THE STORY OF THE WOLF

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 247, 12 July 1919, Page 7

THE STORY OF THE WOLF

♦— ■ NUMEROUS SINKINGS CAPTURE OF THE WAIRUM PICKING UP WIRELESS MESSAGES OPERATIONS OFF NEW ZEALAND . IA Xow Zealand soldier, who fell into the, hands of the Germans and was detained in Germany as a prisoner of war, brought back to New Zealand a copy of a book winch is re-. ported to ha.ve had a great war-time n.iie in Hermaiiy, This wool; contains the complete, story oj the sensational voyage of the s"n raider Wolf, as told by h«r commander. Captain Nerger. Il was the YVolt which laid tho urines off the coasts of.. Now Zealand tuid Australia, and which eaoturert and sa.nU tho Union Steam Ship Company's steamer Wairuuo and other vessels trading in these waters. IVe have had a number of the chapters of .tile hooK translated with n- view to placing before our readers this' first-hand story of tho mysterious and elusive Vraldor's exploits. Tho narrative probably -will be spread over four or Ave issues. 1 . • I-f-AN OLD ACQUAINTANCE. We had done everything experted of lis in the waters Around India, and as we Were hound to. be found out soonc or later, we thought it best.to gel. as far away as possible. So wo sailed oft and began cruiser warfare against tho enemy's commerce'. .Our equipment, con. listed of seven .lo centimetre guns 1 and four torpedo, guns.- A cursory inspeo tion revealed none of these. Except, lo careful investigation the "Wolf looked uu ordinary'cargo steamer. '

On February 27, between Aden and Colombo, we sighted a steamer at dawn. It must be an Englishman, as wo knew from wireless messages that neutral shipping,had for .a. loug while been detained in English ports on various pretexts. The fellow, who was. some ten laiots away, struck me as curiously familiar as. soon.as I reached the bridge. Later on we found out why. He was a near kinsman of the Wolf. ..'

Meanwhile I steered-a following course. He was almost as fast as we, but our 'coal was better, and we caught him about eight. 1, signalled, "Stop at once, 1 am sending a boat," anil closed to about 1000 yards. He, was unarmed, so I did no more for the present. At first nothing happened, so I dropped a shot across his bows. The pcoplo on board came rushing on.deck; tliey ran up the English flag and stopped. 1 found out afterwards why she had not stopped before. The. captain was in his bath and tho .first officer "didn't know what to do." What did surprise me. however, was. that .as soon as they appeared on deck they rushed to the boats and got them ready for launching. This also they explained later on. The English, it . appears, had been spreading reports that the '-Huns" fired on all tho ships they stopped without giving tho crew time to escape. I sent a boat and- ..prize crew to inspect her. Tho captain, acting, as he said, on Admiralty orders, had destroyed tho ship's- papers. That did not help bin) much'.' "We discovered vat once that the ship. '!iko our own, had been built at tho Itansa 'Wharf in Bremen. She was tho Outenfels, and had been in the harbour of 'Alexandria at the outbreak of war, where she was illegally seied by tjie English, Egypt being neutral at tiie time. They had turned her. into an oil steamer and christened her the Turrilella, but you could see the old name legibly enough througli tho paint, which was not the case with the Wolf, formerly tho Waehtfels. The Turritella had a cargo of fuel oil from India in-t-nded for the use of the Mediterranean fleet. A NEW MINELAYER. I did not like the idea of sinking that fine, German ship; and. finding' her serviceable for 'mine-laying, I went along-. Fide aud fitted her for the purpose: Tho captain and officers were English, .the entire crew Chinese. At that time China was still allowed to be neutral, so I saw no reason for not keeping the crew on. As for the crew, air they cared about was their pay. I gave the command to Commnnder-Brandes, with 27 men, mainly engineers, signallers, and wireles3 operators. I reelinstened her the litis, in recollection of the ship I served on in HIOO at the taking of the 't'aku Forts. I.equipped the Turritella with 'a wireless apparatus—she had none of her own —and a .5 centimetre gun. She was also very short of provisions. In exchange* for these we took some eases of pineapples intended for the troops at Salonika. While we were lying alongside, wa sent up the seaplane we had on board, which wo had christened the "Wolf Cub." She - was tho first seaplane to visit the tropics, and at her first flight rhe rose to tflOO metres, but reported "nothing in sight." We finished that afternoon and sent olf the litis with orders to lay mines in the Gulf of Aden. Wo left the cargo aboard, so ns not to change her appearance unnecessarily. We agreed upon a placo-of rendezvous nt a future date, aud Captain Meadows ami his officers were good enough to follow us on hoard the Wolf. They told us that a few hours before they had exchanged signals with the small English cruiser Newcastle. The excellent Captain Meadows cordially assured us that our mischievous career.would be put a stop to within a fortnight at latest.

