SS ''Suevic'' was a
steamship
A steamship, often referred to as a steamer, is a type of steam-powered vessel, typically ocean-faring and seaworthy, that is propelled by one or more steam engines that typically move (turn) propellers or paddlewheels. The first steamships ...
built by
Harland and Wolff
Harland & Wolff is a British shipbuilding company based in Belfast, Northern Ireland. It specialises in ship repair, shipbuilding and offshore construction. Harland & Wolff is famous for having built the majority of the ocean liners for the W ...
in
Belfast
Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdo ...
for the
White Star Line
The White Star Line was a British shipping company. Founded out of the remains of a defunct packet company, it gradually rose up to become one of the most prominent shipping lines in the world, providing passenger and cargo services between t ...
. ''Suevic'' was the fifth and last of the s, built specifically to service the
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...
-
Cape Town
Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...
-
Sydney
Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...
route, along with her sister ship .
In 1907 she was wrecked off the south coast of England, but in the largest rescue of its kind, all passengers and crew were saved. The ship herself was deliberately broken in two, and a new bow was attached to the salvaged stern portion. Later serving as a Norwegian
whaling
Whaling is the process of hunting of whales for their usable products such as meat and blubber, which can be turned into a type of oil that became increasingly important in the Industrial Revolution.
It was practiced as an organized industry ...
factory ship
A factory ship, also known as a fish processing vessel, is a large ocean-going vessel with extensive on-board facilities for processing and freezing caught fish or whales. Modern factory ships are automated and enlarged versions of the earlier wh ...
carrying the name ''Skytteren'', she was
scuttled
Scuttling is the deliberate sinking of a ship. Scuttling may be performed to dispose of an abandoned, old, or captured vessel; to prevent the vessel from becoming a navigation hazard; as an act of self-destruction to prevent the ship from being ...
off the Swedish coast in 1942 to prevent her capture by ships of
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
.
Design and construction
When
White Star inaugurated service from
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...
to
Sydney
Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...
in the late 1890s, they commissioned five
steamship
A steamship, often referred to as a steamer, is a type of steam-powered vessel, typically ocean-faring and seaworthy, that is propelled by one or more steam engines that typically move (turn) propellers or paddlewheels. The first steamships ...
s to be built for that route: the first three all entered service in 1899: , and . All three were single-
funnel
A funnel is a tube or pipe that is wide at the top and narrow at the bottom, used for guiding liquid or powder into a small opening.
Funnels are usually made of stainless steel, aluminium, glass, or plastic. The material used in its construct ...
ocean liner
An ocean liner is a passenger ship primarily used as a form of transportation across seas or oceans. Ocean liners may also carry cargo or mail, and may sometimes be used for other purposes (such as for pleasure cruises or as hospital ships).
Ca ...
s which measured just under and were configured to carry 320 third class passengers. Because the commissioning of these ships coincided with the
Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria
The Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria was officially celebrated on 22 June 1897 to mark the occasion of the 60th anniversary of Queen Victoria's accession on 20 June 1837. Queen Victoria was the first British monarch ever to celebrate a Diamond ...
, they were referred to as the . The next two ships of the class would be slightly larger than the first three. The first of these was at ,
launched on 25 October 1900. The second, and largest of the class, was ''Suevic'', at launched on 8 December 1900. ''Runic'' and ''Suevic'' had several minor design changes, the most noticeable of which were the lengthening of the
poop deck
In naval architecture, a poop deck is a deck that forms the roof of a cabin built in the rear, or " aft", part of the superstructure of a ship.
The name originates from the French word for stern, ''la poupe'', from Latin ''puppis''. Thus th ...
, and the moving of the
bridge
A bridge is a structure built to span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or rail) without blocking the way underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, which is usually somethi ...
closer to the
bow. These ships could carry 400 passengers in third class on three decks. They also had substantial cargo capacity with seven cargo holds, most of which were refrigerated with the capacity for the stowage of 100,000 carcasses of
mutton
Lamb, hogget, and mutton, generically sheep meat, are the meat of domestic sheep, ''Ovis aries''. A sheep in its first year is a lamb and its meat is also lamb. The meat from sheep in their second year is hogget. Older sheep meat is mutton. Gen ...
