SMS Möwe (1914)


SMS Möwe was a merchant raider of the Imperial German Navy which operated against Allied shipping during World War I.
Disguised as a neutral cargo ship to enable it to get close to targets, the Möwe was effective at commerce raiding, sinking 40 ships in the course of the war.

Early history

Built by the Joh. C. Tecklenborg yard at Geestemünde, she was launched as the freighter Pungo in 1914 and operated by the Afrikanische Fruchtkompanie for F. Laeisz of Hamburg. After an uneventful career carrying cargoes of bananas from the German colony of Kamerun to Germany she was requisitioned by the Imperial German Navy for use as a minelayer. Her conversion took place at Imperial shipyard at Wilhelmshaven in the autumn of 1915, and under the command of Nikolaus zu Dohna-Schlodien, she entered service on 1 November that year.

First raiding voyage

Möwe slipped out of Wilhelmshaven on 29 December 1915 for her first task, to set a minefield in the Pentland Firth, near the main base of the British Home Fleet at Scapa Flow. This was completed in severe weather conditions. A few days later the pre-dreadnought battleship 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 the Gironde estuary, which sank a further two ships.
This part of her mission complete, Möwe then moved into the Atlantic, operating first between Spain and the Canary islands, and later off the coast of Brazil. On January 16, 1916, the Möwe encountered a lightly armed British merchant ship and after a small battle, the British ship was scuttled. In three months she caught fifteen ships, two of which were sent, with cargo and prisoners, to port as prizes; the rest were sunk. She returned to Germany, and a hero's welcome, on 4 April 1916. Richard Stumpf records that there were a number of Africans amongst the crew upon this arrival. Felix von Luckner served aboard SMS Möwe before his journey with SMS Seeadler in late 1916 to late 1917.

Interlude as ''Vineta''

In an effort to maintain security, Möwe was renamed Vineta, after another auxiliary cruiser which had been withdrawn from service.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 of Norway. This only brought one success, however, before she was ordered in for a refit prior to another sortie into the Atlantic.

Second raiding voyage

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 freighter outbound from Halifax to Liverpool. Mount Temple′s cargo included 700 horses bound for the Canadian Expeditionary Force in France and many crates of dinosaur fossils collected from Alberta's Red Deer River badlands by Charles H. Sternberg destined for the British Museum of Natural History. On 12 December, it was the turn of, sunk along with her cargo of 1,200 horses that would have been used on the Western Front.
In four months she had accounted for another 25 ships totalling. One of these, SS Yarrowdale, was sent as prize to Germany and, as Dohna-Schlodien had recommended, was outfitted as a commerce raider herself. Möwe also retained as a collier, before arming and commissioning her as the auxiliary Geier. Geier operated in this role for six weeks, accounting for two ships sunk, before being disarmed and scuttled by Möwe prior to returning home. On 10 March, she was damaged in action against an armed New Zealand merchant ship Otaki off the Azores in the Atlantic. Armed with a single 120mm stern gun, the Otaki fought a gallant but doomed action. The Möwe was hit several times and a serious fire was put out with difficulty. The Otaki, however, was hit some thirty times before sinking. Otakis captain Archibald 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 1917 Möwe again successfully ran the British blockade, ironically at the same time as Yarrowdale, now the auxiliary cruiser, was cornered and sunk by the same blockading force. Möwe arrived home safely on 22 March 1917.

Later history

On her return Möwe was taken out of service as a raider, being reckoned too valuable as a propaganda tool to be risked again. She served in the Baltic as a submarine tender, before becoming the auxiliary minelayer Ostsee in 1918. After the Treaty of Versailles, she went to Britain, to be operated by Elders and Fyffes as the freighter Greenbrier. In 1933 she was sold to a German shipping company. As the freighter Oldenburg, it served the route between Germany and occupied Norway in World War II.
On 7 April 1945 she was attacked by Bristol Beaufighters of Coastal Command aircraft from No. 114 Squadron RAF, No. 455 Squadron RAAF, and No. 489 Squadron RNZAF at her moorings sheltering off the coast of Norway—near the village of Vadheim in Sogn og Fjordane county. Following an intense strafing and rocket attack, holed by their rockets and strafed by cannon fire, she burned and sank.