AN ACCIDENT, Our appetite had been whelted by tlio capture, of the TurriteUa, and T decided to cruise in the same waters and wait for more. Two days later, on Jfarch I, at dawn, wo sighted the s.s. Jumna with salt lor Calcutta. We again had to (ire across the bows, and most unfortunately a serious accident took place, when wo were about 200(1 yards away from licr. AA 7 e were loading Hie broadside guns, which usually were concealed. Owing to an accident the shell in one of tliein exploded inwards. Four men were killed, four and twenty wounded. There was also a great deal of material damage, an oil tank caught lire, and Ihn shells lying rcitdy un the afl deck exploded.'v. ui-kim- 'vn-,,c all around them. Our splendid fellows never lost their heads for a moment. They went oil steadily loading Ihe other guns and carried the wounded between decks, fn less than a niinule we fired across (he Jumna's bows, apparently causing great surprise on board. We wen( alongside and began Iranshipping bunker coal. Coal was always my chief anxiety. If we ran out we would have lo make for the nearest neutral port and be interned.

After two ilavs of coaling we snnk tlie .loiiuiii by 'means ot bombs. The crew were mostly elderly rlngushnion. sonic of i.lii Mii o v er seventy. It must have been difficult even then to man their ships. The remainder were a weird mixture of every imaginable race and colour.

Our wounded were siilferiiu; from I lie lical, and we ri;:!,'i'd up.-a. hospital for them mi the forecastle,' deck under a liiru'D sail. Thanks lo our two excellent doctors. they s«!l survived. Then came the sad duly of commit I in;; the dead to the. sea. tint, there wu.s no lime for mourning; dealli lav in wait everywhere, on the Wolf and in Flanders. Most of our task still lay liefore us. and all. from myself down lo the youngest hoy. looked forward Lo fresh achievement. Soon aflec the sinking of Ihe Jumna vo picked up a wire|ps=. an order 'from |I,p K'ifftisli (loven'in.'iil. flint sl'S-s n»l----uijp Aden uiii.'l keep heyond Ihe 200 yards line. N» donht the litis had Ijeen laying mines pfi'cclively. But soon afterwards we. gol a. less satisfactory wireJoJci inessiip'-aii. accurate and detailed description of the Wolf, correct, in every detail. Tt described our funnel, niasls, dimensions, colour, and even the "Wolf f'ub" There could he only one e.vp'.nna-lion'-the litis innsl. have been caught and the nhineso crow must have talked. This was emifirnied later on. rnder the circumstances wo. did not Irouhl" lo keen our rendezvous with tha litis. MORE HUNTING BY THE WOLF. Not long nflenvards another ship ran into our open "■"us. U wns < lle steamer Wordsworth, from /Rangoon to i otulon with 7000 tons of rice. Sdio had.

been built during tho war and gave us the indication of the enormously enhanced value of shipping. She was nothing but n Hut-bolt him! boat or "pralun,'' a temporary ship, built in Ihe shortest possible time, just able to Hunt and carry cargo, and yet valued at ■SSOu.UUII. Un His basis of Hint valuation, we can hardly estimaie .Approximately lice material tlamago iullieled upon our enemies by the Wolf, l'ne ships and cursors destroyed, by our mines must have been worth over .i:.'>O,UOO,UI)O. lietwecn the laying of our hist mino and the first steamer we challenged .1 had converted the empty spuco previously occupied by the mines into accommodation for Ihe prisoners 1 expected lo take. The Wordsworth had also a very miscellaneous crew, which did not impress me favourably. The. conversation of our involuntary gue.-ls was very naive. They used to ask what we. would do if w? met an Knglksh cruiser, ami prayed we might. They supposed we should gel into our boats, sink the ship, and be delighted to get into an English prison. When wo iold them that in llmf ease we should fighl, and either we or the cruiser would g r o to the bottom, they began to bo less anxious to meet (lie. cruiser. But lliey were clear all along I hat il must be an English, not a Japanese cruiser. Their confidence in fheir Japanese Allies was not great. They believed a .la-paneiM cruiser would leave a German ship alone, and they supposed wo should not molest a Japanese si earner. We made no comment on these views.

