SMS Wolf (1913)

**wolf**
Ship data
flag	German Empire German Empire France; ;
other ship names	until 1915: Wachtfels ; from 1921: Antinous
Ship type	Auxiliary cruiser
home port	Bremen ; Dunkirk
Shipping company	DDG "Hansa" ; Messageries Maritimes
Shipyard	Flensburg shipbuilding company
Build number	331
Launch	March 8, 1913
takeover	April 19, 1913
Commissioning	May 16, 1916
Whereabouts	Sold for scrapping in 1931
Ship dimensions and crew
length	135.0 m ( Lüa )
width	17.1 m
Draft	Max. 7.9 m
displacement	11,200 t
measurement	5,809 GRT
crew	347 men
Machine system
machine	3 steam boiler; 3-cylinder compound machine
Machine ; performance	2,800 hp (2,059 kW)
Top ; speed	10.5 kn (19 km / h)
propeller	1
Armament
	7 × 15 cm Sk ; 3 × 5.2 cm Sk; 4 torpedo tubes ∅ 50 cm; 465 mines; 1 board aircraft Friedrichshafen FF 33e ;

The SMS Wolf was an auxiliary cruiser and mine-layer of the German Imperial Navy , which was used in the First World War . It was a converted freighter that had previously operated under the name Wachtfels for the Bremen shipping company DDG "Hansa" .

The ship had to be delivered to France after the end of the World War and was used as a combination ship Antinous to the French possessions in the Pacific. In 1931 the ship was canceled in Italy.

Building history and civil use

The later auxiliary cruiser Wolf was built as Wachtfels in 1913 by the Flensburger Schiffbau-Gesellschaft . She was one of a series of seven cargo ships that were delivered by four German shipyards between 1913 and 1915 to the German steamship company "Hansa" . In the first half of 1913, three came into the service of DDG "Hansa" with the Rappenfels vom Bremer Vulkan , the Wachtfels and the Solfels supplied by Tecklenborg . Up to the beginning of the First World War, the snow rock as well as the Frankenfels and Greiffenfels from the AG Weser came from Flensburg , which then delivered the Sonnenfels in 1915 .

Three of the six ships delivered were lost immediately after the outbreak of war. The Frankenfels was located in Calcutta and was confiscated. The en route to Colombo located centimes rock was the sloop HMS Espiegle applied just prior to entering the lake. The Calcutta on his way to New York located Snow rock was when passing through the Strait of Gibraltar applied by a British torpedo boat.

Auxiliary cruiser use

Route of the war voyage 1916-18

On November 30, 1916, under the command of frigate captain Karl August Nerger , the Wolf ran with a crew of 348 from the Skagerrak along the Norwegian coast into the North Atlantic, circumnavigated Iceland north through the Denmark Strait and then went south. After traveling through the North and South Atlantic, she circled the Cape of Good Hope , where she laid mines , and then crossed the Indian Ocean to the South Asian coast. There they lay mines off the ports of Bombay and Colombo before in the waters of Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand via its onboard aircraft Wölfchen made enemy ships find that they mustered later and sank (35 merchant vessels and two warships with a total of approximately 110,000 GRT ) . Leutnant zSdR Alexander Stein and Oberflugmeister Paul Fabeck were on board as pilots.

In the Indian Ocean, the Wolf equipped a hijacked ship, the former Gutenfels , as an auxiliary cruiser Iltis for independent warfare. The command led captain lieutenant Iwan Brandes . However, the polecat fell victim to a British warship after a short time after laying mines in the Gulf of Aden .

In May and June 1917, the Wolf carried out an overhaul on the then uninhabited New Zealand island of Raoul in the Kermadec archipelago; the machinery in particular required thorough maintenance after six months of non-stop operation. Two of its prizes, the Wairuna and the Winslow , were sunk near the island after the usable cargo had been taken over. The prisoners on board were allowed to go ashore under supervision. Two prisoners managed to escape from the ship shortly before leaving the port, and at least one could have reached the island. A search carried out by the New Zealand Navy after the war ended, however, remained unsuccessful.

