Armed merchant raiders and "Checkmate"

[Stalins Organ]

Does anyone know anything about the allied "Checkmate" ship identification system?

For some reason* I was browsing wiki articles about German raiders at lunch & found mention of it - there's a very short article here.....but nothing much else on the web & I was wondering how it worked.

another interesting snippet - The UK AMC Carmania & German Cap Trafalger fought each other at Cape Trindade.....while each was disguised as the other! Surely one of the oddest naval battle ever :cool:

*rumour has it that a distant relation of mine was a goaler of von Lucknow on Ripapa Island in WW1 & was the chap under who's "watch" one of his escapes happened & he subsequently went a bit nuts.....which may or may not be related to teh escape.

BTW if anyone is ever in Chch it'd be worth seeing if you could organise 16 adults to visit the fort - it's well worth the trip.

The story of how his ship Seeadler was seized by the Germans also makes intersting reading!!:eek:

[Affentitten]

Would have been a sight to see two ocean liners battling it out with relatively light arnament.

Can't seem to find anything on checkmate. Have searched through the naval history journals to no avail. The Wiki article seems to suggest it was basically just a checking back with Admiralty on ship ID. I guess verified by location reports.

[Stalins Organ]

The British ship had 8 x 4.7" guns....the German 2 x 4.1" & 6 "pompoms".

Given the lack of armour & presumably of subdivision is it probably unsurprising that hits below the waterline seem to have proved decisive!!

[dieseltaylor]

Some of the Wiki links are good. I like this report anf feel that there should be some witty heading like a Leopard should not change its spots!

Leopard

Launched at Newcastle in UK, in 1912, as Yarrowdale, for the Mackill Steam Ship Company Limited of Glasgow, with a registered tonnage of 4,652 tons, and a speed of 13 knots.

Moewe, the Armed Merchant Raider had captured her on the 11th. of November 1916, and putting a prize crew onboard she was sailed back to Germany, to be fitted out as Leopard, an Armed Raider, with 5 by 15cm guns, plus two torpedo tubes, she now sailed in her new role as a very formidible fighting ship on the 16th. of March 1917, pretending to be the Norwegian Rena.

The Norwegian flag and NORGE were painted on both sides of her hull.

On the very first day that Leopard ventured to sea as a Raider, she was stopped by the cruiser HMS Achilles, and ordered to proceed west by south for inspection by Dundee, an Armed Boarding Steamer.

Commander Selwyn Day in Dundee carried but one 4 inch gun, and a three pounder, he sent over a boarding party, and then lengthy signals passed between the two vessels. Day became suspicious, and the Raider then launched two torpedoes, both passed astern of Dundee, at a range of only 1,200 yards. Day opened fire, and succeeded in destroying most of the Raider's guns, in fact, 70 shells had been fired by Dundee, before Leopard was able to reply.

Achilles alerted by the sound of gunfire, arrived on the scene at 0400 (4 AM) to join in the fray, and opened fire at a range of 5,300 yards, she also fired a torpedo which struck Leopard in the bow. After taking a tremendous pounding, Leopard sank at 0435 (4.35 AM) being lost with all her crew, the British boarding party of 1 Officer and 5 Ratings were all killed in this action.

[Michael Emrys]

I wonder what the captain of the Leopard was even thinking to agree to allow a boarding party aboard. Surely the game was up at that point. Maybe he thought that with a cruiser in the area it was better to try to bluff his way out, but once the boarders arrived there was surely no way to conceal his true status.

Michael

[Affentitten]

I wonder what the captain of the Leopard was even thinking to agree to allow a boarding party aboard. Surely the game was up at that point. Maybe he thought that with a cruiser in the area it was better to try to bluff his way out, but once the boarders arrived there was surely no way to conceal his true status.

Michael

Who knows? Maybe he thought he could capture them and hold them to ransom for safe passage. Maybe he was desperate to avoid a fight. But I also suspect that deceit and the hubris of carrying out a ruse successfully can become addictive and affects the judgement of when to stop.

[Stalins Organ]

Or maybe he thought his papers & disguise were good enough - compare it with the capture of Seeadler I linked to where the ship had a British boarding party on board when then boarded by Germans - the British hid hoping to be not found!