SS Dresden (1896)

Last updated

A. J. Jansen - SS 'Dresden' ESX COM COLEM 1963 614 4-001.jpg
Dresden in 1915, painting by A. J. Jansen
History
Civil Ensign of the United Kingdom.svg United Kingdom
Name
  • Dresden (1897–1915)
  • HMS Louvain (1915–18)
Owner
  • Great Eastern Railway (1897–1915)
  • Royal Navy (1915–18)
Port of registry
  • Civil Ensign of the United Kingdom.svg Harwich (1897–1915)
  • Naval Ensign of the United Kingdom.svg Royal Navy (1915–18)
RouteHarwich - Hook of Holland (1897–1915)
Builder Earle Company
Launched17 November 1896 [1]
FateSunk 21 January 1918
General characteristics
Tonnage1,830  GRT

SS Dresden was a British passenger ship which operated, as such, from 1897 to 1915. She is known as the place of the 1913 disappearance of German engineer Rudolf Diesel, inventor of the diesel engine. The ship was built in 1897 by the Earle Company at Hull for the Great Eastern Railway. She operated on the North Sea route between Harwich and the Hook of Holland. [2] She was renamed HMS Louvain in 1915 and was used by the Royal Navy in World War I. [2] until her loss in 1918.

Contents

Diesel's Disappearance

Dresden in Antwerp Harbour, 1913 A. J. Jansen - The Steam Ship 'Dresden' in Antwerp Harbour, 1913 4be78552-08c9-464b-97ab-8b23bfdd41d9 570.jpg
Dresden in Antwerp Harbour, 1913

On 29 September 1913 Rudolf Diesel, German engineer who invented the diesel engine, boarded Dresden at Antwerp, Belgium on his way to a meeting in London. [3] He retired to his cabin about 22:00 with a request to be called at 06:15 in the morning, but he was not seen alive again. Later a Dutch ship found a body floating in the sea and from the items and clothes recovered the remains were identified as Diesel's. [3]

Royal Navy

In 1915 Dresden was taken over by the British Admiralty as an armed boarding steamer and renamed HMS Louvain. [2] On 21 January 1918, she was torpedoed by the Imperial German Navy submarine SM UC-22 in the Aegean Sea [4] with the loss of seven officers and 217 men. [2] There were only 16 survivors. [5]

The dead included 70 Maltese naval ratings, which made the loss of the ship Malta's largest incident of loss of life during the war. A Naval and Dockyard Families Help Society was set up to help the families of the Maltese victims of the sinking. [6]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rudolf Diesel</span> German inventor and mechanical engineer (1858–1913)

Rudolf Christian Karl Diesel was a German inventor and mechanical engineer who is famous for having invented the Diesel engine, which burns Diesel fuel; both are named after him.

SMS <i>Dresden</i> (1907) Light cruiser of the German Imperial Navy

SMS Dresden was a German light cruiser built for the Kaiserliche Marine. The lead ship of her class, she was laid down at the Blohm & Voss shipyard in Hamburg in 1906, launched in October 1907, and completed in November 1908. Her entrance into service was delayed by accidents during sea trials, including a collision with another vessel which necessitated major repairs. Like the preceding Königsberg-class cruisers upon which her design was based, Dresden was armed with ten 10.5 cm (4.1 in) SK L/40 guns and two torpedo tubes.

SM U-32 was a German Type U 31 U-boat of the Imperial German Navy.

HMS <i>Jupiter</i> (1895) Pre-dreadnought battleship of the British Royal Navy

HMS Jupiter was a Majestic-class pre-dreadnought battleship of the Royal Navy. Commissioned in 1897, she was assigned to the Channel Fleet until 1905. After a refit, she was temporarily put in reserve before returning to service with the Channel Fleet in September 1905. In 1908 and rendered obsolete by the emergence of the dreadnought type of battleships, she once again returned to the reserve, this time with the Home Fleet. After another refit, she had a spell as a gunnery training ship in 1912.

HMS <i>Hussar</i> (1894) Gunboat of the Royal Navy

HMS Hussar was a Dryad-class torpedo gunboat of the Royal Navy. She was launched in 1894 and served in the Mediterranean between 1896 and 1905 before being used for fishery protection. During the Dardanelles campaign of 1915 her commanding officer and two of her ship's company won the Victoria Cross. She was broken up in 1921.

HMS <i>Hawke</i> (1891) Edgar-class protected cruiser of the British Royal Navy, in service from 1891 to 1914

HMS Hawke, launched in 1891, was the seventh British warship to be named Hawke. She was an Edgar-class protected cruiser. In September 1911 the Hawke collided with the ocean liner RMS Olympic. The damage smashed the Hawke's bow and damaged the stern of the Olympic.

HMS <i>London</i> (1899) Pre-dreadnought battleship of the British Royal Navy

HMS London was the lead ship of the London class of pre-dreadnought battleships built for the British Royal Navy. The Londons were near repeats of the preceding Formidable-class battleships, but with modified armour protection. The ship was laid down in December 1898, was launched in September 1899, and was completed in June 1902. Commissioned the same month, she served with the Mediterranean Fleet until early 1907. She was assigned to the Nore Division of the Home Fleet for nearly a year before transferring to the Channel Fleet. Rendered obsolete with the emergence of the new dreadnoughts in late 1906, she underwent an extensive refit in 1909, after which she served with the Atlantic Fleet. She was assigned to the Second Home Fleet in 1912 as part of the 5th Battle Squadron, and was temporarily fitted with a makeshift ramp for experiments with naval aircraft until 1913.

