CAPTURE AND SINKING OF WAIRUNA AT KERMADECS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LV, Issue 16798, 14 March 1918, Page 5

CAPTURE AND SINKING OF WAIRUNA AT KERMADECS.

VESSEL STOPPED BY AEROPLANE AND STRIPPED. NIAGARA TWICE NARROWLY ESCAPES THE RAIDER. Australian and N.Z. (Received 11.45 p.m.) LONDON. Mar. 12. Mr. T. E. Rees, second officer, and B. Donovan, chief cook of the Wairuna, have reached London. They state that the Wairuna was captured off the Kerraadecs Islands, where the raider Wolf was lying close inshore refitting. The German band was playing aboard the Wolf and one of the musicians sighted the approaching steamer. A seaplane flew over the Wairuna and dropped a paper ordering the ship to stop. At the same time the Wolf fired a shot across her bows. A prize crew went aboard and took possession. The raider worked at the Wairuna for 16 days. They removed 1200 tons of coal and provisions, and 42 sheep. At this time the Wolf was at the starvation point in the matter of food and coal. The Germans twitted the Wairuna's crew for not scuttling the vessel when capture was inevitable. When the dismantling was completed, bombs were placed on the Wairuna and she was sunk. The Wolf nearly waylaid the Niagara on two occasions. The interception of wireless signals from cruisers warned the Wolf of the imminence of danger. . The High Commissioner, Sir Thomas Mackenzie, has provided for the wants of Rees and Donovan, and entered them in the officers' employment bureau formed under a committee including Lord St. Davids, General Sir H. Smith Dorrien, and Admiral Sir Wilmot Fawkes.