On September 26, 1917, the wolf sighted the Japanese steamer Hitachi Maru south of Ceylon under Captain Seizu Tominaga. The Hitachi did not react to the Wolf's stop signals or to warning shots across the bow . Instead, Tominaga intended to use the rear gun to open fire on the auxiliary cruiser and escape it at a superior speed. Thereupon four volleys were fired on the Japanese steamer, but only a heavy hit on his bridge caused Tominaga to stop his ship and surrender. 16 people were killed by the gunfire of the wolf ; two more drowned after jumping overboard in a panic . Captain Tominaga committed in 1918 on the 7th or 8 February suicide by jumping at night in the North Atlantic unnoticed overboard. In a suicide note found in his cabin, which he shared with Lieutenant Kenkichi Shireizi, he justified his act by saying that he had brought misfortune to his passengers, the crew and their families and also lost the ship to the enemy. With his suicide, he had waited until he knew his crew was safe. The disappearance of the steamer without a trace led to a large-scale search operation by the Japanese Navy, which could be determined on the Wolf through the intercepted radio traffic between the Japanese cruisers.

On November 10, 1917, the Wolf checked the neutral Spanish steamer Igotz Mendi east of Madagascar and found that it had loaded British coal as a contraband . Nerger then decided to bring the steamer through to Germany as a prize ; Prize officer was the lieutenant at sea d. R. Karl Rose. On February 24, 1918, the Igotz Mendi stranded on a sandbank south of Skagen due to poor visibility . Rose's attempt to deceive the Danish authorities about the character of the ship as a prize and to pass it off as a German merchant ship coming from Norway failed. In order to avoid a diplomatic incident with the German Reich, the internment of the occupation and the liberation of the prisoners were not carried out by the Danish military , but by the local police . The drool narrowing both the prisoners and the German occupation in a heavy storm succeeded the lifeboats of the station Skagen.

The wolf

Auxiliary cruiser Wolf on his return to the port of Kiel. Photo probably taken in February 1918.

After 451 days and a distance about 2.5 times the circumference of the earth, the Wolf returned to her home port of Kiel in February 1918 with 467 prisoners of war . The ship thus undertook the longest patrol of a warship without outside support in the First World War. The entire supply of coal, food and other materials was taken from the raised prizes . After returning from SMS Wolf on February 24, 1918, Captain Nerger was awarded the order Pour le Mérite and appointed commander of the outpost boats in the North Sea. The entire crew received the Iron Cross .

Then the ship was used as an auxiliary cruiser in the Baltic Sea .

The chief heater and later writer Theodor Plivier was also on board the Wolf . He processed his experiences on board the Wolf in the autobiographical novel Des Kaiser Kulis. Novel of the German deep sea fleet , published in 1929 by Malik Verlag in Berlin. August Nerger's memoir SMS Wolf was published by Scherl-Verlag in Berlin during the war in 1918. The Wolf's artillery officer , Kapitänleutnant Fritz Witschetzky , published his travel memories in 1920 in the work The Black Ship , which is excellently illustrated with his own photographs and some art supplements. The prisoner on board Roy Alexander published his experiences in 1939 under the title The Cruise of the Raider Wolf . The crew of the Wolf also included the boatswain's mate Jakob Kinau , brother of Gorch Fock and Rudolf Kinau . He published his travel experiences in 1934 under the title Adjutant des Todes. Wolf's diary , published by Quickborn Verlag in Hamburg.

List of ships seized or sunk by Wolf

On February 27, 1917, the German auxiliary cruiser Wolf landed the British steamer Turritella in the Indian Ocean and then put it into service as the auxiliary cruiser Iltis .