. There was also a hold designed for the transport of up to 20,000 bales of
wool
Wool is the textile fibre obtained from sheep and other mammals, especially goats, rabbits, and camelids. The term may also refer to inorganic materials, such as mineral wool and glass wool, that have properties similar to animal wool.
As ...
.
[
]
White Star service
''Suevic'' was launched on 8 December 1900, and set sail on her maiden voyage to Sydney on 23 March 1901. Shortly thereafter, ''Suevic'' and her four sisters were pressed into service carrying troops to fight in the Boer War
The Second Boer War ( af, Tweede Vryheidsoorlog, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, the Anglo–Boer War, or the South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer Republics (the Sou ...
in South Africa.[ In August 1901 she made her one and only voyage from Liverpool to New York City. Once the Boer War was over, White Star was finally able to institute regular monthly service to Australia using the Jubilee-class ships.]
On one 1903 voyage, a young officer named Charles Lightoller
Charles Herbert Lightoller, (30 March 1874 – 8 December 1952) was a British mariner and naval officer. He was the second officer on board the and the most senior member of the crew to survive the ''Titanic'' disaster. As the officer in ch ...
was assigned to crew ''Suevic'' as a punishment. During the voyage, he met an 18-year-old woman who was returning to her home in Sydney, and after a shipboard courtship, the two were married in Sydney on 15 December 1903. Lightoller would later become the second officer on board the and the most senior of her crew to survive the disaster.
Shipwreck
Navigational errors
''Suevic''s first six years of service were uneventful. On 2 February 1907 she left Melbourne
Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...
under the command of Captain Thomas Johnson Jones with scheduled stops at Cape Town, Tenerife
Tenerife (; ; formerly spelled ''Teneriffe'') is the largest and most populous island of the Canary Islands. It is home to 43% of the total population of the archipelago. With a land area of and a population of 978,100 inhabitants as of Janu ...
, Plymouth
Plymouth () is a port city and unitary authority in South West England. It is located on the south coast of Devon, approximately south-west of Exeter and south-west of London. It is bordered by Cornwall to the west and south-west.
Plymouth ...
, London and finally Liverpool. On 17 March 1907, she was inbound to Plymouth with 382 passengers, 141 crew members and a nearly-full cargo, including thousands of sheep carcasses worth £400,000.
By noon, she was off the southwest coast of England on the approach to Plymouth. This section of the English coast was hazardous, due to shallow waters, sharp rocks, and often-dense fog. By 10 pm, ''Suevic'' was encountering a strong south-westerly winds and severely reduced visibility due to showers of drizzling rain, the ship's officers were not able to fix their position using stellar navigation, so they intended to use instead the Lizard lighthouse
The Lizard Lighthouse is a lighthouse at Lizard Point, Cornwall, England, built to guide vessels passing through the English Channel. It was often the welcoming beacon to persons returning to England, where on a clear night, the reflected lig ...
on Lizard Point, Cornwall
Lizard Point () in Cornwall is at the southern tip of the Lizard Peninsula. It is situated half-a-mile (800 m) south of Lizard village in the civil parish of Landewednack and about 11 miles (18 km) southeast of Helston.
Lizard Point ...
(known simply as "The Lizard"). At 10:15 pm the lighthouse was sighted through the gloom: at the ship's estimated position it should have been more than away, however unbeknown to the crew, due to miscalculations ''Suevic'' was ahead of her estimated position.
Not realising the error, the captain wrongly estimated that the lighthouse was several miles away; this was in part due to fog over the lighthouse which threw its beam down low on the horizon, and made it appear further away than it actually was. The ship pressed ahead at full speed, without using the sounding line
Depth sounding, often simply called sounding, is measuring the depth of a body of water. Data taken from soundings are used in bathymetry to make maps of the floor of a body of water, such as the seabed topography.
