The Bremer Vulkan pair each had a three-cylinder triple-expansion engine as its main propulsion unit, augmented by an exhaust steam turbine. The Blohm+Voss pair were pure turbine ships, each propelled by a single turbine via single-reduction gearing.[3][4] The Blohm+Voss pair were also 9ft (3m) longer, and slightly wider and deeper, than the Bremer Vulkan pair.
Blohm+Voss built Goslar as yard number 485. She was launched on 3 October 1929 and completed on 30 November. She was the last of the four sister ships to be completed. Her registered length was 449.6ft (137.0m), her beam was 57.6ft (17.6m) and her depth was 26.8ft (8.2m). Her tonnages were 6,049GRT, 3,613NRT,[4] and 9,690DWT. Her turbine was rated at 3,800 shp and gave her a speed of 13 knots (24km/h).
On 24 August 1939 Goslar left Philadelphia, Pennsylvania for Galveston, Texas. Three days later, NDL ordered her to make for a port in a country that was either neutral, or preferably friendly to Germany. Goslar's Master, Captain Karl Berghoff, considered making for Mexico, but the next day NDL ordered Goslar to head for Germany. Finally, on 29 August, NDL ordered Goslar to make for a neutral port, but not in North America. Berghoff feared that if she made for Mexico, Goslar might encounter a Royal Navy warship, so he set her course toward Brazil.[8]
Finally, Berghoff changed course to Surinam, believing that there would not be war between Germany and the Netherlands. His crew disguised Goslar by painting her funnel and ventilators a different colour, changing her name, and replacing her German flag with a US one. At night she sailed with reduced lighting. In her engine room, preparations were made for rapid scuttling if necessary.[8]
On 1 September Germany invaded Poland, and on 3 September France and the United Kingdom declared war on Germany. On 5 September Goslar entered the Suriname River, still disguised as a US ship. She took on a Surinamese pilot to take her to a safe anchorage in Paramaribo. He told her officers that they were very lucky, because a French warship had been anchored off the mouth of the river throughout the previous day.[8]
Goslar had a crew of 15 German officers and men, and 49 Chinese seafarers. The Germans enjoyed the hospitality of German settlers in Surinam, including the German consul; and Dutch officials, including the harbour master of Paramaribo, N van Beek, who was also the police commissioner. However, the Chinese crew objected to remaining in port indefinitely. On 8 September then went on strike, and the next day Dutch colonial police arrested the strikers and removed them from the ship. A few days later the strikers agreed with Berghoff that they would continue to serve their contracts until the end of the year, after which they could either renew their contracts or return home. On that basis they were allowed back aboard ship.[9]
In December 1939 the Italian ocean linerOrazio, which operated between Genoa and Curaçao, was diverted to pick up the Chinese members of the crew. On 22 December the newspaper De West reported that she would arrive off Surinam on 24 or 25 December. She was already carrying about 100 Chinese seafarers from German ships in other Caribbean ports. Orazio was too big to come up the Paramaribo, so she would anchor at the lightship, and a tender would take the Chinese out to her.[10]
Orazio was to take the Chinese to Genoa, where they would be transferred to an Italian ship bound for Shanghai. One of Goslar's German engineer officers unsuccessfully tried to travel with them, disguised as a blind passenger.[9] The 15 German members of Goslar's complement remained aboard as a skeleton crew.
Scuttling
On the morning of 10 May 1940 Germany invaded the Netherlands. The Dutch Governor of Surinam, Johannes Kielstra, received notice of the invasion at 0114 hrs. He immediately ordered the internment of all German males over the age of 15, including Goslar's skeleton crew. At 0230 hrs van Beek boarded Goslar from a police boat with a boarding party of four soldiers and three police officers.[9]
Berghoff met him on deck and declared "I have done my duty". Van Beek gave the Germans time to pack their belongings. At 0300 hrs van Beek heard metallic noises from below deck, followed by the sound of water entering the ship.[9] He challenged Berghoff, who admitted that he was scuttling the ship on NDL orders. The police boat took the Germans ashore in two groups, returning to collect the second group at 0345 hrs.[11]
Goslar was in water too shallow for her to sink entirely. She listed to port, and at 1330 hrs a team led by van Beek's marine advisor, Egger, began to try to pump water out of the ship. All watertight doors between her compartments were closed, but her list increased. By midnight her masts touched the water, and by 0430 hrs in 11 May she was lying on her port side.[11]
On 21 May Kielstra reported to the Dutch Ministry of the Colonies, Charles Welter, that van Beek and his boarding party had failed to keep all Germans under supervision at all times. Van Beek had the advantage of boarding Goslar when her crew was asleep, yet one of the engineers had managed to activate the prepared scuttling arrangements unobserved. This instantly opened a hole at least 60 by 60cm (2 by 2ft) below the waterline. Van Beek was suspected of sympathising with Germany, so a Dutch government decree of 15 May temporarily suspended him from duty.[11]
Internment
At first the Dutch authorities interned German males, including those from Goslar, in Fort Zeelandia, which had been a prison. From there they were transferred briefly to a former hospital, and then permanently to a Roman Catholicboarding school about 16 kilometres (10 miles) oustide Paramaribo, which was converted into Copieweg internment camp.[9][12][13]
In August 1941 two of men from Goslar and a local German planter tried to escape from Copieweg. They were Chief Officer Anton Boyksen, engine room assistant Heinrich Scharfenberg, and a man called Schubert, who had owned the Beekhuizen plantation.[14] They planned to go to French Guiana, which was under Vichy French control at the time. They stole a canoe, and on 7 September 1941 they reached the Marowijne River, which forms the border with French Guiana. However, a local resident called Soea saw them, gathered an armed group, and captured them.[15]
Salvage attempts
Part of the wreck, showing (centre right) a white-painted frame supporting a navigation light to help vessels to steer clear of it
On 9 October 1940 a prize court declared Goslar a prize of war. However, KNSM assessed that trying to raise and restore the ship would cost more than she was worth. Two other Dutch companies and a Canadian company each expressed an interest in salvaging her,[10] but did not try to raise the wreck.
