RAIDER IN PACIFIC.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XL, Issue 1785, 5 February 1918, Page 3

RAIDER IN PACIFIC.

MANNED BY SEEADLER’S CREW.

AN AMERICAN REPORT

The San Francisco Chronicle of 22nd December states: —The French schooner Lutece, with sixty of the crew of the German raider Seeadler manning her, is prowling off the South American coast, was the information brought here yesterday by passengers on a liner arriving from Papeete and other South Sea ports. The whereabouts of the Lutece has been a mystery since the Teuton “pirates” set sail in.the vessel last August, leaving about forty Americans marooned on Mopeha Island.

Henri Erhest Grand, of Papeete, owner-of the Lutece, was a passenger on the liner. Grand and others coming from the Tahitian town said that the Lutece had been sighted by Captain A. E„ McDonald, of the brig Geneva, off the coast of Chile in October. M’Donald was familiar with the appearance of the schooner, having seen'her many times at Papeete. He told friends there could be no doubt he had been in danger of capture by the Germans. The skipper was so fearful of the intentions of the strange vessel, which was only a few hundred yards away, that he got up all the steam possible on the donkey engine, and planned to resist any invasion with steam and hot water. He said he intended to ram the schooner if the vessel was brought near his ship, Night came <ln, and the suspected raider disappeared in the darkness. Grand vas questioned by agents of the Department of Justice on his arrival, as he was at one time agent of a German firm at Papeete, His standing was established, and he was not detained. He has a son in the French Army, who Las been decorated, for bravery, and two daughters attending school here.