The Moewe & Mount Temple

Hunter & Prey

The former freighter Pungo was to become Germany’s most successful surface
warship in World War I. As the auxiliary navy cruiser, Moewe, she was fitted
out with five deck guns, 2 torpedo tubes and 500 mines. In November of 1915
she set out to raid the North Atlantic. For the next year and a half she sunk or
captured close to 50 Allied ships, possibly making her the most successful
warship of all time.

In total, she is credited for either capturing or destroying more than 50 ships,
including the British Navy's flagship of WWI, the battleship King Edward the 7th.
In addition, she also sunk several merchant ships sailing from Canada.

In December of 1916 she caught the CPR ship, Mount Temple west of the
Azores. Aboard the small passenger liner was a shipment of food items and
horses destined for the Western Front. And, unknown to all but a few; there was
also on board a collection of rare dinosaur fossils being shipped to the British
Museum in London. These were excavated in, what is today, Dinosaur
Provincial Park in southern Alberta. The ship was scuttled and the fossils were
lost with her.
 After the war Moewe was handed over to Britain as part of Germany’s war
reparations. However, in 1933 she was bought back by the German Navy.

In World War II she served as the transport ship Oldenburg - hauling fish and
supplies from Norway to Germany. She was sunk near Vadheim in the Sogne Fjord
on August 4th, 1945, by a squadron of Allied Bristol beaufighters.

She now lies on her starboard side sloping down the bottom of the fjord. Her bow
lies in 23 metres (70 ft.) while her stern is at 75 metres (225 ft.).

She was dove by the first North Americans in 2005. The team was lead by marine
archaeologist, Rob Rondeau.
Famous In Her Own Right!
The Mount Temple was launched in 1901 by the Elder Dempster Line and was
named for Baron Mount Temple, an English politician and Lord of the
Admiralty. That same year she was used as a troop transport in the Boer War.

In 1903, the Canadian Pacific Line purchased the Mount Temple and outfitted
her with a wireless telegraph. This proved especially useful nine years later
when the ship was one of the first to respond to distress calls from the Titanic.
The Mount Temple arrived at the Titanic’s last known position within a few
hours of the great liner’s sinking, but was unable to assist in rescue operations
because it was separated by an icefield.
Rare Fossils
Aboard the Mount Temple was a rare collection of dinosaur fossils collected in the
Canadian West. These included some of the best fossils ever found there. Lost were
the only known samples of a unique “macrobaenid,” the ancestor to modern day sea
turtles.

While not having the allure of gold and silver, the fossils aboard the Mount Temple are a
valuable treasure to the world of Palaeontology.
The Mount Temple lies in 14,000 feet of
water 700 kilometers northwest of the Azores.
Finding it, and recovering its cargo of rare
dinosaur fossils, would be one of the greatest
scientific accomplishments today!
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