LOSS OF THE KAIPARA.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 128, 23 October 1914, Page 7

LOSS OF THE KAIPARA.

HOW SHE WAS SUNK. RIDDLED WITH SHOT. THE HIGHFYLKIt'S KBVBNGE. London, Septembe • 15. The full story of th e sinking of the New Zealand Shipping Company's, steamer Kaipdra is available this week. Capit'ain utaleepcaee ami thus offceirs and crew, C 9 all told, reached London by the Inanda from Las Palmos. This \- c s el 'brought with. !hcr 114 men who had. 'been taken prisoners from various vessels by the Kaiser Wilhalm de Grosse before the latter was sunk by ita ltnus!ii cruiser Highliyer off t)h u west coast ..i Africa. There were three New' Zealunders among the crew of tilw Kaipara ] --Allr J. P. 'Wilson, Wellington, foiutiJ engineer; Mr G. Jones, Bhiir, chief refrigerating engineer; and Air D. Warn-! mwville, Auckland, aixiili ■ engineer. Thd Nort- (jeirman Lloyo imitsr 'having turned left Bremen ait the declaration of war and writ MarlUi of the Shellands. Off the weir, coast of Iceland on August 7 she fo\&l .her first victim 1 , the Grimsby trawl,r Tabid Cain. She sank the trawler and took away the crew of 13. On .the IStlh the German cruiser stopped the Union Castle liner Galician off the Canaries, and afterwards released her. In .itlie early .murrains* o. August; U», tdw Kaiser Wilholm stopped the Kaipara laden .with a valuable cargo of frozen incut, 12 bours oir the islands.- Th« crew, were transhipped awl the ship sunk. On Ilhe same afternoon the cruiser fell in witli 'the Elder Dempster stcamslhm Nvanga, six days out from S.erra Leone, vvlictk the G*rmflnft Hud tar crew taken off as prisoners of war and superseded by native boys. Th c I'lyanga was boar. .- cd, and tho cruiser's engineer snmslitil the seavalves and condeawtir. The tfl'ew v/cre .transshipped, a difficult o,iw.ra:iimi. for there was a 'heavy swell," at 'the pistol's mouth. The vessel was then blown up.

THE CAPTAIN'S NARRATIVE. Captain 11. Makepeace, who has built master of the lvaipura for .tihe pjust two years, states that he left Eyttelton on July 11, ami on reaching lionte Video, learnt that Russia, France and German were at war, but hie had no actual information that England was involved. "Two days after leaving Monte Video " he says, ''we received a wireless message from the l.ritish, cruiser Glasgow requniiiiig us no avoid all trade routes and dim the. 'brilliancy of our lignts. From Gape Frio onward we avoided a.i trade routes, awl we did not sight anv shipg until on th e morning of tjie 16th, wlieti about 4 o'clock, we wighiued.' a fourfunneiied steamer, which 'proved to tithe Ka:sor \\ iihcJm der Grossc. Hhe hailed ua and we started to use our wireless.

j The commander of the Kaiser Wilhelro ! then cii:ue. along anil shouted tlliro ■■••jl: a megaphone:—-'Stop your wire- ; less, or i will sink you.' A boat v.-'. then put oil' from the German, vessol ! and a captain-lieutenant and a second - lieutenant with a boat's crew (boarded / the Kaipara. They smashed up our ( w-re1.0.-i niant. i,!aci.xl explosives in the ; stokehold, and ordwed everyone to j leave the ship." ! Captain .Makepeace sa»J'B thait t.he crew :ha time to take a few personal thiiujs ; with them. Armed Gea-manss twd at

the cabin doors as they flung a few things into a hag. JJ e «ould give no details of the actutw e'mking of tho Kaipara. He had' not the (heart to sec Ms s'hii, g 0 duwn. and he never looked back ' at all. The Kaiser Williel'm. arrived a.t Cu\ Bay about <leven. o'clock on Sirmlav I evening, Aiipust Hi, and got under weigh again tho fol!owm<r morning. . She Kia-de a short cruise of about four ours and reiurnud and unctiored in Cro I'.av about noon on the same day. At -, -m. the siieamer. Duala came alongside, and coaling commenced. From tuis dat» to the dat-J of her being sunk, nine days Uter, Captain Makepeace declared that the Kaiser Wilheki did not move from her a;v.-.liwage. "onse/jLeatly, if any <|iiestion of intttrmilioniil law arose the Kaiser Wilhclm would have to explain why she reJiiained for nine days in . Spanish waters. i_2ITNETY MINUTES' .KOMBARaMRNT. K r The K'iipara's boats, wliidli conveyed the crew to wic German elup, v/cxe sosittled by ih v Cleimans. "(We had scarcely left our ship," gays Mr Herbert Wilde, •hief officer of the Kaipara, "w%eu the Kaiser Wi%lm oiK'iuid lire on her. Ji took about an hour and a half to sink her, and duu-in; that t:me f' 's »,a,' lii-.il. It w::s hiout, U;hJ that the good old snip tank. ,She had a liiuavy l.st to port, asid uheii svtUwl dovm almost bodily. A, ; she rnii-U we could see that die wc.s riildled v.-.xh shot- ■ "On-.-e on b;)iU-d the Kaiser Wi'ilieijni, we were treated with great courtesy. We were provided with some of the saloon berths, and tJle Germans were most polite to us. at was evident' that th' Germans did not altogether rel'rJi their task. Ttie eommiander ieniorlu.d tlutt it was a painful proceeding to him no have to sink our vessel, ami to u» it appiared to bo wanton destnic'.ion of vaiuablo property. We were told s»me f.xciting stories about the war. Tiic first thing they lead vs was bhait five ' of the British men-of-war, including the Hon DuKe, had been blown u» bv a»« ' fedoes, and we were also informed that, the Russians had fled from Warsaw, ' and that the Germans were within ten miles of Bt. Petersburg." ARRIVAL OIF. TUB HTGHFLYER. The KaJser Wilhelm then retired 'to ' Oro JJay, whtire were ilio colliers Duala, Belhania, ai«f Arucae. "1 think it wa« on Wwbicwlay, August 2(J," Mr IWilde •ontinued, "about Jialf past twelve o'cluck, while the Kaiser Wil'helm was Willing, ;i!liat w c heard the- boa'swain piping, and the mien rushed up on deck with pistols and bayonets. A ipetty olficer, who spoKe, English, remarked to me: 'lou'll tie all right bye-aml-bye. I tSiink it is an English cruiser.' Nothing happened, and owiling was rcsuineo shortly afterwards, Oie impression being that there ihud been a false alarm. At half -past- two, however, the captaiailieutenant came to us and said: 'Gentlemen, w : il you please go on the colliiT at once! A British cruiser m going to open flra.' We got) wbat clothes we could, and jumped: aboard tlie collier Arucas. "Orders Were also given to a large number of officers and men of the Kaiser Wilhdrn to board tiho coHiors. They did so, and as tihey jumped from the Kaiser IWilhelm, mamy of tihem threw their arms into the sea. Suddenly, the British cruiser, which, proved to be 't!he HisHiflyer, opened fire,, tSve Kaiser Willielm replied. The Arucas was still fa»t to the Kaiser Wilhelm, and the sili<;"s whizzed over our heads. The first shot gave us a bit of a shook, but we goii aeeiiß,tK>med- to. it, men conducted ttenselvcts witihi great coolness. "f took-charge of the wheel of; tihe collier foT a tone, and gradually; we moved away from tie doomed vessel, wbich neVar had a cihance against' tffie