Current History, Vol. VIII, No. 3, June 1918: A Monthly Magazine of the New York TimesVarious
History
Current History, Vol. VIII, No. 3, June 1918: A Monthly Magazine of the New York Times
Various
World War, 1914-1918
_A third chapter of sea-raider history similar to those of the Möwe and
Seeadler was revealed when the Spanish steamship Igotz Mendi, navigated
by a German prize crew, ran aground on the Danish coast, Feb. 24, 1918,
while trying to reach the Kiel Canal with a cargo of prisoners and
booty. The next day the German Government announced that the sea-raider
Wolf, which had captured the Igotz Mendi and ten other merchant vessels,
with 400 prisoners, had successfully returned after fifteen months in
the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans. The story of the Wolf's
operations, as gleaned by Danish and English correspondents from the
narratives of released prisoners, is told below. Some of the most
interesting passages were furnished by Australian medical officers who
had been captured on the British steamer Matunga:_
The Wolf, a vessel of about 6,000 gross tonnage, armed with several guns
and torpedo tubes, carried a seaplane, known as the Wolfchen, which was
frequently used in the operations of the sea raider. On some days the
seaplane made as many as three flights. The Wolf, apparently, proceeded
from Germany to the Indian Ocean, laying minefields off the Cape,
Bombay, and Colombo. Early in February, 1917, she captured the British
steamship Turritella, taking off all the officers and putting on board a
prize crew which worked the vessel with her own men. In every case of
capture, when the vessel was not sunk at once, this procedure was
adopted.
The Wolf transferred a number of mines to the Turritella, with
instructions that they should be laid off Aden. A few days later the
Turritella encountered a British warship, whereupon the prize crew,
numbering twenty-seven, sank the Turritella, and were themselves taken
prisoner.
Three weeks later the Wolf overhauled the British steamer Jumna. The
Wolf thought that the British vessel was about to ram her, and the port
after-gun was fired before it was properly trained, killing five of the
raider's crew and wounding about twenty-three others. The Jumna remained
with the Wolf for several days, after which her coal and stores were
transferred to the raider, and she was sunk with bombs. The next vessels
to be captured and sunk were the British steamships Wordsworth and Dee.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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