OFF T.HE AUSTRALIAN COAST. We now sailed southwards round Australia. Before reaching the south coast we sighted a large sailing ship, apparently in ballast, sailing cast. Without being summoned, she signalled us and ran up the English Hag. .We came up to MO yards distance) ran up Ihe war ensign and pennant, and signalled, "Stand to." She turned out to bo the Dee, of'MauriTins, on her way to Western Australia. The crew were mostly negroes or haltonstes, some of them magnificent specimens. We were pleas.mdy impressed by 'the excellent relations between captain and crew, which continued during their captivity on the Wolf. We observed nothing quite like it on the oilier ships, except, the. Japanese ships and one of the Americans.

They were more frightened than they were astonished at seeing the German flag. Here, as elsewhere, all over the world, the English had spread lhe meanest lies anil tales of horror. They look it for granted that we should torture the crew and throw them lo the sharks, or some such id:- 'iu nonsense. As their last hour had come, they iiad had a good to at the spirits before getting into the hoars. One of the negroes was so drunk that we had to hoist him aboard with a pulley and lacklo and hose him in the bath till ho recovered. As a matter of fact, we made it a rule with all prisoners, except women, lo undress, bathe, and disinfect them when they came on board. They were examined medically, their clothes sloamed- in large pots aud dried on the aft deck. Their luggago was examined, nautical instruments, cameras, and arms removed. The nautical instruments were mostly private property, for which wo gave receipts. After these formalities were completed, they received their hammocks,' caps, plates, etc., and were shown to their quarters. We took the bill of lading and provisions from the Dee and sank her in lhe afternoon. The old captain. John B. Hugg by name, was a splendid fellow. Wo watched him, gazing at the spot where his ship was going down, apparently unconscious that the tears were rolling fast down his grey beard. He had sailed on his ship for twenty-two years. We understood his feelings only too viell. The Dee's last struggle was soon over. NEAR NEW ZEALAND. We now sailed round Australia and remained for. some days in the southernmost part of the Tasman St-a, and south of Now Zealand, waiting for corn' and coal ships. We were not yet actually short of coal, but had used i.p a great dpiil, and wished to repku'e it. If wo expected to do that here, we '..ere dis-. appointed. It soon became ..obvious that the coal trade from New South Wales to Sc-uth America had ciopped entirely for the lime being. Wq hung about for several weeks without Seeing a ship, and then sailed further north, but without seeing any steamers. The enemy must, already have been very short of shipping. So ive sailed round the Antipodes Islands, to-the north of the Bounty Islands, as f ar as the eastern eutr.ince of Cook Strait. It was the same everywhere, no traffic whatever to 'be seen. We did not get much news from wireless messages picked up in lhe interim. On April 7 the United States had declared a "stale of war" with Germany, aud that was about ul! the news. An Austnlian wireless station was sending out the familiar rublush such as "Hopelc-s illness of tiny Kaiser. Impending revolution in Germany." We were '.'tore interested in a message sent by an English 'Admiralty official of the iiamn ot Winslow to tho Governor of Pago Pago: "Are you awara of the presence of a German cruiser r.tt Pago Pagor If M>, send exact particulars as to funnel, bow, shape, rigging, wireless equipment, -ippioximafe tonnage, and date when sighted, direction taken, torpedo equipment, etc." ''he very next day we got the answer: from Apia, and an unsatisfactory answer 'it that. The Governor reported ll'.-it a suspicious light had been seen, but no further particulars were available.

On May II we got a wirebss addressed t» a business firm in Apia, I hat the captain of the American schooner Winslow was prepared In take cargo for Sydney. The, name of this schooner appeared in oilier messages about that lime, aud wo gradually got interested in.it. A. telegram to Gardiner and Co. gave information as lo tiio Window's cargo, and one from Apia referred to cargo she. was to take.