Soundings were traditionally ...
to ensure they were not approaching the shore. Soon afterwards, at 10:25 pm the lookout sighted breaking waves ahead, the Captain ordered hard a-port
A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as Ham ...
, but it was too late, and the ship ran aground
Ship grounding or ship stranding is the impact of a ship on seabed or
waterway side. It may be intentional, as in beaching to land crew or cargo, and careening, for maintenance or repair, or unintentional, as in a marine accident. In accidenta ...
violently at full speed on the Stag Rock on Maenheere Reef - a belt of half-submerged rocks a mile off Lizard Point.
Rescue
Jones first made several attempts to back the ship off the rocks, running the engines at full astern, to no avail. Despite her position, the ship did not appear to be in danger of sinking. The captain ordered the distress rockets to be fired, and a local rescue effort ensued, with all the passengers and crew escaping to shore safely.[
The rescue of the crew was led by the ]Royal National Lifeboat Institution
The Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) is the largest charity that saves lives at sea around the coasts of the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland, the Channel Islands, and the Isle of Man, as well as on some inland waterways. It i ...
(RNLI), and it became the largest rescue in that institution's 190-year history. RNLI lifeboats, manned by local volunteers from stations at the Lizard
Lizards are a widespread group of squamate reptiles, with over 7,000 species, ranging across all continents except Antarctica, as well as most oceanic island chains. The group is paraphyletic since it excludes the snakes and Amphisbaenia alt ...
, Cadgwith
Cadgwith ( kw, Porthkajwydh, meaning ''cove of the thicket'') is a village and fishing port in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is on the Lizard Peninsula between The Lizard and Coverack. It is in the civil parish of Grade Ruan.
History
...
, Coverack and Porthleven
Porthleven () is a town, civil parish and fishing port near Helston, Cornwall, England. The most southerly port in Great Britain, it was a harbour of refuge when this part of the Cornish coastline was infamous for wrecks in the days of sail. The ...
, rescued all the passengers, including 70 babies, as well as the crew. The rescue was undertaken using nothing more than four open wooden lifeboats each rowed by six oarsmen. The operation took 16 hours to complete, and despite the difficult conditions, not a single life was lost.
By coincidence, later the same night, another smaller liner of the Elder Dempster Line also ran aground along the same coastline, almost within sight of ''Suevic'', with its crew and passengers also requiring rescue.
As a result of the successful efforts of the rescuers, six silver RNLI medals were awarded; four to members of the lifeboat crews, and two to members of ''Suevic''s crew for their actions: Two silver RNLI gallantry medals were awarded to Edwin Rutter and Rev. "Harry" Vyvyan, of the Cadgwith Lifeboat crew: another two were awarded to William Mitchell, and Edwin Mitchell, of The Lizard Lifeboat crew. Two more were awarded to George Anderson and William "Bill" Adams of ''Suevic''s crew.
In March 2007 a ceremony was held to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the rescue.
Salvage
The bow section was badly damaged, but not irreparably so, and the rest of the ship, including the boilers and engines, was not damaged at all.[ It was determined that if the ship could be lightened, the tide would then lift her off the bottom and she could be sailed to port. With this in mind, three days later, on 20 March, the cargo was unloaded into small coastal freighters. Initially, it appeared that the attempt would succeed but, a week later, after various other vessels had attempted to pull ''Suevic'' off the rocks, the weather deteriorated and waves drove her farther onto shore, from whence she could not be moved.]
With the bow now irretrievably stuck, and the threat of even worse weather coming which could completely destroy the ship, many experienced salvage men believed that the only course of action was to abandon ''Suevic'' to her fate. However, the Liverpool & Glasgow Salvage Association, acting on behalf of the White Star Line, suggested an unorthodox method of salvaging the ship. As the rear of the ship's length was undamaged and this portion contained the boilers, engines and passenger accommodation, they believed it would be worthwhile to attempt saving the stern half of the ship by cutting the ship in two and separating it from the impaled bow. White Star decided this was a worthwhile risk as, if successful, rebuilding the ship would be a cheaper option than building a replacement vessel.
