Jwentieth Century Pirats

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23951, 28 October 1939, Page 4

Jwentieth Century Pirats

“ The Cruise of the Raider Wolf.” By Roy Alexander (Angus and Robertson). 7s 6d.

Roy Alexander may not be a prince of story-tellers, but his personal experiences as related in “The Cruise oi the Raider Wolf ” have such interest in themselves that the reader’s attention is easily diverted from any little deficiencies in the telling of them. His description of his adventures as a prisoner for nine months aboard the German raider does all that is required of it—it sets out in unbiased detail facts that read more like a schoolboys’ adventure story. Remarkable is one of the few words to describe this epic voyage. The Wolf left Kiel on November 30. 1916 ran the British blockade, preyed on shipping in the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans, and returned to Kiel 15 months later with much treasure and 400 prisoners in her scurvy-ridden holds. In the course of her cruise she is known to have captured 14 ships ranging from 500 to 6500 tons displacement, and the mines she laid ofi Bombay, Colombo, Singapore, Sydney Cook Strait and North Cape accounted for, as far as can be ascertained, another 14 vessels of a tonnage ranging from 11,000 to 3500. Fregatten-kapitan Karl August Nerger, who commanded the Wolf, was for some reason unpopular in Germany, and it may be for that reason he was placed in command of a raider, as such vessels had a habit of disappearing without a trace before they carried their cargoes ol mines through the blockade. The Wolf escaped the fate of many of her predecessors, but when she returned in triumph to Kiel her gallant captain was relegated to the command of Armed Trawlers, North Sea Division, described as “ the foulest job in tbe service.” A poor recognition it seems for -the man who was responsible for the Wolf’s 64,000 miles voyage without the haven of a single friendly port, and relying entirely on her captures for her coal and food supplies. Nerger, moreover, conducted his attacks on enemy shipping with an entire absence of “ frightfulness ” and treated his prisoners with all the consideration that could be expected of a captain who had the welfare of his ship and crew at heart. Of special interest are those chapters of the book dealing with the Wolf’s activities off the New Zealand and Australian coasts. She was the first vessel to commit a hostile act in the

Dominion and Commonwealth’s territorial waters, and it was while she was sheltering at the Kermadec Islands ■ which the author was wireless operator. The laying of the mines off the that she waylaid the Wairuna. on North Cape, in Cook Strait, and outside the Sydney Heads is described in detail, as well as the capture of wellknown ships which meant a new lease of life for the raider. Another manner in which the Wolf made history was that she carried a seaplane which did reconnoitring work and assisted in making captures. The Wolf was the first ship to carry an aircraft for attacking or exploratory purposes, and the German seaplane’s psychological effect on doomed shipping in the middle of the Pacific, where the Wolf’s presence was not even suspected, can be better imagined than described. And against this almost romantic account of the Wolf’s achievements is the pitiable story of her 400 prisoners crammed into the two compartments originally occupied by mines. For the first few months, while their numbers were few and there was still a moderate supply of fresh food, their lot was not such a bad one. but when they increased to 300 and 400. when there was nothing for them to eat but tinned crab (spoils from a looted Japanese liner) and black bread, when scurvy and many worse diseases broke oiit amongst them, conditions in the holds where they were imprisoned approxi-. mated to hell. But Nerger could not land them, as to have done so would have been to reveal his presence to the wbrld and to bring the allied naval forces about his head. So the prisoners bore their hardships as cheerfully as they could. Among the incidents that stand out particularly is the occasion on which one of the prisoners forged liquor ration tickets so successfully that the liberal sunply purloined from a Rabaulbound island steamer was well-nigh exhausted before the ruse was discovered. Another incident occurred when the Scottish mate of a captured steamer leapt into the shark-infested water of a tropic lagoon to rescue the foul-smelling pipe, which was the dearest possession remaining to nim, at the additional risk of being shot down by the guards for attempting to escape. And finally there is the picture

ol Sergeant Webb, who, during the Wolfs struggle up the North Atlantic, making 40 tons of water an hour, tended his stricken comrades in the prison hold while he himself was shaking with malaria. For the last few weeks of the voyage he did not appear to rest—at all hours of the night he was moving among his patients, and it is certain that his work saved many lives.