Figure 1.--This wire service photo was captioned, "Spinning yarn--On boys' training ship 'SS Mopelia': Bo's'n Charlie proves one of the bif attractions on the recent cruise of the 'SS Mopelia'carrying a crew of New York boys under the guidanceof Count von Luckner, famous Germasn 'Sea Dog' of the World war. The boys are drinking inthe nagical tales of the old salt during a few minutes off-time in the day's program." The photograph was taken September 2, 1930.

The Germans pursued commerce raiding during World war I. The Germans had to resort to raiders beause the stronger Allied navies, especially the Royal Navy, controlled the seas. They were not, however, the only raiders. The U-boats were the most significant part of the German commere raiding campaign against Allied shipping. The Germans also used merchant raiders, obsolete warships, and even occasional naval Zeppelins, although their range was limited. The merchant raiders were the most successful because they could be desguised to look like non-threatening merchant vessels, but they were armed with naval guns that could easily sink Allied merchant ships. Germany had a large merchant marine which was either enpounded in foreign ports or tied up unused in Hanburg and Baltiv ports because of the Royal Navy blockade. Germany converted several of these merchant ships to raiders early in World War I which sunk many Allied merchnt ships before the Royal Navy tacked them down. This proved to be more of a destraction compared to the highly effective Allied naval bloclade of Germany. The best known German raider was Count Felix von Luckner (1881-1966) who came from an aristocratic family. He ran away to sea at age 13 years. Luckner commanded the sailing ship SMS Seeadler. This was an anacronism by World war I, but had the advantage of not needing to refuel. Luckner in less than a year (1916-17) until he was captured near the Fiji Islands, he sank about 20 Allied ships. He became called the “Sea Devil.” He claimed his actions never resulted in deaths. He managed to trick his enemies and took them captive. After the war he traveled around the world, lecturing on his many adventures. He returned to Germany, but despised Hitler and the NAZIs and took no part in World War II. The Royal Navy deployed Q-ships to engage German U-boats. They were armed merchant vessels which fooled the U-noat commanders into thinking that they were vulnerable merchant ships. An English reader who was evacuated to America writes, "When I was at Vermont Academy in 1943, during the summer vacation we had to read three books and hand in on the first day of term a Book Report on what we had read. One of my books was The Cruise of the Raider 'Wolf' by Roy Alexander. It was about the exploits of a German Raider in World War I. It was a thrilling book for a 12-year year old. The 'Raider' was a disguised merchant ship. It was eventually sunk by a British ship similarly disguised."

Created: 7:51 PM 8/15/2009
Last updated: 7:51 PM 8/15/2009