THE STORY OF THE WOLF

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 250, 16 July 1919, Page 8

THE STORY OF THE WOLF

END OF HITACHI MARU SUNK AFTER BEING LOOTED ' FA. New Zealand soldier, who foil into the hands of tile Germans and was detained in Germany at a prisoner of war, brought back to New Zealand a copy of a book which is re* ported to have had a great var-tlmo Halo in Germany. This book contains the complete story of tho sensational voyage of the s«u raider Wolf, «a told by her commander. Captain Iferger. It was tho Wolf which laid the mines off the coasts of New Zealand and Australia,' and which caotured and sank the Union Steam Ship Company's steamer Wairunci and other vessels trading in theso waters. Wo have had a number of the chapters of tiio boon translated with a view to placing before our readers this first-hupd ntury of tho mysterious and elusive raider's exploits. 111. '

THE PRISONERS BREAK LOOSE,

About three days later the watcil reported having unserved a suspicious conversation between" a Japanese and an Australian prisoner, hom thiir behaviour, he was sure, they had agreed to escape. We took the precaution of posting extra watches, supplied with rifles ill addition to th-3 revolvers they usually carried, a machine-gun was put in position, tho ship well lighted nt night, tho searchlight and star-signals overhauled, and a special alarm s ; .gmil agreed upon.

One beautiful starlit night, we were suddenly aroused by the "prisoners alarm"; I heard men running about, shouts, shots. I dashed out of my cabiu. "What's the matterr" Several voices answered: "Prisoner overboard; there they are, swimming."'' In iho direction in which they pointed, I could see something moving; a minute point, far beyund the reach of our lights, approaching the shore. Tho searchlight was turned on, rocket after rocket llooded the surface with light. It was .most mysterious. The more light there was, the more points, the more swimming prisoners there seemed to be. All the prisontrs must be out. 'I'he men stood all nlong the. gunwale firing, and the machine-gun began to rattle. . It .took me some time to disccver the real state cf the ease.

We had so many prisoners that tho hainniock.'i had to iic slung one above the other, and one had Io stoop to move about under them. The sentinel at tlie door, who may have been nervous, owing to the feeling that an escape of prisoners was expected, noticed something moving. He saw a figure get. out of one of the upper hammocks, slowly and silently clamber down, and ilien crawl towards him, crabwise. on hands and knees. He though^he was going to lie attacked, and, fired his revolver at the crawling figure. On deck this was interpreted as an alarm, and in a moment the ship was brightly illuminated and everybody up. Nobody but the sentry knew what had happened, but rumours spread from man to man. and soon they were,all iiring at imaginary swinuning prisoners. II: took eeveTal minutes to stop them. Nobody bad jumped overboard. The searchlight had illuminated our old friends, the crocodiles. As far ns we eould make nut, not one wits hit. and luokilv the unfortunate prisoner, v.-lio had felt inclined to leave his ham? mock for'a moment, was not hit either.

While we were in this bay wo constructed a large number nf new cabins, out of all sorts of suitable and unsuitable materials, on ihe searchlight deck, for the Australian officers of the Matunga. Mary Stuartess gave some troubK' \Ve expected her to wait on Mrs. Flood and she was in be na«] for thill. But sli'' made a claim of "equal I reatnifMt." T cured her by telling her (hat. if everybody was equal she would in future have her meals with the crew.

1 had the horses 011 the lilahmrn killed to serve as fresh me.-it. Fresh nir-at was important for the health r,f the. crew, and I could not he guided by sentiment. s <'mc of the officers, however, were horrified. and swore they wonid not eat.horseineat. T had-my revenue by not lettinc; them know when it vas hpin? served, so that on occasion they enjoyed hom>iiim( uii'lr" another nam* l , and refused dish's of which it formed ro part. V/linn the ..Matunga was cmnfy, we took her to a bay wheTe she could he 110 danger to shipping, anil sank her. A DISTURBED NIGHT. 111 the beginning of September we sailed through the region of the Dutch.lslands towards Singapore, to lav mines. On this trip we find another interesting mirage. A Dutch torpedo boat was twen manoeuvring from the bridge. This mirage whs due to buovfc. The heat was so great that StaK-Sur-geaii Flood ami Ins wife asked leave to sleep 011 deck. I had no objections, but warned them that if we sighted anything they might ,1)9 unpleasantly disturbed, and might have to go heiow in a hurry. In the straits where we wm- c , I had to anticipate the presence of English guardships, and had given special instructions to the watch. I had hardlygouo to bed when a steamer wnii lights' out was reported ahead.

