CAPTAIN HELD PRISONER

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23507, 18 November 1939, Page 11

CAPTAIN HELD PRISONER

ENEMY SHIP'S IDENTITY UNCERTAIN By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright (Recoivod November 17, 8.30 p.m.) LONDON, Nov. 17 The small oil-tanker Africa Shell, of 706 tons gross, is reported from Capetown to have been sunk by a German raider 180 mil es north-east of Lourenco Marques, Mozambique, inside Portuguese territorial waters. All shipping has been warned. There is some doubt whether the raider is an armed merchant vessel —she was at first stated to be a 1 0,000-ton merchantman—or one of the 10,000-ton battleships Deutschland and Admiral ' • Scheer, both of which are at large.

It was reported yesterday that persistent rumours that the raider was a battleship had been authoritatively denied, but to-day the tanker's crew assert that it was a battleship which sank their vessel.

The raider fired a shot across the bows of the Africa Shell, *nd a German officer and ratings boarded the tanker, where they commandeered foodstuffs and wines. The captain of the Africa Shell was taken on board the raider, and the remainder of the crew, consisting of six Europeans and 21 natives, rowed to the shore.

"The y tanker was then sunk by two bombs placed in the after part of the vessel.

The Navy Office at Capetown confirms the sinking of the Africa Shell, which apparently occurred on Wednesday, as a civil pilot," flying over the area, saw the ship sinking and lifeboats at a near by'beach.

The Capetown correspondent of the Daily Telegraph says the entire South African aerial coast patrol is searching for the

raider.

The Telegraph's naval correspondent points out that there

has been ample time for either the Deutschland or the Admiral _Scheer to reach this region, travelling at an economical speed of 'ls knots. Significance attaches to the fact that the Africa Shell was a tanker, although she was empty when sunk.

>• The first «hip to be sunk during the war outside of the Atlantic, with the exception of two vessels which foundered after striking mines in the Singapore Harbour defenceu, the Africa Shell was a twin-screw motortanker used in coastal trade by the Shell Company of East Africa. She was * newly-commissioned, having been launched this year from a Greenock yard. The Deutschland was last reported when she sank the British steamer Stonegate and the Norwegian steamer Lorentz W. Hansen, and captured the American/vessel City of Flint, in the North Atlantic about October 20. She has not been mentioned since, except for an announcement by the Rome radio on November 7 that she had been sighted in the North Atlantic, and British and French units were "operating preparatory to engaging her." > The Admiral Scheer has not been heard of since the report that she sank the British steamer Clement off the coast of Brazil early in October.