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| History | |
|---|---|
 German Empire | |
| Namesake | Möwe, German for "seagull" |
| Ordered | Laeisz |
| Builder | Joh. C. Tecklenborg Ship Yard, Geestemünde |
| Launched | 1914 asPungo |
| In service | 1 November 1915 |
| Fate | Awarded as war reparations to the United Kingdom, sunk as German freighterOldenburg 7 April 1945 |
| General characteristics | |
| Displacement | 9,800 tons (4,788 gross register tons (GRT)) |
| Length | 123.7 m |
| Beam | 14.4 m |
| Draught | 7.2 m |
| Propulsion | 1 × 3-cylindertriple expansion; 5 ×boiler; 3,200 hp |
| Speed | 13knots |
| Range | 8,700 nm at 12 kn |
| Complement | 235 |
| Armament |
|
SMSMöwe ([ˈmøːvə]; German:Seagull) was amerchant raider of theImperial German Navy which operated againstAllied shipping duringWorld War I.
Disguised as a neutral cargo ship to enable it to get close to targets, theMöwe was effective atcommerce raiding, sinking 40 ships in the course of the war.
Built by theJoh. C. Tecklenborg yard atGeestemünde, she was launched as the freighterPungo in 1914 and operated by theAfrikanische Fruchtkompanie forF. Laeisz ofHamburg. After an uneventful career carrying cargoes of bananas from the German colony ofKamerun to Germany she was requisitioned by theImperial German Navy for use as aminelayer. Her conversion took place atImperial shipyard at Wilhelmshaven in the autumn of 1915, and under the command ofNikolaus zu Dohna-Schlodien, she entered service on 1 November that year.
Möwe slipped out of Wilhelmshaven on 29 December 1915 for her first task, to set a minefield in thePentland Firth, near the main base of theBritish Home Fleet atScapa Flow. This was completed in severe weather conditions. A few days later thepre-dreadnought battleshipHMS King Edward VII struck one of the mines; despite attempts to tow her to safety she sank.Möwe then moved down the west coast of Ireland to France. There she laid another mine field off theGironde estuary, which sank a further two ships.
This part of her mission complete,Möwe then moved into the Atlantic, operating first between Spain and theCanary Islands, and later off the coast ofBrazil.
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Thesingle ship action was fought between aGermanauxiliary cruiser and aUKcargo ship off thePortuguese islands ofMadeira in theAtlantic Ocean.
Möwe was steaming about 120 miles south of Madeira with the merchant steamerAppam, a ship previously captured by the Germans who installed aprize crew and transferred several dozen prisoners of war to her. At sunset, lookouts aboardMöwe sighted smoke on the horizon, indicating a ship.Kapitän Dohna-Schlodien orderedAppam to remain behind while he went to investigate. Several minutes later, at about 21:00,Möwe came within distance of making out that the smoke had originated from a large merchant ship, later identified asClan Mactavish.
By the timeMöwe came within close range, it was dark, soMöwe approached cautiously. Using asignal lamp, Dohna-Schlodien asked the cargo ship's name.Clan Mactavish replied by asking that the German ship first identify herself. Dohna-Schlodien signalled that his ship wasAuthor, aHarrison Line ship sailing fromLiverpool toNatal.Möwe reportedly looked very similar toAuthor, which had been sunk by the German Navy a few weeks earlier.Clan Mactavish then signalled her name and that they were returning to Britain fromAustralia.
Having identified the British ship, Dohna-Schlodien crossed her bow and ordered a halt. Instead of complying,Clan Mactavish changed course and increased speed, hoping to outrun the raider.Möwe fired warning shots and gave chase.Clan Mactavish returned fire with her single gun, but repeatedly missed, and the German ship suffered no damage or casualties.Möwe fired salvoes with her four 150 mm guns.Clan Mactavish sent wireless telegraph distress signals that were received by thearmoured cruiserHMS Essex. However, the telegraphist aboardEssex failed to tell his superiors, so no help was sent. After taking several hits topside,Clan Mactavish caught fire and her captain signalled his surrender toMöwe.Möwe then manoeuvred for boarding.
All of the German rounds were hits, apart from the warning shots. Aboarding party fromMöwe seizedClan Mactavish and removed her surviving crew as prisoners. There were 18 crewmembers killed in or after battle,[clarification needed] and five others had been wounded.Clan Mactavish's captain was aRoyal Navy reservist and her gun was crewed by two Royal Navy gunners. The remainder of her crew were civilians. This marked a total of more than 500Allied prisoners of war onMöwe andAppam.
The boarding partyscuttledClan Mactavish with explosive charges.
After sinkingClan Mactavish,Möwe reunited withAppam and set a westward course to avoid any Royal Navy cruisers in the area. Two cruisers were just over 100 mi (87 nmi; 160 km) away and could have interceptedMöwe had the telegraphist aboardEssex responded.
