WAR EVENT RECALLED.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVII, Issue 75, 23 November 1922, Page 3

WAR EVENT RECALLED.

OTARI'S FIGHT WITH MOFAVE. On the liner Otaki at present moored at the wharf there is ,a> brass plate which commemorates the gallant fight which the New Zealand Shipping Company’s original Otaki made against the German raider Moowe on March 10. 1917. The Otaki was under the command of Captain A. B. Smith, and when nearing Capetown on the voyage from England, she was sighted by the raider; With her single 4.7 in. gun, intended for dealing with submarines, against the Moewe’s two 7.Sin.. two Gin. and two Sin. guns, in addition to four torpedo tubes, she engaged with the raider for 20 minutes. The odds were too great, however, and the liner was sunk, but not before she had almost crippled her antagonist and killed or wounded several of her crow. Unfortunately the captain and some of the crow were lost with the vessel, but the survivors were picked up by the Moewe and returned to Germany a.s prisoners of war. A>- posthumous award of the Victoria Cross was made to Captain Smith, the coveted decoration being handed to his widow. ' Thus the plate, after giving particulars of the date of the action and the armament of the two vessels, describes the event: “The Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty consider this a 'very gallant action, and if the Otaki had had a little more luck she would have sunk the raider against overwhelming odds.”