HMS <i>E4</i> Submarine of the Royal Navy

HMS E4 was a British E class submarine built by Vickers, Barrow-in-Furness, costing £101,900. E4 was laid down on 16 May 1911, launched on 5 February 1912 and commissioned on 28 January 1913. On 24 September 1915 E4 was attacked by the German airship SL3. On 15 August 1916, she collided with sister ship E41 during exercises off Harwich. Both ships sank and there were only 14 survivors, all from E41. Both boats were raised, repaired and recommissioned. She was sold on 21 February 1922 to the Upnor Ship Breaking Company.

HMS <i>E5</i> British E-class submarine

HMS E5 was a British E-class submarine built by Vickers Barrow-in-Furness. She was laid down on 9 June 1911 and was commissioned on 28 June 1913. She cost £106,700. E5 was sunk, probably by striking a mine, on 7 March 1916.

HMS <i>King Alfred</i> (1901) Cruiser of the Royal Navy

HMS King Alfred was one of four Drake-class armoured cruisers built for the Royal Navy around 1900. She served as flagship of the China Station from 1906 until relieved in 1910. Upon her return home that year, she was placed in reserve before being recommissioned in mid-1914. She was assigned to the 6th Cruiser Squadron of the Grand Fleet at the beginning of World War I. She was transferred to the 9th Cruiser Squadron in 1915 and assigned to convoy protection duties by the end of the year. King Alfred participated in the unsuccessful searches for the German commerce raider SMS Möwe in 1916–17 before beginning to escort convoys later that year. The ship was torpedoed by a German submarine in 1918, but returned to service. She was sold for scrap in 1920.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adriatic Campaign of World War I</span>

The Adriatic Campaign of World War I was a naval campaign fought between the Central Powers and the Mediterranean squadrons of Great Britain, France, the Kingdom of Italy, Australia, and the United States.

HMS <i>Dartmouth</i> (1911) Weymouth-class light cruiser

HMS Dartmouth was a Town-class light cruiser built for the Royal Navy in the 1910s. She was one of the Weymouth sub-class of the Town class. The ship survived the First World War and was sold for scrap in 1930.

HMS <i>E30</i> Submarine of the Royal Navy

HMS E30 was a British E-class submarine built by Armstrong Whitworth, Newcastle upon Tyne. She was laid down on 29 June 1914 and was commissioned in November 1915. HMS E30 was lost in the North Sea, thought to have been mined off Orfordness, Suffolk on 22 November 1916, the minefield was not discovered until 25 November. There were no survivors.

HMS <i>Dryad</i> (1893) Gunboat of the Royal Navy

HMS Dryad was the name ship of the Dryad-class torpedo gunboats. She was launched at Chatham Dockyard on 22 November 1893, the first of the class to be completed. She served as a minesweeper during World War I and was broken up in 1920.

SM <i>U-21</i> (Germany) U-boat built for the Imperial German Navy (1913)

SM U-21 was a U-boat built for the Imperial German Navy shortly before World War I. The third of four Type U-19-class submarines, these were the first U-boats in German service to be equipped with diesel engines. U-21 was built between 1911 and October 1913 at the Kaiserliche Werft in Danzig. She was armed with four torpedo tubes and a single deck gun; a second gun was added during her career.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Armed boarding steamer</span>

An armed boarding steamer was a merchantman that the British Royal Navy converted to a warship during the First World War. AB steamers or vessels had the role of enforcing wartime blockades by intercepting and boarding foreign vessels. The boarding party would inspect the foreign ship to determine whether to detain the ship and send it into port or permit it to go on its way.

HMS <i>Sunfish</i> (1895) Sunfish-class destroyer

HMS Sunfish was a "twenty-seven knotter" torpedo boat destroyer of the British Royal Navy. Built by the Tyneside shipbuilder Hawthorn Leslie, Sunfish was one of three destroyers built by Hawthorns that year. She was sold for scrap in 1920.

SS <i>St Petersburg</i> North Sea ferry and troop ship

SS St Petersburg was a North Sea passenger ferry that was built in Scotland in 1908 for the Great Eastern Railway (GER). In the 1923 railway grouping she passed to the new London and North Eastern Railway (LNER). She was sunk by enemy action in 1941.

SS Chesterfield was a cargo vessel built for the Great Central Railway in 1913.

HMS Murray was a Royal Navy Admiralty M-class destroyer. Ordered before the outbreak of war, she was therefore the first of her class to enter operation during the early months of the First World War. She was also the first vessel of the Royal Navy to carry the name HMS Murray.

References

  1. "The Great Eastern Railway Co.'s Steamer "Dresden"". The Marine Engineer and Naval Architect. 1 September 1897. pp. 206–207.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Naval Vessel Sunk. Louvain Torpedoed in Mediterranean., Loss of 224 Lives". News. The Times. No. 41704. London. 4 February 1918. col F, p. 6.
  3. 1 2 "Dr. Diesel's Disappearance. Discovery of a Body in the Scheldt". News. The Times. No. 40342. London. 14 October 1913. col F, p. 8.
  4. "Great Eastern Railway". The Ships List. Archived from the original on 31 December 2009. Retrieved 1 November 2010.
  5. "HMS Louvain Commemorative Page". Gaunt and Salway. Retrieved 28 March 2015.
  6. Galea, Michael (9 September 2018). "More wartime newspaper snippets from 1918" (PDF). The Sunday Times of Malta . pp. 54–55. Archived from the original (PDF) on 14 March 2020.