GERMAN OIL TANKER

Waikato Times, Volume 125, Issue 20952, 3 November 1939, Page 5

GERMAN OIL TANKER

SUNK BY OWN CREW TO AVOID CAPTURE RESCUE OF THE CREW (United Press Assn.—Elec. Tel. Copyrignn NEW YORK, Nov. 2 The German oil tanker Emmy Friederich, which has been in the Gulf of Mexico since the outbreak of war and is thought to have been refuelling German submarines, is reported from Balboa to have been sunk by her own crew in the Caribbean Sea in order to avoid capture by a British cruiser. The Panama correspondent of the New York Times reports that a 1 cruiser encountered the tanker on ! October 24, running without lights. The tanker claimed to be a neutral. Asked why she was darkened, she replied that she was having trouble ! with her lights. The Emmy Friederich was then ordered to stop. She did not comply, but replied that she was having trouble with her engines. The cruiser’s next order, however, was obeyed. A boarding party from the cruiser found the tanker’s crew standing by the lifeboats. The German captain remarked: “Well, gentlemen, there is nothing you can do. We have opened the sea cocks and smashed the valves, so we had better take to the boats.” The cruiser took the crew aboard and stood by until the Emmy Friederich sank. The tanker, which is said to have been carrying 40,000 barrels of Mexican oil fuel, was thought to have been on her way to refuel a submarine or surface raider.