SINKING OF THE MATUNGA.

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

SINKING OF THE MATUNGA.

ACCOUNT BY STEWARDESS.

WOLF AWAITING THE VESSEL. DESTROYED BY TIME BOMBS. Australian and N.Z. Cable Association. (Reed. 8 p.m.). LONDON, Mar. 12. Mrs. McKenzio, a stewardess on the Matunga, has supplied a graphic story of her experiences. The Matunga was about 18 hours off Rabaul on August 6 when the Wolf came in sight. She had picked up a wireless message from the Matunga the previous night announcing the latter's arrival. Evidently she had been informed that the Matunga was carrying 500 tons of coal. The Wolf was desperately in need of coal. She waited for the Matunga for five days. Immediately the Wolf appeared she sent up a seaplane which circled over the Matunga to investigate whether she was armed. The Wolf then came closer, hoisted the German ensign, and'signalled the Matunga to stop. The chief officer apparently mistook the sipnal and went on, upon which tho Wolf fired across the other ship's bow at 500 yds range. A prizo crew from the Wolf, with a bombing officer, immediately followed, all fully armed. They carried a largo number of bombs. Boats from tho Wolf look off the captain and officers, tho military officers and soldiers, and three male civilians from the Matunga, Tho two ships then sailed for Dutch New Guinea, whero the Matunga's coal was discharged. The Wolf shipped the coal and all the Matnnga's provisions. Tho Germans transferred the stewards, sailors, and others who had been loft on the Matunga aboard the Wolf, and the two ships proceeded seaward a distance of ten miles, on August 27, when the Matunga was sunk by means of time bombs. Every precaution was taken to prevont floating wreckage. Tho steamer disappeared in half-an-hour. The subsequent course of the Wolf could bo only a surmise. Mrs. McKenzio presumes she went up the Indian Ocean, was once off Colombo, and later near Singapore and Borneo. The Wolf sowed mines every night. The captives heard the rattle of tho sounding lines, then tho mines wero carefully lowered. After the capture of the Hitachi Mara and other vessels the Wolf made for Trinidad Islands. She picked up a wireless message stating that a Chilian warship had arrived there. She consequently altered her course to the opposite direction. After coaling from the Igotz Mcndi she beaded for Germany. 11l mid-Atlantic two armed ships, apparently American transports, suddenly hove out of tho mist and passed close to the Wolf and tho Igotz Mcndi, causing great consternation aboard. They proceeded without signalling, however. Stormy weather was encountered during tho latter part of the voyage. Mrs. McKenzio was ill for three weeks and does not know what happened until the Igotz Mendi stranded, but understood that she slipped down tho Norwegian coast without meeting any British warships.

CABLE FROM STEWARDESS. REPORTED SAFE AND WELL. The persons on the steamer Matunga, who were taken prisoner by the German raider when the vessel was stink included Mrs. Agnes McKcnzie, stewardess, who is wellknown in Auckland. A cablegram has been received by Mr. C. F. Griffiths, solicitor, frtom Mrs. McKenzie, who is in Denmark, asking that her relatives bo informed of her safety. Mrs. McKenzie is a widow, her late husband, who was an engineer in the employ of tho Union Company, having been killed in an accident at Onebunga some years ago. Since ber husband's death Mrs. McKonzie has been a stewardess on several steamers. She was on tho Matunga for a few months prior to the sinking of that vessel. Mr. and Mrs. McKenzie resided in Wellington, but since becoming a widow Mrs. McKenzie has been domiciled for tho greater part of tho time in Auckland. According to a cable message, published in the Sydney Sun on March 2, the High Commissioner for Australia in London had learnod that Mrs. McKenzie is safe and well, and is staying at a hotel in Denmark. , Among tho passengers interviewed by Renter's Copenhagen correspondent were Mrs. Flood, wife of Major Flood, of ti.e Australian Medical Corps, and Mrs. McKenzie. They complained of tho ungentlemanly treatment they received from tho Germans. When they were put aboard the Igotz Mendi m November 14 thoy were all temporarily imprisoned, guarded most closely, and fed little and badly. The Sydney Daily Telegraph stated last Thursday that Burns, Philp, and Co., the owners of the steamer Matunga, which was sunk by tho German raider Wolf, are still without definite news regarding the passengers and crow of the vessel. Judging •from the experiences of thoso on the steamer Wairuna, it would appear that the commander of the raider divided tho passengers and crews of the captured ships, and details are eagerly lookod for hero as to the identity of Australian survivors landed in Denmark, and those carried to Austria in tho Wolf. The absence of any fresh information regarding tho Australians and Now Zea•landers who were taken off the Matunga and Wairuna has given rise to the belief that most of the men havo probably been taken to Austria, and that only those whoso names have been cabled from England were on board the Spanish steamer Igotz Mendi, which went ashore at Skagen Island.