SMS Möwe (1914)

SMS Möwe (German: Seagull) 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 HMS 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 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.

Action of 16 January 1916
The single ship action was fought between a German auxiliary cruiser and a UK cargo ship off the Portuguese islands of Madeira in the Atlantic Ocean.

Möwe was steaming about 120 miles south of Madeira with the merchant steamer SS Appam, a ship previously captured by the Germans who installed a prize crew and transferred several dozen prisoners of war to her. At sunset, lookouts aboard Möwe sighted smoke on the horizon, indicating a ship. Kapitän Dohna-Schlodien ordered Appam 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 as Clan Mactavish.

By the time Möwe came within close range, it was dark, so Möwe approached cautiously. Using a signal 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 was Author, a Harrison Line ship sailing from Liverpool to Natal. Möwe reportedly looked very similar to Author, 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 from Australia.

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 the armoured cruiser HMS Essex (1901). However, the telegraphist aboard Essex 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 to Möwe. Möwe then manoeuvred for boarding.

All of the German rounds were hits, apart from the warning shots. A boarding party from Möwe seized Clan Mactavish and removed her surviving crew as prisoners. There were 18 crewmembers killed in or after battle, and five others had been wounded. Clan Mactavish's captain was a Royal 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 500 Allied prisoners of war on Möwe and Appam.

The boarding party scuttled Clan Mactavish with explosive charges.

After sinking Clan Mactavish, Möwe reunited with Appam and set a westward course to avoid any Royal Navy cruisers in the area. Two cruisers were just over 100 mi away and could have intercepted Möwe had the telegraphist aboard Essex responded.

Möwe went on to sink several more Allied ships before returning home. Upon arrival, Kapitän Dohna-Schlodien was awarded the Iron Cross second class. 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 SS Mount Temple 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 SS Georgic (1895), 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 SS Saint Theodore 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 SS Otaki (1908) 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. Otaki's 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 SMS Leopard (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. 144 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.

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« (PAGU), Berlin. The film was first released on 2 May 1917 in the Deutsches Opernhaus (Deutsche Oper Berlin) in Berlin.