The SS ''City of Bagdad'' was a British merchant ship built for the

Ellerman Lines Ellerman Lines was a United Kingdom, UK cargo and passenger shipping company that operated from the late nineteenth century and into the twentieth century. It was founded in the late 19th century, and continued to expand by acquiring smaller sh ...

that was captured and sunk by the German raider ''

Atlantis Atlantis ( grc, Ἀτλαντὶς νῆσος, , island of Atlas (mythology), Atlas) is a fictional island mentioned in an allegory on the hubris of nations in Plato's works ''Timaeus (dialogue), Timaeus'' and ''Critias (dialogue), Critias'' ...

'' on 11 July 1940. The crew were kept prisoner for 107 days on the ''Atlantis'' before transferring to ''

Durmitor Durmitor ( Montenegrin: Дурмитор, or ) is a massif located in northwestern Montenegro. It is part of the Dinaric Alps. Its highest peak, Bobotov Kuk, reaches a height of . The massif is limited by the Tara River Canyon on the north, the ...

''. The captain of ''City of Bagdad'', J. Armstrong White, would later become friends with the captain of the ''Atlantis'',

Bernhard Rogge Bernhard Rogge (4 November 1899 – 29 June 1982) was a German naval officer who, during World War II, commanded a merchant raider. Later, he became a Konteradmiral in West Germany's navy. Rogge became a ''Vizeadmiral'' (vice-admiral) by the end ...

, and her adjutant Ulrich Mohr. In 1956, White wrote an account of the events in the foreword to Mohr's book ''Ship 16''."Foreword"
by J. Armstrong White in Originally ordered for the

Hansa Line DDG Hansa, short for Deutsche Dampfschiffahrts-Gesellschaft Hansa (German Steamship Company Hansa; in modern orthography, Deutsche Dampfschifffahrts-Gesellschaft Hansa) was a major German shipping company specialising in heavy freight and schedul ...

as ''Geierfels'', the 7,490 gross register ton ship was launched on 8 November 1919 and completed in June 1920 before being turned over to the British as reparations after

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

References

External links

*http://www.ddghansa-shipsphotos.de/geierfels100.htm *http://www.sscityofcairo.co.uk/warlosses.php Maritime incidents in July 1940 1919 ships World War II shipwrecks in the Indian Ocean {{ship-stub