About the same time it was announced that on February 15, 1917, a British cruiser had fought a successful engagement against three German raiders off the coast of Brazil, damaging two of them. The third escaped.
Not until March 22, 1917, did the German Government announce that the raider Moewe had returned to her home port from a very successful second raiding trip in the Atlantic Ocean which had yielded twenty-seven captured vessels, most of which of course had been sunk.
Still another German raider was heard of on March 30, 1917. On that day the French bark Cambronne arrived at the Brazilian port of Rio de Janeiro, having on board the crews of eleven vessels which had been captured and sunk by the raider. The latter was said to have been the former American bark Pass of Balmaha which had been captured by the Germans in August, 1915, and at that time had been taken into Cuxhaven. She had been renamed Seeadler and was a three-master of about 2,800 tons, square rigged, with a speed of about twelve knots, and was equipped with a powerful wireless plant. Her armament was said to have consisted of two 105-mm. guns and sixteen machine guns, and a crew of sixty-four men. The boat apparently had left Germany in December, 1916, escorted by a submarine, and had successfully evaded the British patrol, not mounting her guns until she had run the British blockade. The eleven ships known to have been sunk by the Seeadler were:
Antonin, French sailing vessel, 3,071 tons, owned in Dunkirk; 31 men on board.
British Yeoman, British sailing vessel, 1,963 tons, owned in Victoria, B. C.; 21 men.
Buenos Ayres, Italian sailing vessel, 1,811 tons, owned in Naples; 21 men.
Charles Gounod, French sailing vessel, 2,199 tons, owned in Nantes; 24 men.
Dupleix, French sailing vessel, 2,206 tons, owned in Nantes; 22 men.
Gladys Royle, British steamship, 3,268 tons, owned in Sunderland; 26 men.
Horngarth, British steamship, 3,609 tons gross, owned in Cardiff; 33 men.