The UK Admiralty chartered a Merritt-Chapman & Scottsalvage tug, the Panamanian-registered Killerig, to try to raise the wreck. Killerig reached Paramaribo on 5 January 1941, and spent more than two months trying to pump Goslar out. But she was unsuccessful, and she left on 21 March.[10]
2017 news story about the 2016 plans, partly in English
Over the next few years, salvage companies based in Jamaica, Panama, the USA, Curaçao and the Netherlands took an interest, but did not try to raise the wreck. By 1948, salvage experts considered that raising and restoring the wreck was uneconomic, and the only option was to scrap her. However, the cost of scrapping was estimated at 500,000 guilders, and the question of whether the Dutch government or the colonial government in Surinam would pay was unresolved. From then until the 1960s, Dutch and Surinamese contractors continued to show an interest from time to time, but none has either raised or demolished the wreck.[10]
In 2016 Sediba NV offered to salvage the ship free of charge in order to make a two hour documentary. However, the proposal was not implemented.[16]
Related Research Articles
Jun'yō Maru (順陽丸) was a cargo steamship that was built in Scotland in 1913, served a succession of British owners until 1927, and was then in Japanese ownership until a Royal Navy submarine sank her in 1944.
Tango Maru (丹後丸) was a cargo motor ship that was built in Germany in 1926 and sunk off the coast of Bali in 1944. She was launched as Rendsburg for the Deutsch-Australische Dampfschiffs-Gesellschaft (DADG), which in 1926 merged with Hamburg-Amerikanische Packetfahrt-Actien-Gesellschaft (HAPAG).
The Suriname River is 480 km long and flows through the country of Suriname. Its sources are located in the Guiana Highlands on the border between the Wilhelmina Mountains and the Eilerts de Haan Mountains. The source of the Upper Suriname River is at the confluence of the Gran Rio and Pikin Rio near the village of Goddo. The river continues shortly after the reservoir along Brokopondo as the Lower Suriname River. Than it flows Berg en Dal, the migrant communities Klaaskreek and Nieuw-Lombé, Jodensavanne, Carolina, Ornamibo and Domburg, before reaching the capital Paramaribo on the left bank and Meerzorg on the right bank. At Nieuw-Amsterdam it is joined by the Commewijne and immediately thereafter at the sandspit Braamspunt it flows into the Atlantic Ocean.
SS Antilla was a Hamburg America Line (HAPAG) cargo ship that was launched in 1939 and scuttled in 1940.
SS Adolph Woermann was a German steam ocean liner built in 1922 by Blohm & Voss in Hamburg for the shipping lines Woermann-Linie (WL) and German East Africa Line and named after German merchant, ship owner and politician Adolph Woermann, and the fourth ship of the same name.
SS Donau was a Norddeutscher Lloyd (NDL) refrigerated cargo steamship that was built in Germany in 1929 and sunk in occupied Norway in 1945. In the 1930s she sailed mostly between Bremen and the West Coast of the United States via the Panama Canal.
SS Potsdam was a steam ocean liner that was launched in Germany in 1899 for Holland America Line. In 1915 Swedish American Line acquired her and renamed her Stockholm.
SS 's Jacob was a passenger steamship that was launched in the Netherlands in 1907 and sunk by enemy action off New Guinea in 1943. She spent most of her career with Koninklijke Paketvaart-Maatschappij, based in the Dutch East Indies.
