SMS Wolf ( 1913 ) SMS " Wolf " ( formerly the Hansa freighter " Wachtfels " ) was an armed merchant raider or auxiliary cruiser of the Imperial German Navy in World War I . She was the fourth ship of the Imperial Navy bearing this name ( and is therefore often referred to in Germany as " Wolf IV " ) , following two gunboats and another auxiliary cruiser that was decommissioned without seeing action . Description and history . As a commerce raider , the " Wolf " was equipped with six guns , three guns and several smaller caliber weapons as well as four torpedo tubes . She also carried over 450 mines to be dropped outside enemy ports ; she laid one minefield off Australia ' s southern coast which claimed several ships . Her commander was " Fregattenkapitän " ( Commander ) Karl August Nerger who was in charge until her return to Kiel , Germany in February 1918 . The " Wolf " had not been designed for speed and her top speed was a mere . Her advantages included deception ( fake funnel and masts which could be erected or lowered to change her appearance ) , false sides which kept her weapons hidden until the last possible moment , and a range of over thanks to a coal bunker capacity of 8 , 000 tons ( assuming a cruise speed of 8 knots , burning 35 tons of coal daily ) . On 30 November 1916 the " Wolf " left her home port of Kiel with a crew of 348 men . Escorted by the from Skagerrak to the North Atlantic , she passed north of Scotland and turned south going around the Cape of Good Hope , where she laid some of her mines , into the Indian Ocean . She dropped mines at the harbors of Colombo and Bombay , then entered the waters of South Asia , Australia and New Zealand . With the help of the " Wölfchen " ( " Little Wolf " ) , a Friedrichshafen FF . 33 two - seater seaplane , she located and seized enemy vessels and cargo ships . After transferring their crews and any valuable supplies ( notably coal , but also essential metals of which the German war effort had much need ) to the " Wolf " , she then sank the vessels . The " Wolf " destroyed 35 trading vessels and 2 war ships , altogether approximately 110 , 000 tons . After 451 days she returned to her home port of Kiel on 24 February 1918 with 467 prisoners of war aboard . In addition she carried substantial quantities of rubber , copper , zinc , brass , silk , copra , cocoa , and other essential materials taken from her prizes . The " Wolf " , without support of any kind , had made the longest voyage of a warship during World War I . Captain Nerger was awarded the highest German decoration , the Pour le Mérite . For the remainder of the war , the " Wolf " was employed in the Baltic Sea . After the war she was ceded to France and sold to Compagnie des Messageries Maritimes of Paris , refitted and renamed " Antinous " . She was scrapped in 1931 in Italy . A member of the crew was the young Theodor Plivier , who became later a revolutionary , communist , and famous author . In his first novel " Des Kaisers Kulis " ( " The emperor ' s coolies " ) he assimilates his experience on board the " Wolf " . The book was transformed in a theatrical play , too , and forbidden after the National Socialist Machtergreifung . Another crew member was Jakob Kinau , brother of author Gorch Fock - Kinau served as a Minenbootsmannsmaat on the " Wolf " . In his voyage diary , which was published in 1934 in the Quickborn - Verlag , Hamburg , he mentioned some details of a mutiny on board , which was not described in memoirs of other " Wolf " crew . The was sunk off the coast of the South Island of New Zealand after hitting a mine laid by the " Wolf " . Raiding career . In 15 months at sea , " Wolf " captured and sank 14 ships , totalling 38 , 391 GRT . She also laid minefields that sank another 13 ships , grossing a further 75 , 888 GRT . The heavist loss was the Spanish mail steamer " Carlos de Einzaguirre " on the way from Cadiz to Manila . It was struck by a mine of the " Wolf " near Capetown and sunk in only four minutes . 134 people , including 12 women and five children , died . 24 persons survived .