British steamer Matheran , through mine off Cape Town, January 26, 1917.
British steamer Tyndareus , through mine off Cape Agulhas , February 6, 1917.
British steamer Worchestershire , passing through mine off Colombo, February 17, 1917.
British steamer Cicilia , through mine off Cape Town, February 18, 1917.
British steamer Perseus , through mine off Colombo, February 21, 1917.
British steamer Turritella ex Gutenfels , 5528 BRT, Indian Ocean, seized by Wolf on February 27, 1917, equipped for the auxiliary ship SMS Iltis .
British steamer Jumna , 4152 BRT, Indian Ocean, sunk by Wolf 1st March 1917.
British steamer Wordsworth , 3509 BRT, Indian Ocean, sunk by Wolf 11 March 1917 east of the Seychelles.
Bark Dee from Mauritius , 1169 GRT, Indian Ocean, sunk by Wolf March 30, 1917.
Spanish steamer C (arlos). de Eizaguirre , off Cape Town, May 25, 1917 by mine.
New Zealand steamer Wairuna , 3947 GRT, South Pacific, sunk by Wolf June 2, 1917.
British steamer City of Execeter , through mine off Bombay, June 11, 1917.
US 4- masted schooner Winslow , 567 GRT, South Pacific, sunk by Wolf June 16, 1917.
Japanese steamer Unkai Maru , through mine off Bombay, June 17, 1917.
British steamer Mongolia , through mine off Bombay, June 23, 1917.
Australian steamer Cumberland, Gabo Island / Southeast Australia, July 6, 1917 through mine.
American barque Beluga , 507 GRT, South Pacific, sunk by Wolf July 9, 1917.
American Bark Encore , 651 BRt, South Pacific, sunk by Wolf July 15, 1917.
British steamer Okhla , through mine off Bombay, July 29, 1917.

Australian passenger steamer Matunga (ex Zweena ) off New Guinea, August 1917

Australian steamer Matunga , 1618 BRT, South Pacific, sunk by Wolf 6 August 1917.
British steamer City of Athens , through mine off Cape Town, August 10, 1917.
British steamer Bhamo , through mine off Cape Town, August 26, 1917.
New Zealand steamer Port Kembla , through mine off Wellington , September 18, 1918.
Japanese steamer Hitachi Maru , 6557 BRT, Indian Ocean, sunk by Wolf September 26, 1917.
Spanish steamer Igotz Mendi , 4648 GRT, seized by Wolf in the Indian Ocean on November 10, 1917, lost
as a pinch due to stranding in Danish waters off Skagen in February 1918.
British steamer Croxteth Hall , through mine off Bombay, 17th November 1917.
American barque John H. Kirby , 1395 GRT, Indian Ocean, sunk by Wolf November 30, 1917 - 320 nm SE from Port Elisabeth
French barque Maréchal Davout , 2297 GRT, Atlantic, sunk by Wolf December 15, 1917.
Norwegian 4-masted barque Storebror , 2049 BRT, Atlantic, sunk by Wolf 4th January 1918.
New Zealand steamer Wimmera , passing through mine off North Cape , New Zealand, June 26, 1918.

Information according to: R. Guilliatt, P. Hohnen: The Wolf. 2010, p. 306 f.

The sinking of the Carlos de Eizaguirre

Carlos de Eizaguirre

The Carlos de Eizaguirre was a Spanish mail steamer that was on the way from Cádiz to Manila . Due to the effects of the World War, the Spanish steamers could not take the route through the Suez Canal as usual . In addition to a good 100 crew members, there were 60 passengers on board, including families with small children. The steamer was hit by a Wolf mine in heavy seas on May 25, 1917, 3 a.m., off Cape Town . Due to the darkness, the effects of the hit and the rough seas, no rescue measures could be initiated; it wasn't even possible to make an emergency call. The ship sank within four minutes. Only 22 crew members and two first class passengers survived, who were able to flee into a detached lifeboat. 37 passengers and 83 crew members were killed; only eight bodies were washed ashore in the Cape Town area.

Board aircraft Wölfchen
The captain: Karl August Nerger
The pilots of the little wolf

Post war fate

On April 5, 1919, the Wolf was delivered to France in Brest , later to the company Cie. Messageries Maritimes , Paris . This had a passenger facility built into the ship, which was renamed Antinous . There was space for 70 first class and 50 second class passengers and the cargo hold was also prepared for the transport of troops. On August 7, 1923, the ship began its first voyage across the French Antilles , the Panama Canal and Tahiti to Nouméa . The ship continued its voyages in part to New Zealand and Australia in order to also be able to handle return freight.

