War chronicle · June–December · Motuihe Island, Hauraki Gulf
Close to home
German raiders bring the war to New Zealand shores.
Like modern-day pirate ships, German merchant raiders cruise the world’s oceans, attacking Allied ships. The SMS Seeadler and SMS Wolf make it as far as the Pacific in 1917.
The Seeadler is wrecked on a reef near Tahiti in October, and its captain and crew are sent to New Zealand as prisoners. The captain, Felix von Luckner, makes a daring escape from Motuihe Island in Auckland’s Hauraki Gulf on 13 December. His escape makes him a household name even though he is recaptured a week later.
The Wolf sinks two ships near the Kermadec Islands in June, and then lays 28 mines off the New Zealand coast before leaving our waters. The mines claim two ships before the war ends. In response Japanese warships arrive – too late – to patrol the Tasman Sea. Meanwhile the government converts two fishing trawlers for mine clearance.
After the war, two of the Wolf’s mines remain unaccounted for – one eventually washes up on a beach in Kaipara Harbour in 2008!
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