Möwe went on to sink several more Allied ships before returning home. Upon arrival,Kapitän Dohna-Schlodien was awarded theIron Cross second class. Richard Stumpf records that there were a number of Africans amongst the crew upon this arrival.[1]Felix von Luckner served aboardMöwe before his journey withSMS Seeadler in late 1916 to late 1917.
In an effort to maintain security,Möwe was renamedVineta, afteranother auxiliary cruiser which had been withdrawn from service. In this guise she set out on a series of short cruises during the summer of 1916 to attack Allied shipping off the coast ofNorway. This only brought one success, however, before she was ordered in for a refit prior to another sortie into the Atlantic.
Departing on 23 November 1916,Möwe had even more success on her second cruise into the Atlantic.
On 6 December 1916, she captured and sank the Canadian Pacific Steamship freighterSS Mount Temple outbound from Halifax to Liverpool.Mount Temple′s cargo included 700 horses bound for theCanadian Expeditionary Force in France and many crates of dinosaur fossils collected fromAlberta's Red Deer River badlands byCharles H. Sternberg destined for theBritish Museum of Natural History. On 12 December, it was the turn ofSS Georgic, sunk along with her cargo of 1,200 horses that would have been used on theWestern Front.[2]
In four months she had accounted for another 25 ships totalling 123,265 GRT. One of these,SSYarrowdale, was sent as prize to Germany and, as Dohna-Schlodien had recommended, was outfitted as a commerce raider herself.Möwe also retainedSS Saint Theodore as a collier, before arming and commissioning her as the auxiliaryGeier.Geier operated in this role for six weeks, accounting for two ships sunk, before being disarmed and scuttled byMöwe prior to returning home. On 10 March, she was damaged inaction against an armedNew Zealand merchant shipOtaki off the Azores in the Atlantic. Armed with a single 120mm stern gun, theOtaki fought a gallant but doomed action. TheMöwe was hit several times and a serious fire was put out with difficulty. TheOtaki, however, was hit some thirty times before sinking.Otaki's captainArchibald Bisset Smith was awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross, finally going down in his ship with the British colours still flying”. Five of her crewmen were killed and another ten men were wounded. The damage forced the raider to return course for Germany.
In March 1917Möwe again successfully ran the British blockade, ironically at the same time asYarrowdale, now the auxiliary cruiserSMS Leopard, was cornered and sunk by the same blockading force.Möwe arrived home safely on 22 March 1917.
On her returnMöwe was taken out of service as a raider, being reckoned too valuable as a propaganda tool to be risked again. She served in theBaltic as asubmarine tender, before becoming the auxiliary minelayerOstsee in 1918. After theTreaty of Versailles, she went to Britain, to be operated byElders and Fyffes as the freighterGreenbrier. In 1933 she was sold to a German shipping company. As the freighterOldenburg, it served the route between Germany andoccupied Norway in World War II.
On 7 April 1945 she was attacked byBristol Beaufighters ofCoastal Command aircraft from No. 144 Squadron RAF, No. 455 Squadron RAAF, and No. 489 Squadron RNZAF at her moorings sheltering off the coast of Norway—near the village ofVadheim inSogn og Fjordane county. Following an intense strafing and rocket attack, holed by theirrockets andstrafed by cannon fire, she burned and sank.[3]
In three raiding voyagesMöwe captured and sank 40 ships, grossing in excess of 180,000GRT. She also laid mines which accounted for two more ships and a capital warship. This made her the most successful German raider in either the First or the Second World War.
