GERMAN SHIP’S WANDERINGS

Southland Times, Issue 24004, 20 December 1939, Page 6

GERMAN SHIP’S WANDERINGS

CALL AT STEWART ISLAND WOOD FUEL MAY HAVE BEEN CUT ERLANGEN ARRIVES OFF CHILEAN COAST (Special to The Times) DUNEDIN, December 19. The announcement that the German steamer Erlangen, which sailed hurriedly from Dunedin on August 26 ostensibly for Port Kembla and New York, has arrived off the Chilean coast after having been not sighted since the outbreak of war, has provided the answer to many conjectures which had been made concerning the vessel’s movements after she was last seen on the New Zealand coast. The Erlangen, which is commanded by Captain Grainf, arrived at Dunedin from New Orleans by way of northern ports on August 24 and after discharging fuel oil and other cargo took on a cargo of hides and wool, but, as no insurance covers were available for the cargo because of the extreme uncertainty of the international situation at that time, it was unloaded and the steamer sailed on August 26. Nothing more was heard of the Erlangen until a report came from the south that she had been seen sheltering in and out of Way Bay on the coast of Stewart Island and had moved away when a fishing boat went up to hail her. ONLY 250 TONS OF COAL The fact that when the vessel left Dunedin she had only 250 tons of coal on board, which would be sufficient to carry her to Port Kembla at her normal steaming speed, would seem to indicate that the captain had taken the first opportunity to augment his small supply of fuel so that he would be able to take the vessel to a neutral coast without having to run the gauntlet of the Australian Navy. A cable message published today stated that it had been announced that the Erlangen had taken on board 400 tons of wood fuel from an uninhabited island in the Pacific and it is not improbable that Stewart Island, which is ’ eavily wooded and contains a number of natural harbours in which even a 6000-ton vessel might lie undetected from the sea, was the same "uninhabited island” as there are no signs of human habitation on long stretches of its coastline, which are seldom visited, even by fishermen.