BRITAIN WARNED

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 129, 27 November 1929, Page 13

BRITAIN WARNED

MINE LAYING IN PACIFIC

MESSAGE IN BOTTLE

(By Telegraph.)

(Special to "The [Evening Post.")

ATJCK7uAND, This Day.

Memories of the days spent as a prisoner of war on, board the German raider Wolf and <ot a successful attempt to give information to the British Naval authorities concerning the vessel's activities, in the Pacific were revived recently when Mr. N. A. Pyne, Collector of Cusfcovms at Haapai, Tonga, read a paragraph in the "New Zealand Herald" relating to some remarks made by Sir Jaiaes Allen in a lecture on New Zealamd naval defence.

Sir James in/antioned that the minelaying operations of the Wolf were discovered through a message thrown overboard in 'a bottle by a prisoner of war on the wilder. Mr. Pyne was one of three prisoners who were responsible for the dispatch of the message.

"You can imagine how intensely interesting the paragraph was to me, and what memories it brought back when I eixrplain that until I read it I was not tware that the bottle had been found," ;3£r. Pyne writes. He then describes the capture of his ship and his effiorijj to send messages to some British country.

"The exploit is one of the romances of the "ivar," he continues. "I was purser of the Matunga, which, laden with srtores and relief for the Australian Ajnry in occupation in captured Now Guinea, was captured by the Wolf off tVif; coast of New Britain on 6th August, 1917, after the raider had finished Jner mining operations in New Zealand and Australian waters. Our captain, navigating officers, wireless operator, and all military passengers were imnwidiately transferred to the raider, but tho rest of the crew and passengers, were left on board with a German pri?;e crew in charge. The Wolf and MCa'cunga then steamed away to an uninhabited part of Dutch New Guinea. This journey took seven days, during which we on the Matunga had many opportunities at night of dropping bottle messages overboard. The prize crew was not very strict. However, owing to the wide and unfrequented seas in this part of the world, we realised it was doubtful if any of these messages would ever be discovered. At the last minute, when the Matunga was leaving Sydney, a parcel of footballs was brought to my cabin for the soldiers at Eabaul. After -we were captured these were inflated and tied to bottles containing messages and thrown overboard from the Matunga at night. We were very anxious to let the authorities know that a German raider was at large, and that mines had been laid, and so perhaps save some of our people and ships from destruction. HUNDREDS OF PRISONERS. "When we reached Dutch New Guinea we were taken on board the Wolf, and were amazed to find that the raider lad already been out from Germany for nine months and had hundreds of prisoners in her holds, many of whom had been there for many months," Mr. Pyne continues. "Among these was Captain Meadows, master of the Turritella, the first ship captured by the raider away in the Indan Ocean five months previously. When I went on to the Wolf I had one football left which I took with me. When the Germans had taken all they wanted from the cargo of the Matunga the ship was sunk by bombs and the Wolf set a course for Singapore, where a big minefield was laid. It was extremely risky to attempt to throw anything overboard from the Wolf, as the sentries were numerous and very strict and we were constantly warned that any prisoner attempting to communicate with the shore would be instantlyshot. However, Captain Meadows realised the value of a football in making a bottle conspicuous, and he was very anxious to get a message overboard. He had a knowledge of location and extent of each minefield laid by the Wolf, and valuable knowledge ,of the details of the armament of the raider and other particulars which would have been invaluable to the British naval authorities. "So we arranged that we would make a desperate attempt to get a bottle message overboard when we were in the narrow seas of Dutch East Indies," he continues. "A detailed message was prepared by Captain Meadows, and on the night of 6th September," 1917, when the coast of Celebes was in sight, we decided to attempt to get a bottle overboard attached to a football. An Australian soldier named Chalmers had inflated the football hidden on deck, and our problem was to get the bottle containing the message up from the prisoners' quarters below and past the sentries. Captain Meadows told me where to find the bottle, which I brought to him covered with his towel and pyjamas. . . SUSPICIOUS SENTRY. I handed it to him, and he casually made his way up a small ladder on to the poop toward a group of prisoners where Chalmers had the football waiting. Suddenly an alert sentry, evidently curious to know what Captain Meadows had under his towel and pyjamas, made toward the captain, but the latter was too quick for him. Desperate not to be caught with any evidence on him, he sent the sentry over on the deck with a mighty push and lurching to the rail, he flung everything overboard. It was dark and the sentry was not quite sure what had happened, but he was in a great rage, and had his big Mauser pistol cocked a few inches in front of the captain's face. He appeared to be about to shoot him when an officer arrived on the sceno and placed Captain Meadows under arrest. He was confined to the cells for several days, but he got out of it by convincing the Germans that it was accident and that he' bumped the sentry by stumbling on a deck fitting.

"It is very gratifying to know even at this late date,?' concludes Mr. Pyne, "that Captain Meadows did not take his great risk in vain, and that, although tho bottle had to go overboard without the last football to keep it company, the message reached those for whom it was intended and in time to be of some value to the authorities of Great Britain and New 2ealand."