page_title: SMS Möwe (1914)
section_title: Early history
hierarchical_section_title: SMS Möwe (1914) / Early history
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Modell des ehemaligen Bananentransporters Pungo als Hilfskreuzer Möve
context_page_description: SMS Möwe was a merchant raider of the Imperial German Navy which operated against Allied shipping during World War I.
  Disguised as a neutral cargo ship to enable it to get close to targets, the Möwe was effective at commerce raiding, sinking 40 ships in the course of the war.
context_section_description: Built by the Joh. C. Tecklenborg yard at Geestemünde, she was launched as the freighter Pungo in 1914 and operated by  the Afrikanische Fruchtkompanie  for F. Laeisz of Hamburg. After an uneventful career carrying cargoes of bananas from the German colony of Kamerun to Germany she was requisitioned by the Imperial German Navy for use as a minelayer. Her conversion took place at Imperial shipyard at Wilhelmshaven in the autumn of 1915, and under the command of Nikolaus zu Dohna-Schlodien, she entered service on 1 November that year.
caption: Model of the SMS Möwe
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