SMS Wolf (1913)
SMS Wolf was an armed merchant raider or auxiliary cruiser of the Imperial German Navy in World War I. She was the fourth ship of the Imperial Navy bearing this name, following two gunboats and another auxiliary cruiser that was decommissioned without seeing action.
Description and history
As a commerce raider, the Wolf was equipped with six guns, three SK L/55 guns and several smaller caliber weapons as well as four torpedo tubes. She also carried over 450 mines to be dropped outside enemy ports; she laid minefields in the Indian Ocean and off Australia's southern coast which claimed several ships. Her commander was Fregattenkapitän Karl August Nerger who was in charge until her return to Kiel, Germany in February 1918.The Wolf had not been designed for speed and her top speed was a mere. Her advantages included deception, false sides which kept her weapons hidden until the last possible moment, and a range of over thanks to a coal bunker capacity of 8,000 tons.
On 30 November 1916 the Wolf left her home port of Kiel with a crew of 348 men. Escorted by the from Skagerrak to the North Atlantic, she passed north of Scotland and turned south going around the Cape of Good Hope, where she laid some of her mines, into the Indian Ocean. She dropped mines at the harbors of Colombo and Bombay, then entered the waters of South Asia, Australia and New Zealand.
With the help of the "Wölfchen", a Friedrichshafen FF.33 two-seater seaplane, she located and seized enemy vessels and cargo ships. After transferring their crews and any valuable supplies to the Wolf, she then sank the vessels. The Wolf destroyed 35 trading vessels and two war ships, altogether approximately 110,000 tons.
After 451 days she returned to her home port of Kiel on 24 February 1918 with 467 prisoners of war aboard. In addition she carried substantial quantities of rubber, copper, zinc, brass, silk, copra, cocoa, and other essential materials taken from her prizes. The Wolf, without support of any kind, had made the longest voyage of a warship during World War I. Captain Nerger was awarded the highest German decoration, the Pour le Mérite.
For the remainder of the war, the Wolf was employed in the Baltic Sea. After the war she was ceded to France and sold to Compagnie des Messageries Maritimes of Paris, refitted and renamed Antinous. She was scrapped in 1931 in Italy.
A member of the crew was the young Theodor Plivier, who became later a revolutionary, communist, and famous author. In his first novel Des Kaisers Kulis he assimilates his experience on board the Wolf. The book was transformed in a theatrical play, too, and forbidden after the National Socialist Machtergreifung. Another crew member was Jakob Kinau, brother of author Gorch Fock – Kinau served as a Minenbootsmannsmaat on the Wolf. In his voyage diary, which was published in 1934 in the Quickborn-Verlag, Hamburg, he mentioned some details of a mutiny on board, which was not described in memoirs of other Wolf crew.
The was sunk off the coast of the South Island of New Zealand after hitting a mine laid by the Wolf.
Summary of raiding history
In 15 months at sea, Wolf captured and sank 14 ships, totalling 38,391 GRT. She also laid minefields that sank another 13 ships, grossing a further. The heaviest loss was the Spanish mail steamer Carlos de Einzaguirre on the way from Cadiz to Manila. It was struck by a mine of the Wolf near Cape Town and sunk in only four minutes. 134 people, including 12 women and five children, died. 24 persons survived.| Date | Ship | Type | Nationality | Tonnage GRT | Fate |
| 27.1.17 | Turritella, ex Gutenfels | Freighter | British | 5.528 | commissioned as Auxiliary Minelayer Iltis; scuttled to avoid capture 15.3.17 |
| 1.3.17 | Jumna | Freighter | British | 4,152 | Sunk |
| 11.3.17 | Wordsworth | Freighter | British | 3,509 | Sunk |
| 30.3.17 | Dee | Sailing ship | British | 1,169 | Sunk |
| 2.6.17 | Wairuna | Freighter | British | 3,947 | Sunk |
| 16.6.17 | Winslow | Sailing ship | US | 567 | Sunk |
| 9.7.17 | Beluga | Sailing ship | US | 507 | Sunk |
| 14.7.17 | Encore | Sailing ship | US | 651 | Sunk |
| 6.8.17 | Matunga | Freighter | British | 1,618 | Sunk |
| 26.9.17 | Hitachi Maru | Freighter | Japanese | 6,557 | Sunk |
| 10.11.17 | Igotz Mendi | Freighter | Spanish | 4,648 | retained as prize; wrecked on Danish coast 24.2.18 |
| 30.11.17 | John H Kirby | Sailing ship | US | 1,296 | Sunk |
| 15.12.17 | Marechal Davout | Sailing ship | French | 2,192 | Sunk |
| 4.1.18 | Storebror | Sailing ship | Norwegian | 2,050 | Sunk |
| Date | Ship | Type | Nationality | Tonnage GRT | Location |
| 26.1.17 | Matheran | Freighter | British | 7,654 | Cape Town |
| 12.2.17 | Cilicia | Freighter | British | 3,750 | Cape Town |
| 26.5.17 | Carlos de Eizaguirre | Freighter | Spanish | 4,350 | Cape Town |
| 10.8.17 | City of Exeter | Freighter | British | 5,604 | Cape Town |
| 17.2.17 | Worcestershire | Freighter | British | 7,175 | Colombo |
| 21.2.17 | Perseus | Freighter | British | 6,728 | Colombo |
| 16.6.17 | Unkai Maru | Freighter | Japanese | 2,143 | Bombay |
| 24.6.17 | Mongolia | Freighter | British | 9,505 | Bombay |
| 29.7.17 | Okhla | Freighter | British | 5,288 | Bombay |
| 17.11.17 | Croxteth Hall | Freighter | British | 5,872 | Bombay |
| 26.6.18 | Wimmera | Freighter | Australian | 3,622 | New Zealand |
| 6.7.17 | Cumberland | Freighter | British | 9,471 | Australia |
| 18.9.17 | Port Kembla | Freighter | British | 4,700 | New Zealand |
In addition, on 6.2.17, the British troopship HMT Tyndareus was badly damaged by one of Wolf's mines off Cape Town and was only saved from sinking by skillful seamanship.