The German auxiliary cruiser Atlantis, known to the Kriegsmarine as Schiff 16 and to the Royal Navy as Raider-C, was a converted German Hilfskreuzer, or merchant or commerce raider of the Kriegsmarine, which, in World War II, travelled more than 161,000 km (100,000 mi) in 602 days, and sank or captured 22 ships with a combined tonnage of 144,384. Atlantis was commanded by Kapitän zur See Bernhard Rogge, who received the Oak Leaves to the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross. She was sunk on 22 November 1941 by the British cruiser HMS Devonshire.
Merchant raiders are armed commerce raiding ships that disguise themselves as non-combatant merchant vessels.
Orion (HSK-1) was an auxiliary cruiser of Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine which operated as a merchant raider in World War II. Blohm & Voss built her in Hamburg in 1930–31 as the cargo ship Kurmark. The navy requisitioned her at the start of World War II, had her converted into the auxiliary cruiser Orion, and commissioned her on 9 December 1939. Known to the Kriegsmarine as Schiff 36, her Royal Navy designation was Raider A. She was named after the constellation Orion.
Widder was an auxiliary cruiser (Hilfskreuzer) of Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine that was used as a merchant raider in the Second World War. Her Kriegsmarine designation was Schiff 21, to the Royal Navy she was Raider D. The name Widder (Ram) represents the constellation Aries in German.
Frederick Gerald Haxton, a native of San Francisco, was the long term secretary and lover of novelist and playwright W. Somerset Maugham.
The Pinguin was a German auxiliary cruiser (Hilfskreuzer) which served as a commerce raider in World War II. The Pinguin was known to the Kriegsmarine as Schiff 33, and designated HSK 5. The most successful commerce raider of the war, she was known to the British Royal Navy as Raider F. The name Pinguin means penguin in German.
SS Wimmera was a passenger steamship that was built in 1904 by Caird & Company in Greenock, Scotland, for Huddart Parker & Co of Melbourne, Australia. She was sunk on 26 June 1918 by a German mine north of Cape Maria van Diemen, New Zealand, killing 26 passengers and crew.
Michel(HSK-9) was an auxiliary cruiser of Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine that operated as a merchant raider during World War II. Built by Danziger Werft in Danzig 1938/39 as the freighter Bielsko for the Polish Gdynia-America-Line (GAL), she was requisitioned by the Kriegsmarine at the outbreak of World War II and converted into the hospital ship Bonn. In the summer of 1941, she was converted into the auxiliary cruiser Michel, and was commissioned on 7 September 1941. Known as Schiff 28, her Royal Navy designation was Raider H. She was the last operative German raider of World War II.
SMS Möwe was a merchant raider of the Imperial German Navy which operated against Allied shipping during World War I.
Karl August Theodor Julius Nerger was a naval officer of the Imperial German Navy in World War I, who achieved fame and recognition during the war for his command of the auxiliary cruiser SMS Wolf.
SMS Friedrich Carl was a German armored cruiser built in the early 1900s for the German Kaiserliche Marine. She was the second and final member of the Prinz Adalbert class, which was built to provide scouts for the German fleet and station ships in Germany's colonial empire. Friedrich Carl was built by the Blohm & Voss shipyard in Hamburg. She was laid down in August 1901, launched in June 1902, and commissioned in December 1903. She was armed with a main battery of four 21 cm (8.3 in) guns and could reach a top speed of 20 knots.
SMS Hertha was a protected cruiser of the Victoria Louise class, built for the German Imperial Navy in the 1890s. Hertha was laid down at the AG Vulcan shipyard in 1895, launched in April 1897, and commissioned into the Navy in July 1898. The ship was armed with a battery of two 21 cm guns and eight 15 cm guns and had a top speed of 19 knots.
