A War Fugitive
p. 22 · Read in the full issue
ONE of the German ships which were hunted by the British Navy around the ports of South America was the steamer “Erlangen”, which was in the Tasman Sea, between New Zealand and Australia when war broke out.
The “Erlangen” was short of coal and was making for Port Kembla for fuel, when she was advised by headquarters in Germany to “go for her life”. It was awkward because the ship had only enough coal to keep her steaming for a few hours.
She turned up, at the end of November, in a Chilean port, and it was stated that, as soon as war broken out, she ran north to an uninhabited Pacific Island, where her crew cut and took aboard 400 tons of firewood. It appears that the ship spent a month hidden at this island— but there has been no hint of its location.
It probably was one of the Tongan or Fiji group, as the “Erlangen” did not have enough coal to take her far from the Tasman Sea.
Warrant Officer Foggart, of the New Guinea Police Force, who has been sta tioned recently at Bulwa, arrived in Sydney from Salamaua by airliner in December, on leave.