NEW ZEALAND STEAMER SUNK BY A RAIDER.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 16498, 26 March 1917, Page 6

NEW ZEALAND STEAMER SUNK BY A RAIDER.

AMONG THE VICTIMS OF THE MOEWE. BELIEVED TO HAVE HAD NO CARGO ON BOARD. ,By Telegraph,—Press . Association; : , CHRISTCHUEC;!, this morning., . ■ > Cabled advice has been received by Mr. A, W. Bennett, general manager of the New Zealand Shipping Company, confirming;. the r . report that the company's steamer Otaki had been sunk by a raider, presumably the Moewe, and that all the members of the ship's company are supposed to be prisoners of war in Germany. The left Australia for London at the end of last year, and all her cargo of frozen meat had been discharged. Mr. Bennett thinks the Otaki was on tho way from London to Liverpool to load . cargo for Australia and New Zealand when she met with disaster. i * .* ' r k - ti,' "•"** - ;4k>'?. t A''- V i■ t '* <'j; & ; She would, therefore, bo an empty ship. - % • * As far a3 he knows, Captain L. G. Silba, who took the Otaki Home, was in command. . The Otaki is the third vessel in the New Zealand trade lost during the'war. The New Zealand Shipping Company's steamer Kaipara, of 7393 tons, was sunk ' by the German converted cruiser Kaiser Wilhelm dgr Grosso, in tho Atlantic,, about 200 miles south of the Canary Islands, on August 16, 1914. The crow was transferred to a steamer from which tho raider was coaling, and by her conveyed; to Las Palmas, in the Canary Group. : Shortly after this tho Kaiser Wilhelm was - sunk by the British cruiser Highflyer. Tho Shaw, Savill, and Albion Company's( steamer Tokomaru, of 6238 tons, was torpedoed. by a submarine in the English Channel, off Havre, •at : tho mouth of the River Seine, on January . 31. She was carrying clothing and 'gifts to the Belgitns from New Zealand, : principally from Gisborne and Napier. The Tokomaru was sunk -without warning, but the boats were quickly manned, everyone being in them within. 15 minutes. . Tho crow of 57 were rescued by French trawlers. -Tho Otaki was a steel triple-screw steamer of 9575 tons, belonging ■to the New Zealand Shipping Company. She was built by Denny Bros., of Dumbarton, in 1906. Her length was 465.4 ft. beam 60.3 ft, and depth 31.3 ft. . Sho .' was a sister ship to the Oriri and- Opawa. Her speed on trial was 15.2 knots. Tho Otaki, in addition to duplicate sets of reciprocating engines, had. a turbine to drive a third screw. Slid was tho first vessel fitted with a steam turbine to engage in round-the-world services. The Otaki was purely a cargo vessel.