One memorable incident occurred in September 1917 when Count Felix von Luckner arrived at Wakaya Island, off the eastern coast of Viti Levu, after his raider, the Seeadler, had run aground in the Cook Islands following the shelling of Papeete in the French territory of Tahiti.
Seeadler | SMS Seeadler (auxiliary cruiser) | SMS ''Seeadler'' |
The young Felix von Luckner, later a German WWI war hero noted for his long voyage on the Seeadler during which he captured 14 enemy ships, was briefly assistant lighthouse keeper, a job he abandoned when discovered with his hotel keeper's daughter by her father.
In 1917, due to the threat posed by German raiders such as SMS Seeadler, Gayundah patrolled off Port Jackson and in the Spencer Gulf, although she made no contact with enemy ships during this time.
In Lowell Thomas' 1928 book on von Luckner he reports that the loss of Seeadler was the consequence of a tsunami.