At the end of 1930 the ship was taken out of service and sold to Italy for demolition in the summer of 1931 .

The sister ships

Surname	Shipyard	GRT tdw	Launched in service	further fate
Rappenfels	Bremer Vulkan BauNr. 561	5883 9095	December 20, 1912 February 15, 1913	Applied in 1914: Diyatalawa , 1922 Nigaristan , lost to fire on September 24, 1941
Quail rock	Flensburg building no. 331	5809 8930	March 8, 1913 April 19, 1913	SMS Wolf , delivered to France in 1919: Antinous , broken up in 1931
Solfels	Tecklenborg building no. 255	5821 9055	04.08.1913 22.05.1913	Coal / ore shipments, delivered to Great Britain in March 1919, 1920: Bowes Castle , 1931 to Italy: Angelina Lauro , 1941 British Empire Advocate , canceled in 1945
Snow rock	Flensburg building no. 334	5826 8875	11/12/1913 01/01/1914	Applied in 1914: Gibraltar , 1916: Polescar , February 1919 to New Zealand: Wairuna , 30 October 1945 sunk with ammunition in the Atlantic
Frankenfels	AG Weser Building No. 202	5854 8930	December 13, 1913 January 29, 1914	Confiscated in Calcutta in 1914, Tabaristan in 1925 , sunk by U 38 off Freetown on May 29, 1941
Greiffenfels	AG Weser Building No. 201	5852 8900	10.02.1914 03.24.1914	laid up, delivered to Great Britain in April 1919, to Belgium in 1920: Flandres Armement Deppe , sunk after a collision on February 10, 1940
Sonnenfels	AG Weser Building No. 203	5850 8860	November 14, 1914 February 15, 1915	laid up, delivered to Great Britain in March 1919, to Belgium in 1920: Luxembourg , June 21, 1940 sunk by U 38 west of St. Nazaire

literature

Karl August Nerger: SMS Wolf. Berlin 1918.
Richard Guilliatt, Peter Hohnen: The Wolf. How one German raider terrorized the Allies in the most epic voyage of WWI. Free Press, New York 2010, ISBN 978-1-4165-7317-3 .
Edwin P. Hoyt: Raider Wolf, The Voyage of Captain Nerger, 1916-1918. New York 1974, ISBN 0-8397-7067-7 (English).
Entry: auxiliary cruiser 'Wolf'. In: Captain of the Sea a. D. Hugo von Waldeyer-Hartz: The cruiser war 1914-1918. The cruiser squadron. Emden, Koenigsberg, Karlsruhe. The auxiliary cruisers . Oldenburg i. O. 1931, pp. 205f.
Fritz Witschetzky: The black ship. Stuttgart / Berlin / Leipzig 1920, 26 editions by 1936, last edition 1941. French edition Le navire noire. Le croiseur auxiliaire Wolf 1916–1918 , Paris 1929. Portuguese edition O navio negro , Lisbon 1935.
Roy Alexander: The Cruise of the Raider Wolf. Yale University Press, 1939.
Theodor Plievier : The emperor's coolies. Novel of the German deep sea fleet. Berlin 1930.
Paul Schmalenbach: The German auxiliary cruisers 1895-1945. Oldenburg / Hamburg 1977, ISBN 3-7979-1877-1 .
Jakob Kinau: adjutant of death. Wolf's diary. Hamburg 1934.
A. Donaldson: The Amazing Cruise of the German Raider 'Wolf'. New Century Press, Sydney 1941 ( archive.org ).
Ernst Szielasko: 15 months award officer on board SMS 'Wolf'. Deutscher Lernmittelverlag, Berlin 1918.
Matthäus Stein / Paul Fabeck: Wolfchen - In a plane over three seas. August Scherl Verlag, Berlin 1918.
FG Trayes: Five Months on a German Raider - Being the Adventures of an Englishman Captured by the 'Wolf'. Headley Brothers, London 1919.
John Stanley Cameron: Ten Months in a German Raider. George H. Doran Company, New York 1918.
Alfred Clarke: To Kiel in the German Raider Wolf - and After. The Times of Ceylon Company, Colombo 1920.
Fritz Leimbach: 64,000 nautical miles of pirate voyage. Experiences of a sailor on the auxiliary cruiser 'Wolf'. West-Ost-Verlag, Berlin 1937, ( Textarchiv - Internet Archive ) Reprint of Maritimepress 2012, ISBN 978-3-95427-134-4
Chapter: SM auxiliary cruiser 'Wolf'. In: Eberhard von Mantey : The cruiser war in foreign waters. 3rd vol .: The German auxiliary cruisers. ES Mittler & Sohn, Berlin 1937, pp. 237-314.
Julio Molina Font: Cádiz y el vapor-correo de Filipinas 'Carlos de Eizaguirre', 1904–1917. Historia de un naufragio (German: Cadiz and the Philippine mail steamer 'Carlos de Eizaguirre'. History of a shipwreck ), 2. Erw. Cádiz (Universidad de Cádiz, Servicio de Publicaciones) 2007. ISBN 978-84-9828-119-4