We were then north of Xew Zealand. The seaplane, of which we made continual use, having sighted nothing, T made up my mind on Ihe Jf.'tv 22 to make for .Sunday Island and overhaul my engines. 1 ' anchored to the south-east of Ihe island, which is volcanic with dense bush up to Ihe hilllops. The repairs look six days, and we frequently sent out boats lo fish, prisoners, loi/. They ciiiglil excellent fish, weighing up to "alb. ' AVe found Ihe island descried by its inhabitants and everything just as Ihey had left it. There were plenty of oranges, of which we took many baskets un board for the crew and prisoners. Shooting parties found wild goals and enormous rats. THE END OF THE WAIRUNA. At first Hie weather was excellent. AVo lay in a small bay surrounded by reefs, wilh decks clear for lighting, though the engine was not working. Un Ihe sixth day (he chief engineer reporled Ihe engines and one boiler repaired, which would give us a speed of fl.l knots if re(iuired. Direcilv afterwards a ship was sichlcd In Ihe norlh. AVe could clearly make out her wireless apparatus. She must have seen us too, and as she ciiulil wove faster than we, might escape and belray our whereabouts. Accordingly 1 ?cnl I lie seaplane with orders to drop a iini.il bag on linnrrl rmilaining instructions lo steer soulli Inwards (he Ornian auxiliary crui'cr, and In make no use of Ihe wireless. In ease of disobedience bombs would be dropped, and one was dropped right away in front of her hows, lo show we meant business. Her obedience was touching. She altered her course immediately, according lo instruction, and llirciv most of her wireless installation overboard at mice, without any uflcmpl In send a message. Meanwhile the Wolf had weighed anchor and run out uf (lie sotillicrn enlriincc Iu (he bay. and steered east In meet Ihe vessel. Before dark bolh vo.-sels anchored in Ihe bav. and we shipped the seaplane. The vessel which Ihe "AVnlf Cub" had liroughl. iu was Ihe Now Zealand steamer Wniruiia. Had weal her following, we shifted anchorage lo (he north side of the island. We look Ihe Wairima alongside, and spent two days in transferring coal from her. Plie had 11.VI tons of coal iu her bunkers, which we wniifed badly, and was mi her way from New Zealand to San Fiancisco. The ror-l of ihe cargo, in her capacious hold, was a, veritable treasure thai, gave, us great deI'iglil. There were ll.'ifl lons of fresh water ami fresh food, including nuanlilios of meat, milk, and cheese; in fact, a surprising quantity. The officers afterwards informed Vis fhnfthe ship was to go on from San Francisco Ihrnugh Ihn Panama Canal to England, and be utilised there. The large quantity of provisions was due to (he fuel that provisions had for. a. long time been short in Kugland. This was not news to us, be(ause we had gathered as much long before from prisoners. They reported (hat (things were bad in England as onrly as

jYoveinbcr, Iff Mi, Jiml lliey could not imngint; what things must bo liki) now. Thorn were also forty wethers, wliieh we killed off gradually, and which eiunc in very handy for the crew of The Wolf and for our prisoners. I was extremely glad of it, owing to the constant increase iu the number of the prisoners.

■• The crew of the Wi'iiruiia. had to come on board at: once, and at first, somu oi tlii'in were inclined to resist. I was obliged to inflict disciplinary punishment on one man. lirjyluiijly lliey settled down, and obeyed orders. We lilled our empty cargo space by taking over part of thi! extremely valuable cargo of tho W'airnna. If consisted -of kauri gum and .hides in barrels, The work was several times interrupted by the weather. One night we also had several submarine earthquakes. The anchor-chains ratified, and the glasses on the (able began to ring. Then we went. out. to sea. with the Wniruna in order lo tdnk her. ,Sho was very lough, and gave great trouble. We had. put plenty of bombs on board, but filially had to break down the side with gunfire.

ANOTHER CAPTURE. Before Ihe.-Wairmia had. started on her downward trip we sighted a fourmasled sailer. I held her up as usual, put a prize crew on board, and eont nor off. ivilh instructions lo return to the old anchorage when the wind permitted. Nesl day was rough again, but on tho following day we managed to lake her in tow. It was the wiling ship Winslow, well known to us from wireless messages, from Sydney for Samoa, with 325 tons of coal and fivo-brieks. very useful to us, for repairing Ihe liriek work round our boilers: Slip was emptied and sunk like ber predecessors. She was r,f very tough wood, and we could not expert to destroy her rapidly unless she had a cement keel, so we had again to destrov her hull with gunfire. We also set her alight with benzine. The work, of destruction look many hours. She went ashore near our anchorage burning and a complete wreck, scarcely'■ visible above the water.

V.'p had picked up a wireless saying Hint soon after the'appearance of Hie Wolf in Indiun wnlcrs open warnings to ships had been forbidden. But, Hint was nothing to do 'with us. Clearly it was due to the imaginary information Hint; German U-boats had appeared in the, Indian Ocean. We suspected that llio Seoadler. which afterwards turned out to have been lost in the South Seas, had been al: work Iherr. Immediately after leaviwr Sunday Island it was discovered that livo prisoners were missing. Thoy hud jumped overboard in rough weather lo swim ashore. I feel pretty suro that thev failed. Heavy (surf was breaking, and the. pince is full of sharks. Very large ones accompanied us round the islands. We had already seen crowds of (hem in the Indian Ocean when holding up the Jumna and Wordsworth. The men used lo catch them, and keep the teeth as mementoes, or cut walkingsticks out of the backbone. _ According to an old sailor's superstition, ".shark (ins are lucky." and we brought homo to port somo huge tail fins fastened to the bowsprit, in good condition in spito of bad weather. SUCCESSES WITH MINES. We heard of the success of our mines from prisoners' reports and intercepted wireless messages. One of lhe latter reported (ho sinking or' several ships off l J ago Pago, and the crew of llic Winslow told us that it neutral captain had been imprisoned in Sydney on suspicion of sabotage. We had continued our operations in the Tasman Sea and dropped numerous mines, '"ho s.s. Cumberland, of !)000.Ions, fitted to carry frozen meat, ran upon one of these. This was perhaps the most interesting case after that of the Aquitaniu, and we .were in a position to learn exactly what happened.