| Date | Ship | Type | Nationality | TonnageGRT | Fate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11 Jan 16 | Corbridge | Cargo ship |  United Kingdom | 3,687 | Retained as prize; scuttled 30 Jan 16 |
| 11 Jan 16 | Farringford | Cargo ship | United Kingdom | 3,146 | sunk |
| 13 Jan 16 | Dromonby | Cargo ship | United Kingdom | 3,627 | sunk |
| 13 Jan 16 | Author | Cargo ship | United Kingdom | 3,496 | sunk |
| 13 Jan 16 | Trader | Cargo ship | United Kingdom | 3,608 | sunk |
| 15 Jan 16 | Ariadne | Cargo ship | United Kingdom | 3,035 | sunk |
| 15 Jan 16 | Appam | Cargo ship | United Kingdom | 7,781 | Retained as prize; detached 17 Jan 16; returned 28 Mar 17[5] |
| 16 Jan 16 | Clan McTavish | Cargo ship | United Kingdom | 5,816 | sunkin action |
| 20 Jan 16 | Edinburgh | Sailing ship | United Kingdom | 1,473 | sunk |
| 4 Feb 16 | Luxembourg | Cargo ship | United Kingdom | 4,322 | sunk |
| 6 Feb 16 | Flamenco | Cargo ship | United Kingdom | 4,540 | sunk |
| 8 Feb 16 | Westburn | Cargo ship | United Kingdom | 3,300 | Retained as prize; detached 9 Feb 16 toSanta Cruz de Tenerife |
| 9 Feb 16 | Horace | Cargo ship | United Kingdom | 3,109 | sunk |
| 24 Feb 16 | Maroni | Cargo ship |  France | 3,109 | sunk |
| 25 Feb 16 | Saxon Prince | Cargo ship | United Kingdom | 3,471 | sunk |
| Date | Ship | Type | Nationality | TonnageGRT | Location |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 Jan 16 | King Edward VII | Pre-dreadnought battleship |  Royal Navy | 16,350tdisp | Scotland |
| 13 Jan 16 | Bayo | Cargo ship |  Spain | 2,776 | Gironde |
| 13 Jan 16 | Belgica | Cargo ship | Spain | 2,068 | Gironde |
| 22 Feb 16 | Duckbridge | Cargo ship | United Kingdom | 1,491 | Scotland |
| Date | Ship | Type | Nationality | TonnageGRT | Fate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 27 Jul 16 | Eskimo | Cargo ship | United Kingdom | 3,326 | Taken as a prize |
| Date | Ship | Type | Nationality | TonnageGRT | Fate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 Dec 16 | Voltaire | Cargo ship | United Kingdom | 8,618 | sunk |
| 4 Dec 16 | Hallbjørg | Cargo ship |  Norway | 2,586 | sunk |
| 6 Dec 16 | Mount Temple | Cargo ship | United Kingdom | 9,792 | sunk |
| 8 Dec 16 | Duchess of Cornwall | Sailing ship | United Kingdom | 152 | sunk |
| 8 Dec 16 | King George | Cargo ship | United Kingdom | 3,852 | sunk |
| 9 Dec 16 | Cambrian Range | Cargo ship | United Kingdom | 4,235 | sunk |
| 10 Dec 16 | Georgic | Cargo ship | United Kingdom | 10,077 | scuttled and sunk |
| 11 Dec 16 | Yarrowdale | Cargo ship | United Kingdom | 4,652 | retained as prize; detached to Swinemunde, 31 Dec 16. Converted to auxiliary cruiserLeopard |
| 12 Dec 16 | Saint Theodore | Cargo ship | United Kingdom | 4,992 | Commissioned as auxiliary cruiserGeier; scuttled 14 Feb 17 |
| 18 Dec 16 | Dramatist | Cargo ship | United Kingdom | 5,415 | sunk |
| 26 Dec 16 | Nantes | Sailing ship | France | 2,679 | sunk |
| 2 Jan 17 | Asnieres | Sailing ship | France | 3,103 | sunk |
| 5 Jan 17 | Hudson Maru | Cargo ship |  Japan | 3,798 | sunk/released |
| 7 Jan 17 | Radnorshire | Cargo ship | United Kingdom | 4,310 | sunk |
| 9 Jan 17 | Minteh | Cargo ship | United Kingdom | 2,890 | sunk |
| 10 Jan 17 | Netherby Hall | Cargo ship | United Kingdom | 4,461 | sunk |
| 15 Feb 17 | Brecknockshire | Cargo ship | United Kingdom | 8,423 | sunk |
| 16 Feb 17 | French Prince | Cargo ship | United Kingdom | 4,766 | sunk |
| 16 Feb 17 | Eddie | Cargo ship | United Kingdom | 2,652 | sunk |
| 24 Feb 17 | Katherine | Cargo ship | United Kingdom | 2,926 | sunk |
| 4 Mar 17 | Rhodanthe | Cargo ship | United Kingdom | 3,061 | sunk |
| 10 Mar 17 | Esmeraldas | Cargo ship | United Kingdom | 4,678 | sunk |
| 10 Mar 17 | Otaki | Cargo ship | United Kingdom | 9,575 | sunkin action |
| 13 Mar 17 | Demeterton | Cargo ship | United Kingdom | 6,048 | sunk |
| 14 Mar 17 | Governor | Cargo ship | United Kingdom | 5,524 | sunk |
_poster.jpg)
In 1917 the imperialBild- und Filmamt inBerlin producedGraf Dohna und seine Möwe, one of the best-known propaganda films of World War I. The distributor wasPaul Davidson; part of the production theProjektions-AG »Union« (PAGU), Berlin. The film was first released on 2 May 1917 in theDeutsches Opernhaus (Deutsche Oper Berlin) in Berlin.
Shipwrecks and maritime incidents in March 1917 | |
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| Shipwrecks |
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| Other incidents |
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