GERMAN RAIDER’S EXPLOITS.

Pelorus Guardian and Miners' Advocate., Volume 30, Issue 22, 19 March 1918, Page 3

GERMAN RAIDER’S EXPLOITS.

HOW THE MATUNGA WAS CAPTURED. LONDON, March 13. Mrs Mackenzie, who was a steward- 1 ess on the Matunga, has supplied a graphic story of her experiences. She says:— ! "The Matunga was about eighteen hours oil Rabaul on August 6th when the Wolff came in sight. She had picked up the Matunga ’a wireless on the previous night announcing her arrival. Evidently she had been informed that we were taking 500 tons of coal. The Wolff desperately needed coal, and had awaited us for five days. “Immediately the Woiff appeared she sent up a seaplane, which circled over the Matunga to investigate whether she was armed. It then came closer, hoisted the German ensign, and signalled us to stop. The chief officer apparently mistook the signal and went on, whereupon the Wolff fired across our bow at 500 yards range. “A prize crew from the Wolff, with a bombing officer, immediately followed. They were all fully armed, and carried a large number of bombs. Boats from the Wolff took off the Matunga ’s captain, officers, military officers, soldiers, and three male civilians. We then sailed to Dutch New Guinea, where we discharged the coal. The Wolff shipped the coal and all the provisions, and transferred the stewards, sailors and others who had been left on the Matunga on board the Wolff. She proceeded seaward for ten miles on August 27th, when the Matunga was sunk by means of time bombs. Every precaution was taken to prevent her floating, and the wreck of the steamer disappeared in half an hour. “The subsequent course of the Wolff is only surmise, but I presume she went to the Indian Ocean. Once off Colombo and later near Singapore and Borneo, the Wolff sowed mines nightly. Wo heard the rattle of the sounding lines and then the mines being carefully lowered.”

Details follow of the capture of the Hitachi Maru and other vessels as already cabled. Mrs Mackenzie’s narrative proceeds: “The Wolff was now making for the,. Trinidad Islands. She picked up a wireless message stating that a Chilian warship had arrived there. Thereupon she altered her course to the opposite direction, and after coaling from the Igotz Mendi, she headed for Germany. “In mid-Atlantic two armed ships, apparently American transports, suddenly hove out of the mist and passed close to the Wolff and the Igotz Mendi, causing great consternation on board, but they proceeded without signalling. We experienced stormy weather during the latter part of the voyage.”

Mrs Mackenzie was ill for three weeks, and does not know what happened till the Igotz Mendi stranded, but she understood that she slipped down the Norwegian coast without meeting British warships.