STEAMER HAXBY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 7 December 1940, Page 7

STEAMER HAXBY

CAPTURED BY RAIDER IN APRIL CREW RESCUED OFF SPANISH COAST. ENEMY SHIP LAYS MINES IN N.Z. WATERS. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) (Received This Day, 10.35 a.m.) NEW YORK, December 6. The log of the British freighter Haxby which was sunk by a raider in April, reveals that the raider afterwards laid .mines near New Zealand. The crew of the Haxby were taken prisoner and put aboard a captured Norwegian steamer, the Tropic Sea, which was seized near Norfolk Island, and afterwards was scuttled off the north-west coast of Spain. The log shows that the Haxby left Greenock on April 8 for Texas, and that seven days after she left her convoy, a steamer flying Greek colours crossed her bow and then hoisted the Nazi ensign, firing on the Haxby from four concealed six-inch guns. The survivors were taken prisoner and the raider on May 2 laid mines off the West African coast. On May 7 she refuelled from the 5,000 ton German tanker Wirinetou and afterwards laid mines near the New Zealand coast. On June 1 she intercepted the Tropic Sea, again refuelled from the Winnetou, placed British sailors and a prize crew aboard the Tropic Sea, and attempted to reach Bordeaux, but was intercepted by a British submarine.