STORY OF THE WOLF

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 241, 5 July 1919, Page 7

STORY OF THE WOLF

GERMAN VERSION OF THE RAIDER'S CRUISE TOLD BY HER CAPTAIN POPULAR BOOK IN GERMANY FA Jfcw Zealand soldier, who fell into the hands of tho Germans and was detained in Germany, aB a prisoner of war, brought back to New Zealand a copy of a book which is reported to have had a great war-time-Bale in Gormany. This book contains Hie complete story of tho sensational voyage of tho ena raider Wolf, Ra told by her commander. Captain Nerser. It was the Wolf which laid tho mines off tho coasts of Hew Zealand and Australia, and whtoh cautnred and sank tho Union Steam Ship Company's steamer Wairuna, and other vessels tradinc in these waters. We have had a number of the chapters of tile book translated with a view to placing before our readers this first-hand story of the mysterious and elusive raider's exploits. The narrative probably will' Bo spread over four or live issues,! ' ..'■ I, THE DEPARTURE. My order .was to destroy enemy ship- 1 ping in the far.scan, but above..all in the Indian Ocean; to wage a intr upon commerce, ami using .other.-measures of ■rar, such as the laying of mines.to be considered in tins first instr.nce.

\ Wo left on the fixed date, .but did hot go far, for ntill within the German outpost lines, a fire broko out in one of • tho coal bunkers, attacking another bunker and threatening to increase its iiimensions. It was'impossible to extinguish the flames at sea, as part of .the ship had to'be placed under water, and some- of tlie coal removed. .

All this happened on a Friday, an unlucky day especially in the- n.ind of a seaman, and, no doubt, there wore many sailors on board who were ready to say: "Why did you not respect the old superstition hnd depart on a Friday?" Once back in the harbour the lire ivas soon quenched, and the damage repaired, and after a few days; on.November 80, Ift IG, we departed, for the second time. A. thick fog prevailed as we were get-' ting ready to leave. The. mastheads of the ships were hardly distinguishable in the grey mist, and one 'could see hardly thirty naces ahead. We simply had to wait. Then, when the weather cleared : in tho.cuurso of,the forenoon, life nrchor was weighed.. In vain—even this time the Wolf, which had .just taken up its course, had to roturn, as the fog, which bad dispersed only temporarily, became denser than-ever, so that it was impossible to enntunie in safety through our own minefields.' A third time wo tried to leave as soon as it had become a little, lighter, and even now we had to go slow, when it became foggy-again. However, towards evening, we succeeded in finally making some headway. At'short distances ws passed our own outpost ships. On similar occasions we had exchanged' greetings, but .refrained from doing so this time-, tint outposts had naturally been ''nformed of our departure, but'they only, knew that a German ship would pass. Which it was, whither bound, and for what puipose it went had-to bo concealed from them as the enterprise was a secret. For a short '•while' we still 'saw them aft, then they gradually disappeared below the horizon—the -last 'ink with- home—from which we most likely would lo severed for a/long time to'cohie. . ' , . We crossed, the.. North.. Seal in beautifully ' clear . weather: ■ Tl ere was -nothing fo be ...seen ; of the enemy guard yet. . However, by our wireless we -.wore able to judge that-a nuui'ffer of enemy.ships were in close proximity. Wo went full speed, which certainly did not exceed ten knots an hour. So far everything went smoothly, butithen we had .hardly entered tin* English lines of blockade. Tho weather soon changed, however,-and a.'storm from-, the north-east attacked lis, so that the Wolf -was forced to...vedue'e her speeddown to seven whole knots an hour. And thai ii'the .'m_iddl.fi of the, enemy lines. .Worse was to come, though.

In anticipation of. a long voyage, 'we had taken large supplies on.board, which had laden up the auxiliary cruiser';so much .above'ats.Plimsoll 'I ; ne that its position could easily become critical. Tho .enforced .'delay .which . we .suffered hero was in moro than .oiie'Way annoying, for it might happen that'.'event!.sections of the blockade had. Co.be'jiassedVa't'/unfavourable times; We simply had to trust, to luck, for with, the limited, speed wo .would have been' lost as. soon as the enemy had sighted us, fox .he had always .plenty .of. time to bring 'up .'sufficient forces..-' . ~

