On 7 October 1917 Felix Graf von Luckner – the notorious Sea-Devil – was imprisoned at a camp on Motuihe Island in the Hauraki Gulf.

Von Luckner, captain of the German raider SMS Seeadler sank 14 Allied ships in 1917. He was an enemy with a kind heart as although he destroyed 64,000 tons of shipping he also made sure that the crews were safely off the ships before he sank them. Setting sail with hundreds of Allied prisoners created some challenges but he was eventually able to offload them onto a captured French ship and send them to Rio de Janeiro.

The Seeadler was wrecked near Tahiti during a rest break for the crew. van Luckner and some of his men sailed for Fiji in an open boat, planning to capture a ship. Instead they themselves were captured and sent to the prisoner-of-war camp on Motuihe Island. The enterprising von Luckner managed to escape a few weeks later later, seizing a scow and heading north only to be recaptured in the Kermadec Islands. The following year the Women’s Anti-German League heard that von Luckner was plotting to escape again – their informant a mystery woman whose name they refused to reveal to the police. Rumours of a raider hovering nearby had authorities nervous but von Luckner did not escape again. He bore his country of imprisonment no malice, returning to New Zealand in the 1930s to talk about his exploits. He may not have charmed the Women’s Anti-German League but his post-war audiences were said to love his stories.

Shown here is the photograph of himself he sent in 1928 to Francis Dwyer, Assistant New Zealand Army Secretary.

Archives Reference: AAZI 19575 Dwyer2 1/1 www.archway.archives.govt.nz/ViewFullItem.do?code=6903191

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