On July G the Cumberland reported by wireless that she. '.ad run into a mine ten miles off Cape Gabo, anil was in trou'ble. A reply soon came, presumably from a Japanese cruiser, wanting lo ];uow where Cape Gabo was. An English man-o'-war would have known that. Then Sydney replied: "A ship has left Jervis Bay to give you assistance." Again tho Japanese cruiser reported a rumour that the Cumberland had not struck a mine, but met with an internal explosion. Ho asked for confirmation, the point being of importance in regard to 'he method of rendering assistance. For several hours after this nothing c.ime. Then somebody or other wirelessed to the world at. large that the Cumberland had steamed oil'. Very nice for the English, less so for us. But the Japenese cruiser soon relieved our feelings with comforting news as to (he effectiveness of our mines. She pent lhe following wireless ...jC>=ago:— "We drew alongside the Cumberland at 11 p.m.. and sent several officers on board. She has a list of 22 degrees to port. 'I'hn shin is deserted, and in a very critical nositimi. I propose (i -land by tb'oiigli the night and see what can be done in Iho morning." The captain noted that the accident happened nt n.ni. when the s'liio was twelve miles south-west by south from Gabo. Two violent internal explosions followed, after the second of which I hey had to anchor and try to slop the leak. It .vas no use; she began to: sink by the bows with a list lo port. There was a northerly gale which, we nrc-sumed, would fin Mi the Cumberland. Three weeks later this supposition was I'imfilined by newspaper reports found on board a steamer we held up. A small Miciinspicuoii? paragraph said: "I'jist' week wo lost the Cumber!'! id with a very \ul liable cargo."

I had my own idea* about (lis (wo "infernal explosions." AVe read of many more of these "inlorniil explosions" in tlio newspapers. Question* were also asked in Parliament, and as usual (lie Government found it inopportune lo give pariicu|ars. "Ru( (lie public were nlivinusly gelling more nervous I'vciy week, a.s more and more shios slruek our "nines. The rep-ion about (lie cane wliifli we hail infocXl very llioroudilv =eemed to sufl'ei' must. As it would not do In admit dial a fiorinai) cruiser could curry on its nefarious aelivilirs unhindered, innocent tiersons had to pay the nenalty. The English newspapers we received \\<>vc all lull of (lie news tint (hit orisrin of the terrible crimes committed against Eng"sli shins had been discovered at last. It was (lie. fault of Ihp I.VV.AV., who had concealed infernal niaehines in v-uniorous ehips. The uapers even leproduccd illustrations of (he materials used, a hall of col ton wool and a unite fluid, with Urn lecend: "Malcriuls wilh which (he TAA'.AV. sink ship?.'" But this infonnalion was accompanied by a great appeal for (lie Formation of a corps of volunteer leine-swccners. AA'e had a good laugh over it. If was al<o interesting lo nolo for what Inn? period-; our mines were, (■u'celivo. AW heard for ihe first lime, of one of our mine-- exploding off Cape. Town on January :'■'. IHI7. ami ve had positive proof Ilia I ships were sunk by (he same means and in (he same nlace in Seph-m----l.er <:f Ihal year. Mil' Unnibay Hie fiH sinking look nlace on Pebrunrv ill, Iho In If.-1, of v.hh-li we are sor-, in'.lnly. \W have reason la beli."e Ihal: ships slruok mines al ■■: much lul"c dale olf Colombo and iu other places. \\Y 1,-nfnr Ihal ships were ln--f in Ihe 'IVinuu Sea in November, and even ,il'l«r reacbim.' home we received a pauer showing ll.al discu-sinn bad taken 'da'-e uuiie rrceully in Mie Austrnliau I'iirliiiini'Mt about a uuni'ber of largo -learners sunk l;y miucs in Australian walers. (To In. ConlinuoU