Zelee Cannon

Either side of the monument to Louis-Antoine de Bougainville (French navigator 1729-1811) are two naval cannons. On the right is a 3.94 inch (100mm) gun from the French Surprise Class gunboat 'Zelee'. Zelee was stationed in Papeete at the outbreak of WW1 and carried out the first French naval action of the war by capturing the German merchantman Walkure being loaded at nearby Makatea. The German captain had not heard of the outbreak of the war and when the French ship demanded his surrender he thought it was a joke. The French captain, Lt Maxime Destremau escorted the prize back to Papeete.
Destremau ordered that the 12 of the ships guns and 100 crew should be landed to augment the obsolete and ineffective shore defences.
On 22 September, 1914 the German armoured cruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, part of Admiral Graf Spee's East Asia squadron, fleeing from Tsingtao, entered the port of Papeete with the intention of seizing the coal stock. They approached in fog, with names painted out and not flying any flags. When challenged they raised the German ensign and the French opened a weak and ineffective fire which was swiftly silenced. The French set fire to the coal and tried to sail the Zelee to block the harbour, but she was sunk before she was scuttled. The German ships also sank the Walkure and severely damaged many buildings in the town, having fired more than 100 rounds. Forced to withdraw because of the coal being burned and fear of mines, the ships rendezvoused with the rest of the East Asia fleet and sailed toward South America. This engagement had alerted the British fleet to the whereabouts of the elusive German Fleet and would lead to the Battle of Coronel on 1st Nov 1914 where the Germans defeated a British Fleet but they were soundly defeated at the Battle of Falklands on 8 Dec 1914. It has been suggested that the ammunition expended attacking Papeete had an effect on the Battle of Falklands with the German ships running out of ammunition.

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