I wenc to the bridge. There was a glorious moon, and I could distinctly see the ship turning. She had been on the fame course as we, and passed us on tho port side. We clearly made out a small English cruiser of the Juno class. I altered my course slightly in hope of avoiding discovery, nnd immediately got ready for action. Although the thing was no joke, I could not help lausinng at the white figures of the crew nt their posts, just as .(hey had tumbled out of their hammocks, nnd Dr. ajid Mrs. Flood cheerfully carrying their mattresses below. . .At first I assumed that the cruiser, which showed a good deal of light, while we were completely dark, would follow us. She seemed to lie patrolling. As she. came closer we could clearly distinguish two funnels and two masts. There seemed to bo light in tho tower. She might stop, us any moment. T considered whether to risk tiring a torpedo nt 4000 yards, but 1 soon dropped the idea. I must betray my character by doing so, perhaps unnecessarily. So I pretended not to see her, and apparently sho did.not see mo. We went back about the same way, through Ihe Java Sea to the neighbourhood of Torres Strait, and then we reached the Indian Ocean without meeting niiy hostile maii-o'-wnr. Wc were back near Colombo, nnd thence sailed towards "Madagascar. Not a ship was to be seen. j THE HITACHI MARU, On September 27 wc were sailing a | south-westerly course among tile atolls of j the Maldiv'e Islands, when wc saw smoke | aft, nnd the seaplane presently reported | a cargo steamer sailing south-west with 112 knots speed. Wc turned to meet her, i and at 2500 yards signalled her to slop j and make no use of her wireless. Tho i ship, the Japanese s.s. Hitachi Maru, J carried a gun, concealed under a tarpaulin. Sho immediately replied that she understood our orders and was hacking. In fact, however, nhe tunifcd about eight points (o starboard without diminishing speed, nnd we observed the gun being cleared for action. Two 15 c.m. shells dropped before her bows having no effect on her speed, wc fired on her stem, and the lirst shot dropped right into the crew and cleared the deck. But a new gun-crew was aI: work immediately. I fired a second and third time, and we could again - elearlv see casualties. Still she did not but began to swing out her boats. At lsyst she stopped, willi numbers of men _ niri-iid.v swimming in the water. 1' was just get-1 tile.: ready a prize crew to semi over, when the Japanese began wiiolessiug for ; help. Then we had to interfere, find ; put his wireless apparatus nut. oi' action. ' Tho rudder hud also been (Uruag'-ii. Now j a long row of boats appeared from behind j the steamer. She mii-( bare carried passengers. The gun she carried was a quite modern 12.5 c.m. gun astern. |

.1 had strii'lly observed liio rules of inlernational law. The Japanese captain had certainly nol done so, but had followed the instructions issued by his Admiralty, in cast' of meeling 11-liuais. Tie did not stop, (lew no (lag, but ci.ncinuouslv signalled that he was backing, exposing the lives of his passenger; to tlie greatest danger, when resistance was perfectly hopeless^ The boats acre so awkwardly launched that several passengers sustained injuries, and two Indians were drowned, 'flic water was-so clear that could see

one of the corpses drifting slowly under us at a great de.pth. The Hitachi Muru lost twenty men killed as tho result of our fira

