TWO GERMAN RAIDERS IN SOUTH PACIFIC.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 16665, 9 October 1917, Page 5

TWO GERMAN RAIDERS IN SOUTH PACIFIC.

ALLIED WARSHIPS SEARCHING , FOR • THEM. HISTORY OF THE SEEADLER REVEALED. STRANDED AND ABANDONED DURING AUGUST. By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright. ' Australian and N.Z. . (Received 9.30 p.m.) WASHINGTON, Oct. 6, It has been officially announced that there are two armed German raiders in the South 'Pacific. Allied warships axe searching for them. The United States Navy Department has received a report from the commander at Tutuila Island (one .of the Samoan group) that the master tof an American schooner has arrived there with three men from an island in the Pacific. The master States that the raider Seeadler captured his vessel on July 17, and also captured two American schooners, the A. B. Johnson and the Manilla. The Seeadler . was stranded and abandoned during August, her rifles and supplies being transferred to a motor sloop. The crew of the Seeadler, on September 9, captured the Lutece, from Tahiti. The Germans left 27 white men and 17 natives from the Lutece marooned on the island already referred to, where the men are in great need of food and " water. Eveiy effort is being made to relieve them. It is stated that one victim of the raiders was the schooner Rose- • dale, from Sydney. It is believed the Wairuna was also among their .victims. Tutuila Island is one of the Samoan group, belonging to the United States. It has on its south side the harbour of Pago Pago. The A. B. Johnson was a four-masted wooden schooner of 529 tons, built . In 1900. She was owned by Wilson Bros, and Company, of San Francisco, and was 165 ft long. The Manilla was also a four-masted schooner of 731 tons, and was built in 1899. Her owners were J. A. Hooper, of San Francisco. She was 182 ft long. The loss of the Seeadler in August was announced in a somewhat different form to that in which it is now given. A cable from New York on August 23 ' stated that the British steamer Harrington Head reported that a British warship tank the Seeadler in the Atlantic, 1000 miles from New York. The Seeadler ' went down fighting, some of the crew being lost at their posts. The warship summoned the Harrington Head and also the British steamer Edith Cavell to take the rescued Germans on board. The Harrington Head was then homeward Jiound, and was reported to carry 13 Germans. If previous statements about the Seeadler were correct she had a long life as a commerce destroyer. A cable from Rio de Janeiro, dated April 12, stated i that a French vessel had arrived with 200 men en board, the crews of 11 allied vessels sunk by a raider named the Seeadler off Trinidad. The Seeadler iB supposed to have been a captured American barque fitted ' with internal combustion engines, which was taken to Cuxhaven by a German prize crew in August, 1915, after being captured while on a voyage from New York to Archangel with a cargo of cotton. She iB said to have been laden with mines, and was armed with two 105 millimetre (4.2w) guns, 16 machine* * guns, and had three masts equipped! with wireless apparatus. The crew numbered 64, and the ship was under the command of Count Luckner. The raider, it is said', left Germany on December 22, 1916, escorted by a submarine, and was provisioned for 18 months, and had a great supply of munitions. On sighting a merchantman she hoisted the Norwegian flag, which was replaced by the German ensign when the prey was within reach of the guns. The captain of the Dupleix, one of the ships 6unk by the raider, said: " Before leaving the raider we had to promise not to engage in any act of war during :■ the remaining period of hostilities. The Germans compelled the prisoners to throw overboard 50 tons of saltpetre before they started for Brazil." The Seeadler is a square-rigged vessel and has a speed of 12' knots. It was" impossible to recognise her as an armed «hip when she left Germany, as her guns were 'V. concealed in the hold. She had two gasolene launches which wore also hidden ' . in the hold during the first part of the voyage. After she reached the high seas the guns were mounted on the forecastle and the gun ports were masked. / On account of their position the puns can be fired only in two directions. The • wireless was also cleverly concealed in the rigging. The vessel ' is about 2800 ' tons burthen. A remarkable case was that of a Dutchman who was one of the prisoners. He was ordered to work in the galley, and at the end of his stay the Germans handed him 150 marks in German paper money as wages. He ' refused them with a gesture of disdain and was immediately arrested. The Seeadler was reported to have sunk tho British steamers Gladys Boyle (3268 tons), Lundy Island (4500 tone), Horngarth (5500 tons), the sailing vessel Pinmore, the small Canadian trader Perce, the French vessels Antonin (4000 tons), •3 Charles Gounod (2199 tons), Dupleix (2206 tons), all west of Madeira, between • v ' January 3 and March 5. i % The most successful German raider was the Moewe. which, made two cruises If, - in the Atlantic and returned safely to port each time. On the first ciuise in 1916 she accounted for 15 vessels of 57,835 tons, and in her second raid early in 1917 she sank at least 12 vessels aggregating 50,000 tons. "Among her victims on the second occasion was the New Zealand Shipping Company's vessel Otaki, .-"1, >; which put up a gallant resistance but was out-gunned. tess'- •