German auxiliary cruiser Widder

"Widder" (HSK 3) was an auxiliary cruiser ("Hilfskreuzer") of Nazi Germany's "Kriegsmarine" that was used as a merchant raider in the Second World War. Her Kriegsmarine designation was Schiff 21, to the Royal Navy she was Raider D. The name "Widder" (Ram) represents the constellation Aries in German.
Early history.
Built for HAPAG, the Hamburg America Line, at Howaldtswerke, Kiel, she was launched in 1930 as the freighter "Neumark". After an uneventful career she was requisitioned by the "Kriegsmarine" for use as a commerce raider. She was converted for this purpose by Blohm & Voss in late 1939, and commissioned as the raider "Widder" on 9 December of that year. She sailed on her first and only raiding voyage in May 1940.
Raider voyage.
"Widder" sailed as part of the Kriegsmarine's first wave of commerce raiders, sailing on 6 May 1940 under the command of "Korvettenkapitän" (later "Fregattenkapitän") Helmuth von Ruckteschell.
Leaving Germany on 6 May 1940, she made for Bergen, in Norway. On 13 May the "Widder" confronted the British submarine on the surface, enjoining an exchange of gunfire which lasted for over an hour, with no hits for either side. After the engagement, the cruiser sought shelter in Sandsfjord. On 14 May she sailed to the open sea, crossing the Arctic Circle the next day. On 21 August 1940, 800 miles west of the Canary Islands, she sank the , which had been carrying a cargo of coal from Newport, Wales, to Bahía Blanca, Argentina. After refuelling from the auxiliary ship "Nordmark", she slipped through the Denmark Strait. Over a 5½ month period she captured and sank ten ships, totalling .
The "Widder" was reported to have machine-gunned the crew of the SS "Anglo Saxon" in their life-boats; one jolly boat with seven crewmen got away. Over two months later, on 27 October, the last two survivors in the boat landed in the Bahamas after a 2,275 mile voyage. One of the two died when his new ship was torpedoed in 1941, the other survived the war and testified against von Ruckteschell, who was sentenced to seven years for his war crime.
Having completed her mission, she returned to occupied France on 31 October 1940.
Later history.
Deemed unsuitable as a merchant raider due to persistent drive problems, "Widder" was re-christened "Neumark", and used as a repair ship in Norway, playing a major role in repairing the battleship Tirpitz in 1943/1944. After the war she was taken into British service as "Ulysses", then sold back to Germany as "Fechenheim" in 1950 before being wrecked off Bergen in 1955. Her hull was scrapped shortly after.
She was one of only two German auxiliary cruisers to survive the war, after one 1940 cruise. Her captain, Helmuth von Ruckteschell, was one of only two German naval commanders convicted of war crimes at the end of the war.