Career of Crack German Commerce Raider Ends

Manawatu Times, Volume 64, Issue 302, 22 December 1939, Page 5

Career of Crack German Commerce Raider Ends

INTERNMENT OF WINDHUK VANCOUVER, Dec. 14. When the German liner Windhuk was interned at Santos (Brazil) a little over a week ago, the Nazis lost tlier finest commerce raider outside their naval vessels. The career of tho Windhuk, a now 1G,600-ton liner, came to a prosaic halt before she had done any real harm to Allied shipping, when she arrived unexpectedly at Santos, where she was promptly interned and her wireless sealed. The Windhuk is a magnificent vessel, built in 1936 and specially constructed for conversion to a sea raider, with a speed far in excess of peaco time requirements, but in some unexplained manner the German plans regarding her went astray. Early in the war she was interned at Lobitos (Portuguese West Africa). There she was quietly refitted, and the Germans claimed that when she escaped from internment on November 12 she was carrying full raider armament. There were five German ships at Lobitos and tho day before the Windhuk escaped, another vessel, the Adolph Woermann, put to sea and decoyed watching British cruisers away. The Adolph Woermann was scuttled capture by a British warship but in the meantime the Windhuk got clear. Yesterday there arrived at Santos a handsome ship carrying the Japanese flag and calling herself the Santo Maru, but when tho authorities examined her, they found she was tho Windhuk, commanded by Captain Brauer and with a crew augmented by Germans from other ships still anchored at Lobitos. The Brazilian authorities will hold her for the duration of the war.