SMS Hessen was the third of five pre-dreadnought battleships of the Braunschweig class. She was laid down in 1902, was launched in September 1903, and was commissioned into the German Kaiserliche Marine in September 1905. Named after the state of Hesse, the ship was armed with a battery of four 28 cm (11 in) guns and had a top speed of 18 knots. Like all other pre-dreadnoughts built at the turn of the century, Hessen was quickly made obsolete by the launching of the revolutionary HMS Dreadnought in 1906; as a result, she saw only limited service with the German fleet.
SMS Greif was a German cargo steamship that was converted into a merchant raider for the Imperial German Navy.
The D'Estrées class comprised two protected cruisers of the French Navy built in the late 1890s. The two ships were D'Estrées and Infernet, though a third was projected but was canceled before work began. They were ordered during a period of intense debate in the French fleet between officers who favored large armored cruisers and those who preferred smaller vessels more suited to long-distance cruising abroad. The D'Estrées-class cruisers were intended to operate in the French colonial empire. The ships were armed with a main battery of two 138 mm (5.4 in) guns supported by four 100 mm (3.9 in) guns and they had a top speed of 20 to 20.5 knots.
SMS Leopard was a British cargo steamship that was built in 1912 as Yarrowdale, captured in 1916 by the Imperial German Navy, converted into a commerce raider in Germany, and sunk with all hands by the Royal Navy in 1917.
SMS Berlin was the second member of the seven-vessel Bremen class of light cruisers, built for the German Kaiserliche Marine in the early 1900s. She and her sister ships were ordered under the 1898 Naval Law that required new cruisers be built to replace obsolete vessels in the fleet. The design for the Bremen class was derived from the preceding Gazelle class, utilizing a larger hull that allowed for additional boilers that increased speed. Named for the German capital of Berlin, the ship was armed with a main battery of ten 10.5 cm (4.1 in) guns and had a top speed of 22 knots.
Karl Rose was a naval officer in the German Imperial Navy who served under Karl August Nerger aboard the SMS Wolf during World War I. During the Wolf's 451-day sortie, Rose became Nerger's second in command after the death of kapitänleutnant Iwan Brandes. Rose was made prize captain of two separate ships during the voyage; the Japanese mailship Hitachi Maru, and the coal freighter Igotz Mendi. On 7 November 1917, the order was given to sink The Hitachi Maru in order to preserve what little coal there was for the Wolf's engines. However, Rose would soon be given command of another prize ship ten days later with the capture of the Igotz Mendi. Rose would command the Igotz Mendi for the rest of the voyage back to Germany. Rose's fortunes would change when he accidentally ran his ship aground on the beaches of Denmark. While passing through a minefield laid by the German Navy, Rose spotted mistook a lighthouse for a German patrol boat. Eventually several Danish warships arrived and Rose attempted to pass the vessel off as a civilian German merchant ship. However, the Danish sailors were not fooled and refused Rose's requests to be towed, despite his best efforts to maintain control of the situation and return to the ship back to Wilhelmshaven as a prize. Once aground, Rose and the entire crew were detained by the Danish military police. This caused a great deal of political bitterness between Denmark and Germany. There was speculation that Kaiser Wilhelm II would declare war on Denmark for the Danish government's refusal to turn Rose and his men over to the Reich. Rose was held in Danish prison for the remainder of the war. After leaving the navy, became a merchant officer with the Hamburg America Line and served with them until he died.
The German commerce raiders of World War I were surface vessels used by the Imperial German Navy for its Handelskrieg, a campaign against Allied seaborne trade. The ships comprised warships, principally cruisers, stationed in the German colonial empire before the war began, express liners commissioned as auxiliary cruisers and later, freighters outfitted as merchant raiders. These vessels had a number of successes and had a significant effect on Allied naval strategy, particularly in the early months of the war.
SS Carlos de Eizaguirre was a steam passenger and cargo liner of the Compañía Transatlántica Española (CTE). She was launched in 1903 in England as Léopoldville for the Compagnie Maritime Belge du Congo (CMBC), sold in 1908 to the African Steamship Company, which renamed her Landana, and sold in 1910 to CTE who renamed her Carlos de Eizaguirre after one of its former directors.
