World War I - The Kaiser's Pirates

Well, after the disappointment of yesterday’s documentary on World War I, I went digging and hopefully found something that will make up for yesterday’s documentary.  Just because World War I took place in the modern era does not mean that piracy was not employed.  This documentary is called The Kaiser’s Pirates and the run time for this documentary is 52:15.  The Kaiser’s Pirates is German produced with English subtitles.

The story of World War I piracy begins in the port of Kiel in Germany.  The ship was called the Wolf.  The SMS Wolf was engaging in piracy during World War I.  The Grandson of the captain of the ship has been doing research on the ship.  In 1916, a ship slipped out of the harbor and went on a voyage.  The ship was on an important mission for the Kaiser.  She was going to engage in piracy on the high seas during World War I.

The SMS Wolf looked like an ordinary merchant freighter.  However, her features that were designed to make war were well hidden from the public.  She went to Australia and after her mission was complete she returned to Germany.  The German Navy never expected her to come back, however, she did and her story would go down in piracy history.

With German waters under a blockade, the German navy employed different tactics to break the blockade.  The German merchant ships managed to sneak out, but no ship sailed as far as the SMS Wolf did.  The Wolf managed to slip out of the blockade.  The captain of the ship was a master navigator and a clever man.  He was admired by his crew.  He was not an aristocrat and the German Navy felt like he would be the perfect pirate and was expendable.

The Wolf sailed into the Atlantic and encountered a lot of ice.  After the icy introduction, the Wolf set its course South.  The Wolf was a steamship and consumed tons of coal a day.  The captain would have to keep an eye on the coal reserved and would need to raid to get more coal.  The Wolf remained undetected for five weeks.  Before continuing on her voyage her crew would be drilled in preparation for potential attacks.

The Wolf sailed towards Africa and in South Africa, she would leave mines behind.  Ships would hit the mines and sink.  The Wolf would capture one ship and would put a German Crew on board.  However, the British captured it back and discovered that there was a hunter in the Indian Ocean.  Newspapers at the time would report the movement of the mystery ship.  The Wolf continued to make its way south and it ended up in Australian waters.  Nobody could find the mystery ships.

It would encounter a ship called the Matunga would be captured and there were many prisoners taken on the ship.  The newspapers would report that the ship vanished at sea, not revealing that the ship had been captured by the Germans.  There were prisoners taken aboard the Wolf and the prisoners were treated with a great deal of respect.  A young woman named Rose Flood, a young Australian was a pretty young woman and would cause trouble for the German sailors.  The sailors organized games for her.  Children were among the prisoners on the Wolf and one American child befriended the crew.  However, she would become known as a menace to the sailors.

Will the British manage to catch the Wolf?  Where else did this ship go?  What happened to the prisoners of war on board?  What is the truth about the Wolf?  Tune into the rest of this episode to find out more about the SMS Wolf.

Well, this was a surprising documentary to come across on YouTube.  Who knew that the Germans engaged in piracy during World War I?  This fact was rather neat to discover because you would have never thought about piracy being part of World War I.  There was plenty of discussion on the blockade and U-boats.  This documentary had a very good pace to it as well and the recreations were very well done.  This documentary should be on the list of potential documentaries to show to a history class.