''Suevic'', like other White Star liners, had been divided into watertight compartments
Floodability is the susceptibility of a ship's construction to flooding. It also refers to the ability to intentionally flood certain areas of the hull for damage control purposes, or to increase stability, which is particularly important in comb ...
by watertight bulkheads which could, if they held their integrity, allow the ship to remain afloat even if divided. Engineers selected a point just aft of the bridge to cut the ship in two. As oxyacetylene
Principle of burn cutting
Oxy-fuel welding (commonly called oxyacetylene welding, oxy welding, or gas welding in the United States) and oxy-fuel cutting are processes that use fuel gases (or liquid fuels such as gasoline or petrol, diesel, ...
was not available in 1907, this had to be achieved by detonating carefully-positioned charges of dynamite
Dynamite is an explosive made of nitroglycerin, sorbents (such as powdered shells or clay), and Stabilizer (chemistry), stabilizers. It was invented by the Swedish people, Swedish chemist and engineer Alfred Nobel in Geesthacht, Northern Germa ...
. The work to place the explosive charges was hazardous, and took several days, as it could only be undertaken by divers at high or low tide when there was little tidal movement. The move was a success, and on 2 April the aft half of the ship floated free. The exposed watertight bulkhead remained secure, and ''Suevic'' was able to steam under her own power, in reverse and guided by tugs, to Southampton
Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...
. The damaged bow was left on the rocks to be broken up by the waves, as well as to be scavenged by locals. Whatever was left of the bow was broken up by the pounding waves on the night of 9/10 May 1907.[
]
Rebuilding
''Suevic''s stern was taken first to Southampton's Test Quay where it docked on 4 April, and attracted considerable crowds and publicity. Two days later, it was taken to be dry dock
A dry dock (sometimes drydock or dry-dock) is a narrow basin or vessel that can be flooded to allow a load to be floated in, then drained to allow that load to come to rest on a dry platform. Dry docks are used for the construction, maintenance, ...
ed at the Trafalgar drydock, owned by Harland & Wolff, where preliminary repair work was undertaken. White Star then ordered a new bow section from Harland and Wolff in Belfast, which was slightly longer than the original to allow proper grafting. The new bow was launched head-first on 5 October 1907. It was popularly said at the time that ''Suevic'' was the longest ship in the world, with her bow in Belfast and her stern in Southampton.
The new bow arrived on 26 October. By mid-November it was in position and being joined to the rest of the ship. Men from the shipbuilders, J. I. Thornycroft, in Southampton were also employed to assist the Harland and Wolff workforce in getting ''Suevic'' rebuilt as quickly as possible. The bow was a good fit, a testimony to the craftsmanship of the Harland and Wolff shipwrights.[ Three months later, after the largest ship-rebuilding effort ever undertaken at the time, on 14 January 1908, ''Suevic'' was completed and returned to service.][
Whilst the rebuilding was underway, ''Suevic''s master, Captain Jones, was found liable for her wrecking at the Court of Enquiry, and had his Certificate of Competency suspended for three months, although the trip had been his last before his retirement.]
War service
When the First World War
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 ...
began, many British ships were pressed into war service. The ability to carry frozen meat in their refrigerated holds meant that the Jubilee-class liners were left in commercial service so that they could bring provisions for the war effort, although they also carried troops on their normal route. ''Suevic'' did make one dedicated war run, in March 1915, carrying British troops to Moudros
Moudros ( el, Μούδρος) is a town and a former municipality on the island of Lemnos, North Aegean, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Lemnos
Lemnos or Limnos ( el, Λήμνος; grc, Λῆμν ...
, as a part of the Dardanelles Campaign. From that point, until 1919, ''Suevic'' operated under the Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...
's Liner Requisition Scheme rather than under White Star management, although she continued on her commercial route to Australia.[
In military service, she was known as Hired Military Australian Transport, HMAT A29 ''Suevic'' and made several journeys.
