RAIDER AT WORK

Wairarapa Times-Age, 29 November 1940, Page 5

RAIDER AT WORK

BRITISH SHIP LOST OFF THE NEW ZEALAND COAST. STATEMENT BY PREMIER. A distress signal was received on Wednesday from a British vessel some 400 miles east of the New Zealand coast indicating that she was being attacked by an enemy raider. This announcement was made yesterday by the Prime Minsiter, ALr Fraser. “Searches made in the vicinity have been without result,” Mr. Fraser said, “and the probalities are that the vessel has been lost, and those on board captured.” DUTCH CONCERN CONSULTATION WITH NAVAL AUTHORITIES. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) (Received This Day, 9.5 a.m.) BATAVIA, November 28. As a result of the increasing activity of raiders in the south seas, a Government spokesman told the Peoples Council that he was consulting with foreign naval authorities, presumably British, in this area regarding the allocation of shipping routes and protection against raiders.

ATTACKED AT NIGHT FATE OF PORT BRISBANE. MALMO A ALSO MISSING. CANBERRA, November 28. In announcing (as reported yesterday) that the steamer Port Brisbane, of '8,739 tons, had been sunk by an enemy raider, the Minister for the Navy (Mr Hughes) said that members of the Port Brisbane’s crew, other than the 27 who had reached an Australian port on board an Australian warship, are believed to be prisoners on the raider, which escaped. An empty lifeboat from the Maimoa was picked up, and it is presumed that the crew of the vessel are also prisoners on the raider. The Port Brisbane, which was in the Indian Ocean, was attacked at night in mid-ocean. The wireless apparatus was disabled and the steering-gear was put out of action. The vessel was timebombed and torpedoed. Those who reached Australia escaped under cover of darkness. Among the prisoners on the enemy raider is a woman passenger. Survivors from the Port Brisbane told a dramatic story of their escape in a lifeboat. The raider opened fire at a range of a little more than a mile. The third shell wrecked the wireless room and the fourth hit the bridge, disabling the steering gear. Three boats were launched, and the ship was abandoned. The occupants of two boats were taken prisoner, but the third boat escaped in the darkness. An-official description of the raider tallies remarkably with earlier descriptions given by the Admiralty of the German raider,' known for identification purposes as “The Narvik,” which has already probably sunk 67,641 tons of shipping.The Maimoa, a twin-screw cargo steamer of 10,123 tons gross register, .owned by the Shaw, Savill and Albion Company, Ltd., had been well known in the New. Zealand trade for the last 20 years. The Port Brisbane, a twin-screw steamer of 10,612 tons gross register, was built in 1923 for the Port Line. Limited and was also a regular trader to New Zealand. She was commanded by Captain H. Steele and left Adelaide' for England about the middle of this! month.