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The German Commerce Raider SMS Möwe
By 1916 most of the German commerce raiding by surface ships had ended, being replaced by submarines. A few raiders though, disguised as neutral flagged merchants, continued to operate in areas outside of normal British patrol routes. One such raider was the SMS Möwe.
The Möwe started its career with a series of successes. On the second of January, 1916, the King Edward VII struck a mine she had sown and sank in Pentland Firth. She would gain further fame first by capturing the British steamship Appam (subject to a U.S. lawsuit concerning prizes captured by raiders, 243 U.S. 124 (1917)) and sink in a gun battle the armed merchant Clan Mactavish.
Kapitän Dohna-Schlodien, the commander of the SMS Möwe, sank 42 merchants, a battleship, captured a thousand allied sailors, and four times ran allied blockades. In addition her mines sank a British battleship and two other merchants.
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