CAPTURED AT SEA

Evening Post, Volume CXXXI, Issue 143, 19 June 1941, Page 7

CAPTURED AT SEA

HUNGARIAN STEAMER

PRQ-NAZI MASTER'S RUSE

FAILS

BATAVIA, June 18.

Co-operation between the Dutch and Australian authorities and a commercial aviator brought about the arrest of the Hungarian steamer Nyugat (4300 tons) in the Timor Sea. It is revealed that the Nyugat disappeared with a cargo of Australian flour which was shipped in Fremantle for Shanghai and was valued at £170,000. Her pro-Nazi master, Captain Zoller, ignored the course which the naval authorities had allocated for him, and attempted to sail to Dilli (Timor) and thence to Formosa, where he hoped to transfer the cargo to Axis interests.

The captain had the Hungarian flag painted out from the ship's sides and replaced with extensive camouflaging. All this was done in 24 hours at sea. His attempt to run the blockade was, however, short-lived, and the ship was captured by the Dutch destroyer Kortenaer, a prize crew from which was well received by the crew, a mixture of Hungarians and Yugoslavs with four negroes and six Chinese. Captain Zoller appeared furious, and called his crew traitors and accused them of sabotage for not making better speed. It is revealed that the crew had been in a mood bordering on mutiny and had nicknamed the* captain "Hitler"and the chief engineer "Mussolini."

Members of the crew said that the captain, paid them in Australia with cheques drawn on his private account ill an American bank. He used the company's money for his own purposes. Sixteen hundred United States dollars was found secreted in his clothing and in the luggage of his wife, who was also aboard the ship.

The Nyugat will probably fly the Dutch flag in future—U.P.A.

*ti%&sM