SS Monte Nevoso was a cargo steamship that was launched in 1920 in England, owned in Italy, and wrecked in 1932 in the North Sea off the coast of Norfolk.
SS Meriones was a Blue Funnel Line refrigerated cargo steamship. She was launched in 1921 on the River Tyne as one of a class of 11 ships to replace many of Blue Funnel's losses in the First World War.
SS Calabria was a passenger and cargo steamship. AG Weser built her for Norddeutscher Lloyd. She was launched as D/S Werra and completed in 1922.
SS Binnendijk was a Holland America Line (NASM) cargo steamship. She was one of NASM's "B" class ships: the company's first cargo ships to be powered by steam turbines. Binnendijk was built in South Holland in 1921, and sunk by a mine in the English Channel in 1939. She was the first ship that NASM lost in the Second World War. Her wreck off the coast of Dorset, England is now a wreck diving site, nicknamed "The Benny".
SS Slamat was a Dutch ocean liner of the Rotterdam-based Koninklijke Rotterdamsche Lloyd line. Although she was a turbine steamship, she tended not to be referred to as "TSS". She was built in Vlissingen in the Netherlands in 1924 for liner service between Rotterdam and the Dutch East Indies. In 1940 she was converted into a troop ship. In 1941 she was sunk with great loss of life in the Battle of Greece.
Katori Maru was a steam ocean liner of the Empire of Japan. She was built in Nagasaki in 1912–13. In the Second World War the Imperial Japanese Navy requisitioned her as a troop ship. In 1941 a Royal Netherlands Navy submarine sank her off the coast of Sarawak.
SS Santa Fé was a German refrigerated cargo steamship. She is now a Black Sea shipwreck and part of her cargo is of interest to marine archaeologists.
SS Teiryu Maru was a steam cargo ship that was launched in England in 1914 as Northwestern Miller. Furness, Withy & Co managed her until 1927, when Norddeutscher Lloyd bought her and renamed her Augsburg.
SS Reliance was one of a pair of transatlantic steam ocean liners that were launched in 1914 in Germany for the Hamburg America Line (HAPAG), sold to a Dutch shipping line in 1916, and seized by the United States as World War I reparations in 1922. United American Lines (UAL) operated her until 1926, when HAPAG bought her back.
SS Lombardia was one of a pair of transatlantic steam ocean liners that were launched in 1914 in Germany for the Hamburg America Line (HAPAG), sold to a Dutch shipping line in 1916, and seized by the United States as World War I reparations in 1922. United American Lines (UAL) operated her until 1926, when HAPAG bought her back.
Copieweg camp was a Dutch Internment Camp for German civilians that operated in Surinam during World War II, from 1940 to 1947. They were interned due to their nationality rather than due to proven support for Nazi Germany, although some of them were widely known to be Nazi supporters. Non-German detainees were also sent to this camp after 1942, including a small group of South African conscientious objectors and a few members of the Surinam political opposition including the politician Wim Bos Verschuur. The camp was built on the site of a Roman Catholic Monastery twenty kilometres from Paramaribo which was expanded to house a larger number of detainees.
SS Har Zion was a passenger and cargo steamship that was built in Denmark in 1907 as St. Jan for Det Østasiatiske Kompagni. In 1913 Koninklijke Nederlandse Stoomboot-Maatschappij bought her and renamed her Nickerie. In 1933 Ignazio Messina & Co bought her and renamed her Risveglio. In 1935 Palestine Maritime Lloyd bought her and renamed her Har Zion.
Captain, Esther; Jones, Guno (2010). "De interneringen in Suriname en de Nederlandse Antillen". Oorlogserfgoed overzee: de erfenis van de Tweede Wereldoorlog in Aruba, Curaçao, Indonesië en Suriname (in Dutch). Amsterdam: Bakker. ISBN978-9035135840.
Lloyd's Register of Shipping(PDF). Vol.II.–Steamers and Motorships of 300 tons gross and over. London: Lloyd's Register of Shipping. 1931 – via Southampton City Council.
Lloyd's Register of Shipping(PDF). Vol.II.–Steamers and Motorships of 300 tons gross and over. London: Lloyd's Register of Shipping. 1934 – via Southampton City Council.
Lloyd's Register of Shipping(PDF). Vol.II.–Steamers and Motorships over 300 tons. London: Lloyd's Register of Shipping. 1937 – via Southampton City Council.
Makdoembaks, Nizaar (2017). De Goslar-affaire (in Dutch). Zierikzee: De Woordenwinkel. ISBN978-90-76286-28-0.
Van der Horst, Liesbeth (2004). Wereldoorlog in de West: Suriname, de Nederlandse Antillen en Aruba, 1940–1945 (in Dutch). Hilversum: Verloren. ISBN978-9065507945.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
Germany 
