THE ESCAPEES.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVII, Issue 17666, 19 December 1917, Page 6

THE ESCAPEES.

REPORTED CAPTURE OF SCOW. AUCKLAND VESSEL HELD UP AND SEIZED. [Per Press Association.] AUCKLAND, December 18. It has been reported that the. Germans who escaped from Motuihi on Thursday evening captured the scow Moa, tho property of tho Leyiand O’Brien Timber Company, off Mercury Bay, Coromandel Peninsula- The facts, however,' are not yetb verified, and it has not) been definitely established that tho Germans were th 0 party that boarded the launch. So far as information is available it is learned that the creiw of another scow saw a launch, not actually identified as the commandeered craft Pearl, hold up the Moa and hoax'd her, tho latter immediately putting about and sailing in a south-easterly course, apparently in the direction of the Alderman Islands.

The scow Moa left Omakoroa, ten miles from Tauranga, at noon on Saturday last for Auckland. She had a fair wind as far ias Cape Colville, and under ordinary circumstances should have arrived in Auckland on Sunday erening or Monday morning at the latest). Captain Bourke, an ex-Royal Navy man, was in charge, with a crew of live. She! did not have a big supply of provisions on board, as the regulations do notl compel coastal vessels to carry reserve provisions. Apparently tbn crew of the Moa remained on board. It is presumed that the capture was made on Saturday afternoon, as another vessel is reported to have seen a scow, not actually identified as the Moa, but of the same build and rig, at seven o’clock on Sunday evening, eighteen miles off Cuvier Light, on Cuvier Island, off Coromandel Peninsula. Tho captured scow is 94ft in length, .with a gross tonnage of 127 tons and a net tonnage of 99. The Moa was tho biggest scow trading regularly to Auckland with timber from tho Tauranga district At th 0 time of the presumed capture she had a full cargo of timber, totalling some 80,000f't, valued at about £SOO. Tho Moa is stated to have been in splendid order, with sails in porfect condition, as she had been compleiWly overhauled only about six months ago. Her speed with a good fair wind would bo about ten knots, and she would bo quite capable of undertaking a trip to Sydney or any of the islands- Though she has on board a donkey engine for handling cargo, she has no auxiliary power, and tills fact should tend ,to make her capture more easy. It is reported from one source that she has taken the launch on board, and from another that the launch lias been picked up by the scow that first sighted her after she had been captured. It is confidently anticipated by a number of people that if tho Germans did board the Moa there should now be no difficulty in effecting their recapture, bun as against that it nas to bo borne ia mind that not very long ago a vessel praotically derelict and whoso general position was supposed to have been known drifted about for over forty days before she was finally picked up. Tile Alderman Islands are a group of basalbio islets, with some outlying rocks like stumps of trees, fourteen miles E.S.E. from Mercury Bay, and nine from tho nearest mainland, Tairua Head.