lii spito of it, all, I didjiot doubt for a moment the success (if the enterprise, such implicit faith had I.in..my lucky star., .And good, fortune accompanied ns throughout, the ' whole voyage, even to that extent, that minor ,misfortunes and other disagreeable experiences such hs' the delay of supplies turned out, after ell, for our good. After .a: few hours tho ■wca.ther improved. " The storm'subsided and the sea calmed down, thus enabling us to go full steam ahead once more. We had rejoiced too soon, for shortly after wo were exposed to another storm, this time' from a westerly direction, which forced us once again to inaction. But this time it was worse, for every few minutes great waves would -dash over (ho- (feck, the ship pitched.and rolled, and to find seating accommodation in. the - cabins . or saloons below was-an-impossibility. Tables and chairs were flying about and chasing one another, and one could only eat by firmly clutching'hold of one's plato with one hand and eating with the other. And not a sign of the storm abating. .TJnceasindy heavy seas .(lung themselves ' against, the ship; the a.ir was filler! with tprav. and. the shin shivered under the weight'of the breakers. One huge wave (ore a raft fitted with acetylene; lights Overboard. We had not noticed •it at first, and .therefore were not a little astonished to see"suddenly dose to the shin a large, brilliant light flaro up, which' slowly was'driven aft'by-to wind. Immediately following 1 bin a second light flared lip, ihis' time on deck, and all tins in a night when everything depended on-ohscurity in order to pass tho lines of blockade unnoticed. The i.cefylene -light made't.he sea as bright as day, and the lights on deck rivalled ;n their lustre. 'I'hi ; latter; however, could in ' spite of flic dirty weather bo soon extinguished. For this purpose wo sacrificed the little sand we had taken with us. On the ' other hand, against, the Illumination on the water we were powsrless. It drove calmly on, so that, for at least an hour, the position of the" ship vas beautifully . advertised.

Unfortunately a heavy snowstorm set in as well, the temperature sank considerably, and the Wolf was soon shrouded in ice and very little could be done on deck.

However, I he. wind only dropped for a short time, and a fresh hurricane started to blow from the north. We had lo . lie to, and lost twenty hours altogether. In the North Sea we fjcasionally sailed v.ith all lights showing and portholes illuminated. This was to give the impression that we were a neutral passenger steamer. But on 'ho night of the Ficctylene illumination' we -wc.ro not in any trade route, and wanted to keep as imi'k as possible. However, the ship behaved remarkably- well in all this heavy weather, in which we always .seemed to strike ihe worst of the storm, and at last wo got safely through the English blockade. We hail a part of the .gunwale stove in, which, we were able In repair satisfactorily. My chief anxiety .was over the loss of crockery,, as I expected lo take numerous prisoners, and was afraid of running short. The enemy ships, how-, ever, were kind enough to supply us with crockery in abundance. On December 10 we reached Ihe open .Atlantic. As- soon as we wero clear of the blockade, one boiler \ as put out of notion to economise coal. Economy of coal, water, provisions, and all materials was imperative. SOUTH OF THE LINE. Xotlfrng exciting happened for several days. Wc sighted steamers plying along various routes between America and Europe, all of which I carefully avoided. The crew, not knowing my plans, were disappointed and could not make it out.' In spito of disappointment and continued bad weather, .thevtemper, of the crew was mod,'-, and after-the. excitement, of run-

fling the blockade, wo now had a quiet timg, and leisure 1» improve tho appearance of the. ship.

