vessel of about 10.000 .tons. Tier speed was about l> i knots and she was probably armed ;\vith 5.9 in guns and equipped with .torpedoes and mine-laying devices. ! The auxiliary cruiser had a crew of about 300, the object of such a large company being to provide prize crews for any possible captures. Built in Danzig in a- the Havel, the North German Lloyd cargo motor ship Coburn was reengined in I9"S. lengthened ab<ait 20ft and given her present name. 'The alterations pave the Cuburj: a ;speed of 15 knots. '■Accommodation iwas provided for passengers, and the vessel was fitted with refrigeration machinery. The Norwegian tanker Ketty Brovig was built ia 11318.