Movies

SM auxiliary cruiser "Wolf" , German Reich 1918, 12:34 min., 35 millimeter silent film about returning home to Kiel ( films from the Federal Archives )
Pirates of the emperor (= privateer of the seas - part 3). Docu-drama , Germany 2015, 43 min., Script & director: Oliver Hamburger.

Web links

Commons : SMS Wolf - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Report on the visit of the Wolf (English)
Five Months on A German Raider (English)
The World War on February 27, 1918 (1)
Page about the DDG "Hansa", for which the ship was originally put into service.
IGOTZ MENDI Y EL CORSARIO WOLF. Spanish article from 2008 about the Igotz Mendi
Passengers from the 6557 ton Japanese freighter, Hitachi Maru. Photo of passengers on the Hitachi Maru in the lifeboats, taken on September 26, 1917
Frederic George Trayes: Five months on a German raider: being the adventures of an Englishman captured by the 'Wolf'
German Press Is Threatening Denmark. For Interning the Igotz Mendi Prize Crew. Report on German reaction to the internment of the Igotz Mendi's prize crewby Danish authorities in the New York Times . dated March 8, 1918
Photo of the stranded Igotz Mendi off Skagen
Diary of Captain Alec Donaldson (1877–1949) from 1917/18, previously in command of the Turritella , about his captivity on the Wolf and in German POW camps acms.sl.nsw.gov.au
Report on the sinking of the Carlos de Eizaguirre with a picture of the steamer historiasdebarcos.blogspot.de
L'ANTINOÜS ex-WACHTFELS ex-WOLF with nine pictures
paquebot ANTINOüS

Individual evidence

^ John Walter: Pirates of the Emperor - German trade troublemakers 1914-1918. Motorbuch Verlag, Stuttgart 1996, ISBN 3-613-01729-6 , pp. 176f.

↑ Peter honing, Richard Guilliatt: The Wolf. Free Press, New York 2010, ISBN 978-1-4165-7317-3 .

^ The world war on February 27, 1918. In: The archive for the 1st World War. (see web links)

↑ Fritz Witschetzky (1887-1941), German marine painter of magic realism and naval officer, most recently Captain.
Witschetzky, Fritz . In: Hans Vollmer (Hrsg.): General lexicon of fine artists from antiquity to the present . Founded by Ulrich Thieme and Felix Becker . tape 36 : Wilhelmy-Zyzywi . EA Seemann, Leipzig 1947, p. 118 . Ulrich Schulte-Wülwer: Fritz Witschetzky. Naval officer, painter and friend of Franz Radziwill. In: Nordelbingen, 58, Boyens & Co., Heide 1989, pp. 137-178.