Raiding career

In three raiding voyages Möwe captured and sank 40 ships, grossing in excess of 180,000 GRT. 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.
DateShipTypeNationalityTonnage GRTFate
11 Jan 16CorbridgeCargo ship3,687Retained as prize; scuttled 30 Jan 16
11 Jan 16FarringfordCargo ship3,146sunk
13 Jan 16DromonbyCargo ship3,627sunk
13 Jan 16AuthorCargo ship3,496sunk
13 Jan 16TraderCargo ship3,608sunk
15 Jan 16AriadneCargo ship3,035sunk
15 Jan 16AppamCargo ship7,781Retained as prize; detached 17 Jan 16; returned 28 Mar 17
16 Jan 16Clan McTavishCargo ship5,816sunk in action
20 Jan 16EdinburghSailing ship1,473sunk
4 Feb 16LuxembourgCargo ship4,322sunk
6 Feb 16FlamencoCargo ship4,540sunk
8 Feb 16WestburnCargo ship3,300Retained as prize; detached 9 Feb 16 to Santa Cruz de Tenerife
9 Feb 16HoraceCargo ship3,109sunk
24 Feb 16MaroniCargo ship3,109sunk
25 Feb 16Saxon PrinceCargo ship3,471sunk

DateShipTypeNationalityTonnage GRTLocation
6 Jan 16King Edward VIIPre-dreadnought battleship16,350 t dispScotland
13 Jan 16BayoCargo ship2,776Gironde
13 Jan 16BelgicaCargo ship2,068Gironde
22 Feb 16DuckbridgeCargo ship1,491Scotland

DateShipTypeNationalityTonnage GRTFate
27 Jul 16EskimoCargo ship3,326Taken as a prize

DateShipTypeNationalityTonnage GRTFate
2 Dec 16VoltaireCargo ship8,618sunk
4 Dec 16HallbjørgCargo ship2,586sunk
6 Dec 16Cargo ship9,792sunk
8 Dec 16Duchess of CornwallSailing ship152sunk
8 Dec 16King GeorgeCargo ship3,852sunk
9 Dec 16Cambrian RangeCargo ship4,235sunk
10 Dec 16Cargo ship10,077sunk
11 Dec 16YarrowdaleCargo ship4,652retained as prize;
detached to Swinemunde, 31 Dec 16.
Converted to auxiliary cruiser Leopard
12 Dec 16Saint TheodoreCargo ship4,992Commissioned as auxiliary cruiser Geier;
scuttled 14 Feb 17
18 Dec 16DramatistCargo ship5,415sunk
26 Dec 16NantesSailing ship2,679sunk
2 Jan 17AsnieresSailing ship3,103sunk
5 Jan 17Hudson MaruCargo ship3,798sunk/released
7 Jan 17RadnorshireCargo ship4,310sunk
9 Jan 17MintehCargo ship2,890sunk
10 Jan 17Netherby HallCargo ship4,461sunk
15 Feb 17BrecknockshireCargo ship8,423sunk
16 Feb 17French PrinceCargo ship4,766sunk
16 Feb 17EddieCargo ship2,652sunk
24 Feb 17KatherineCargo ship2,926sunk
4 Mar 17RhodantheCargo ship3,061sunk
10 Mar 17EsmeraldasCargo ship4,678sunk
10 Mar 17OtakiCargo ship9,575sunk in action
13 Mar 17DemetertonCargo ship6,048sunk
14 Mar 17GovernorCargo ship5,524sunk

Film

In 1917 the imperial Bild- und Filmamt in Berlin produced Graf Dohna und seine Möwe, one of the best-known propaganda films of World War I. The distributor was Paul Davidson; part of the production the Projektions-AG »Union«, Berlin. The film was first released on 2 May 1917 in the Deutsches Opernhaus in Berlin.