SEA RAIDERS

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 4328, 24 August 1937, Page 1

SEA RAIDERS

WAR EVENTS RECALLED THE LUCK IN THE GAME # According to the ‘Sydney Morning Herald,’ when the presence of the Seeadler in the Atlantic in the latitude of Buenos Aires became known, it was necessary for that raider to get away into the Pacific Ocean. Since it was fairly obvious that yon Luckner would make for the Pacific, plans were put into operation to capture the Seeadler off Cape Horn. Among British cruisers and auxiliary cruisers in the vicinity were the Orbita, the Lancaster and the Otranto — the Orient liner and the first of that name. Admiralty instructions were for these ships to steam south from Peruvian waters, the Lancaster to remain at the southern limit of fiavigation below Cape Horn—it was winter, and ships could not pass far south of the Horn—the other two vessels to patrol up and down due north and south between Gape Horn and the Lancaster, keeping a collier with them so that there would be no necessity to put back into port. . . , Had these instructions been carried out, von Luckner would have had little hope of reaching the Pacific. Fortunately for the Seeadler a certain local authority took it upon himself to alter the Admiralty instructions. He took the Orbita off the north-south patrol and stationed her at the eastern entrance to the Strait of Magellan. It is difficult to understand how any person could believe that a sailing vessel would attempt the passage_ of the Strait of Magellan, to say nothing of a raider, yet that was where the Orbita was placed. The Orbita being off patrol made all the difference to von Luckner; he battled along on the west-about passage around the Horn in heavy weather, did not encounter the patrolling Otranto, and finally got out into the Pacific, passing south of the Otranto late in April.

One must mention the extraordinary war service of the Otranto. She was engaged in the mail service between Australia and England, a vessel of some 12,000 tons, and of about 18 knots speed—a fairly fast ship for those days but not to be compared with a cruiser’s speed. Nevertheless, the Otranto, fitted as an auxiliary cruiser, was one of the only two vessels to escape when attached to Craddock’s squadron. She steamed up the South American coast to be with Craddock’s ships when they were blown out of the water off Coronet—surely one of the worst days in British naval history. The Otranto seemed to have a charmed life during the war; after her escape from Coronel she did service for a considerable time looking for raiders. Good ships of her class becoming scarce, she was fitted as a transport. All went well until just a few weeks before the armistice. The Otranto was nearing England with American troops when she collided at sea with the P. and 0. liner Kashmir. In heavy weather the Otranto broke away from the Kashmir and drifted helplessly on to an island off the Scottish coast. More than 300 American troops and some 100 of her crew were washed off her decks and drowned. Yet another Australian vessel was associated with the cruise of the Seeadler. This was the tiny Amra, the locally-registered steamer of the A.U.S.N. Company, which was then engaged in the Fijian inter-island trade. It was the Amra which carried an unarmed police officer to the outlying island, where he apprehended the well-armed von Luckner party; a task which was made easier by that officer mistaking the Amra for a 1 gunboat. Count von Luckner was not amused when, disarmed, he was taken aboard the Amra to be conveyed to Suva, and found that the vessel had no more lethal weapons aboard than one revolver, for which there were no cartridges!