We then sailed to tho rescue of the boats, whose crews, apparently panicstricken, were rowing aimlessly away from us. Our boats also rescued several swimmers, whom the Japanese in their excitement had neglected to pick up. As soon as the passengers had been sien to and given warm drinks, we sent over a prize crew. Only the captain and chief engineer vers left on board. The captain seemed beside himself. He wanted to go down with his ship, said he could not survive the loss of so many innocent lives. Apparently he wanted, to shoulder the whole blame, although .we discovered fronir his papers that he'was only acting under instructions. He came with us reluctantly. The chief engineer was left on board with the prize crew to repair damage. We then paid .the last honours to the dead, with full ceremony. The Japanese captain gave the usual adress. The Hitachi Maru was reported able to steam at 8 p.m., and we steered with her for a neighbouring atoll. We then wont alongside, and took accurate photographs of her gun and of the damage done by our fire. She was well stocked with coal, and we decided to take her | with 11s, as a means of providing for our | prisoners. Besides the value of the ship, the cargo was worth, at least, two or three millions. She carried rubber, tea, magnificent silk, l'ice, beans, flour, copper, brass, and thousands of lobsters for tiie city of London. We got her tidied ud to receive passengers, and sent over the women and children, and all prisoners not liable to military service. We repaired her as thoroughly as possible, mnd shifted a most valuable part of hor cargo, in case we had to sink her, after all. After three days we left the Hitachi where she was, and the Wolf sailed forth to look for coal. After four or five days we sighted two steamers. One was apparently a neutral, and shoved all lights. The other was quite dark, and of far superior speed to ours. She turned in her course, and came straight at ns. She looked like an English auxiliary cruiser, and we prepared for action. I could have treated her as an enemy 011 the strength of her sudden change .of course. An Englishman would probably have done so, but Germans have a strong respect for law, and I waited. She sailed right under our stern. She was armed, and we saw men apparently clearing her gun for action. Even 60 I did not open fire. I had come to the conclusion that 6he was not. an auxiliary cruiser, but. a passenger and. cargo steamer of about 10,000 tons. After passing_ our stern, she steamed off on her original course l . She was faster than we, making about fifteen knots. I always had the greatest objection's, for many reasons, to holding up ships at night. I did not want to use my searchlight, as there was a neutral ship in the neighbourhood. It is a well-known fact that England exerts pressure on the neutrals. It is what is called "protecting the small nations." 1 If the captain had failed tp give immediate information in an English port of the suspicious vessel ho had seen he would afterwards have met with every sort of trouble and difficulty. Next morning 6he wns out of our reach. Several days passed in vain, and the Tlitaehi Maru, being overdue at her next port of call, enemy men-oMvar from Colombo would soon be looking for her. We sent instructions to tho Hitachi Maru per seaplane, and steered straight towards Mauritius to try the trade route, which passes south of Madagascar. Our luck was out. Our own coal was down, (hat of the Hitachi Marti, much lower. I should have liked to have taken her home, but it was not to bp. I anchored near a coral reef north of Mauritius, and spent three weeks, day and night, transhipping her cargo. THE "WOLF CUB." After we had filled' every available corner of tho Wolf with cargo from the Hitachi Maru there was still a great deal left which we had regretfully to sink with hor. Meanwhile wo picked up numerous. wireless messages inquiring for the Japanese ship. I must now give some details of our 6eaplane. The "Wolf Cub," No. 841, was n new strong machine built at Warne Munde. Her first flight from on board was in connection with the Turitella. In twenty minutes she rose 1000 yards, then went up to 4000 yards, with a wonderful view, extending for 90 milas in all directions, and she came doijn with a steep spiral flight, and was on deck a few minutes later.- The sharks fonnd her particularly attractive. As soon as fjhe touched' water they began to crowd round her in shoals.

On one occasion in the Pacific the flyers noticed when starting, that a spring was broken, and that one of the stays was damaged. She.managed her flight successfully, 'but as soon as 6he touched tho water she hee|jd over and began to go down by the head. There was a heavy swell, and the sharks crowding round her as usual. We immediately had tie boats out and tho rowers made tremendous efforts to Teach the rapidly drifting seaplane. By now the motor was completely under, water, and the pilot and observer had climbed on to her tail. As the boats drew near two heavy failors jumped overboard and climbed on to the seaplane to' help restore her balance. Meanwhile the Wolf cautiously drew up, and with every precaution we hoisted up the seaplane and set to work on refriirs, which took three weeks. Her broken ribs were replaced out of tea boxes. At this time she had made sixty flights, had been on deck in all 'weathers, and aloft in heavy rain. Her canvas was in rags. First we tried .pome captured canvas, which Was useless .after two flights. Then we tried raw silk from the Hitachi Marui, which tore to ribbons immediately. At la-st we found on the same ship some boxes of a wonderful white satin, destined for the ball dresses of London ladies. She woro these till the end of our voyage. (To be Continued.)