Tho Wolf was an ordinary cargo steamer, oxccllently built in Gormany, and with- first-rate engines. She was 135 moires-long by 17 broad, and drew-SJ motr.es when we sailed. She was of 6000 tons register, 'with a crow of 350. Our' armanent was fully equal to meeting « small cruiser, but our orders wore lo avoid such an encounter if possible. Our business lay with, merchant shipping; we could not .put info any port, and even a. successful action must lessen our power of dealing with merchant shipping. In tlio horse latitude we. met with the drifting wreck of a sailing ship, half burnt and mastlcss. A few rags of tho jib hung from the bowsprit. Her name was Eisbeniß Spars. The sea was runnng too high for us to board her, and 1 could not afford to waste ammunition on sinking hor, especially as the English Prime Minister hnd just announced in Parliament that the war would last another twenty years. Besides, the. wreckonly constituted a danger to enemy shipping, not to ours. Wo celebrated Christmas as well as wo could, but without a Christmas-tree. We could not have taken one' on board, as that would have given information as to the duration of our voyage. However, several imitation trees were rigged up out of ropes and timber, and the festivities went olf very cherfully. After a short divine service I addressed the crew, and quietly turned their thoughts towards home and absent friends. . On Christmas Day we observed a vessel at' a considerable distance, and at night picked in) wireless messages, showing that cruisers were moving about in the neighbourhood or lying in the neutral harbour of Cape Verde. ,-,-,, We were now close to the Equator, and as 1 bad not crossed tho line before, though I had often been near it. I had to take my share of the traditional masquerade aiid festivities, which, were (Carried out with great elaboration and occasioned much innocent merriment. , MINES. We had reached South Africa. It vas January lti, 191'7, a perfect day, on which a ship could be made out thirty miles away. Late in the afternoon we sighted,, a column of smoke forward, and shortly 'afterwards made,out seven ships no doubt an English convoy with-Australian troops. Among them were ocean monsters with one or two, funnels. But the Wolf was baulked of her prey. An armed cruiser led the' convoy. "With onr glasses we fancied wo could make out figures on board. The cruiser was just going to give out night orders to the convoy; .wo could make out every flag with perfect clearness. We held quietly on our course, j in the character of a harmless merchant ship, only shifting our course slightly I and as unobtrusively as possible in order to get a bit further front our uncoralortable neighbour. I breathed a sigh of. relief when cruiser and convoy disappeared to the north. We now started warlike operations, to the great satisfaction of the. crew. On the same evening wo began laying mines of the well-known variety known as "hell machines." We did this in all tho waters wo visited, along the trade routes,, which at that time were still greatly used. ■ Sometimes wo had to got out of tho way of steamers in order not to be-tra-v what wo were doing, and I am thankful to say that we never actually saw tho effect of one of our mines on o, passenger steamer. After all is said and done, it would have been a horrible sight for us. After completing our task round about South Africa, wo continued our course through the Indian Ocean, as previously, avoiding the main trade route as in the first instance. Our work soon boro fruit. On January 27~w0 picked up a wireless from Cape Town: "Submarines off Cape Town. At first wo were surprised that our U-boats had already got so far. Wo could not make out how the English, who are so competent in nautical- matters, mado Mich a mistake, until we realised that our own mines were responsible. Wc afterwards heard that we had been very successful, being informed that, the Aquitania, of 46,000 tons, the second largest English merchant vessel, with 10,000 Australian troops on board, had been sunk there. : As wo wero not eye-witnesses we. cannot bo -positive that it was the Aqin-. tania;' but' prisoners taken by us later on assured ns quite positively that, about "this time, "the Aquitania was. lost oft. South' Africa with some 10,000 men. Subsequently other 'prisoners confirmed this information. [Note.—The Aquitania was, not sunk.] I may add that a question 'was'ask'ed in the English Parliament whether a Cuuard liner had been destroyed, to which a Minister replied, in the'usual way, that a discussion on tins topic would be inopportune. For the time being the English worn qui to in the dark. They soon dropped the idea of U-boats aud turned their' sunnie'ioris on neutral Investigations were sot on foot, accusations werp mado against the captains of neutral ships and some of these detained for months in English ports. _ ' ■ Wo '■ celebrated the Kaiser s btrthaay with' speeches, amateur theatricals, and gymnastic displays. After that wc had a quiet, business-like time of repairing storm-damage, shifting . coal, and • drill. The officers-gave geography and .science lectures, and, by request, of the crew, lectured on the war in East Africa. There were also games and music, nud ; tho 'amateur band had time to practice and gnvo excellent performances. Wc had to stop a while for engineroom repairs, and the mon caught albatrosses with fishing-lines, but we did i.ot follow tho usual custom of sailors, who fasten a ring to the captured albatross before liberating it, with the name, position of the ship, and the date marked .on it. We did not wish to give that sort of information. Wo also had an alarm "man overboard," which turned cut, lo bo two ducks, the loss of which would havo been a serious matter. 'We held on through the Indian Ocean towards Ceylon. Hero we met with cue of the famous" Mauritius hurricanes, which again altered ,its course, so that, the Wolf'exactly got the. worst of it,- in defiance of all the observations'of recent centuries. However, wo ought not to complain, considering that the Wolf was breaking all the laws of navigation. Wfi were much lighter now, ana'camo off well. About, the middle of February we were off. Ceylon. Wc laid mines at various points oft' tho Indian coast, and soon learnt of their effectiveness aft''Colombo and Bombay. At Colombo we had some anxious moments. Wo were within rc-neli of searchlights, and close to tho harbour entrance it searchlight rested on us for nearly a minute—it. seemed much longer to us—showing us up clearly to those on shore in the act of laying a mine. But nothing happened. The very next day the Worcestershire, of 7QOO tons, ran into one of these mines. We picked up n v; ire-less saying that she sank about t>e\en miles from Colombo as a result of internal explosion; but even naval oilicers were puzzled by the mystery, and accusations were made against Indians and j,etitrals of laying mines or concealing ini'ernnl machines in tho ship. Mo counter-.neas-iires were taken until a few days li.ter the Pcrscns, of about the same si'/.e, ran into a mine at about the same place. In both cases crew and passengers were landed safe at Colombo. Those.of the Worcestershire had been allowed 'ree. but th-os?. of the Perseus were kept under strict observation to prevent details fruin leaking out. It was presumably a case of maintaining prestige and avoiding public indignation at the inactivity of the authorities. They certainly did fake counter-measures, but even after Ibis several ships; m.cording to the English papers, including some liners, were lust olf Colombo. The'same paper reported that the Mongolia, which did rot inn into one of our mines, until June, and other liners, had been lost off Ceylon through drifting mines during the southwest monsoon. The fact I hat these losses were I'.uc to mines was presently knuwn in Bombay. Mere, for the first time, we. picked up an open wireless to the effect that there was a minefield at a pailieular <pof, adding, for the benefit of all the world, "the port is closed." t We. were naturally proud and pleased' at this cD'cef of our mines. (Tn.be continued.)