]
Post War
Following the war, White Star refitted ''Suevic'' in 1920, modernising her passenger accommodation which was reconfigured to carry 266 second-class passengers, after which she returned to the Australian service with her remaining sisters ''Medic'', ''Persic'' and ''Runic'' (her fourth sister ''Afric'' having been lost in the war). In March 1924, she completed her 50th voyage on that route. In the late-1920s White Star began withdrawing the Jubilee-class ships from service, ''Suevic'' continued in service with White Star until she was retired in 1928.
As ''Skytteren''
In October 1928, White Star sold her to Yngvar Hvistendahl's Finnhval A/S of Tønsberg
Tønsberg , historically Tunsberg, is a city and municipality in Vestfold og Telemark county, eastern Norway, located around south-southwest of Oslo on the western coast of the Oslofjord near its mouth onto the Skagerrak. The administrative ce ...
, Norway
Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...
for £35,000. She was renamed ''Skytteren'' and sent to Germaniawerft at Kiel
Kiel () is the capital and most populous city in the northern Germany, German state of Schleswig-Holstein, with a population of 246,243 (2021).
Kiel lies approximately north of Hamburg. Due to its geographic location in the southeast of the J ...
to be converted into a whaling factory ship. The conversion involved the installation of a stern ramp, whereby whale carcasses could be hauled onto deck, and the installation of tanks with the capacity for 80,000 barrels of whale oil
Whale oil is oil obtained from the blubber of whales. Whale oil from the bowhead whale was sometimes known as train oil, which comes from the Dutch word ''traan'' ("tears, tear" or "drop").
Sperm oil, a special kind of oil obtained from the ...
. ''Skytteren'' was then employed on the Antarctic whaling fleet.
When Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
invaded Norway in the Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, ''Skytteren'' was interned in the neutral port of Gothenburg
The municipally-owned Port of Gothenburg ( sv, Göteborgs hamn) is the largest port in the Nordic countries, with over 11,000 ship visits per year from over 140 destinations worldwide. As the only Swedish port with the capacity to cope with the ...
, Sweden, with several other Norwegian ships in April 1940. The exiled Norwegian government claimed these ships as its property, which was contested by the collaborationist Nasjonal Samling
Nasjonal Samling (, NS; ) was a Norwegian far-right political party active from 1933 to 1945. It was the only legal party of Norway from 1942 to 1945. It was founded by former minister of defence Vidkun Quisling and a group of supporters such a ...
government
A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state.
In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is a ...
in occupied Norway. However, a court ruling favoured the exiled government's claim.[
On 1 April 1942, ten Norwegian ships at Gothenburg made an attempt to escape into ]Allied
An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...
-controlled waters, where they would be met and protected by a group of British warships. However, Sweden would not allow the Norwegian ships to use their neutral waters for this, and so Swedish ships steered the escapers towards international waters. The Germans, however, had been tipped off about the escape attempt and were lying in wait. Of the ten, only two made it through to the British, two turned back to Gothenburg, two were sunk by the Germans, and the remaining four, of which ''Skytteren'' was one, were scuttled
Scuttling is the deliberate sinking of a ship. Scuttling may be performed to dispose of an abandoned, old, or captured vessel; to prevent the vessel from becoming a navigation hazard; as an act of self-destruction to prevent the ship from being ...
by their crews after being confronted by German warships. ''Skytteren'' was scuttled in the waters off Måseskär, Sweden, with the loss of one crew member. The rest of her 111 strong crew were captured by the Germans and taken as prisoners of war
A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held Captivity, captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610.
Belligerents hold priso ...
.[
]
Wreck
The wreck of ''Skytteren'' lies at a depth of around at the position () lying starboard side up with her bow facing to the west.[ ''Skytteren'' was carrying a large amount of oil in her tanks when she sank. For several years after 2005, oil was observed to be leaking to the surface from the decaying wreck, leading to concerns about the potential environmental threat.]
References
External links
S.S. Suevic - A Passenger's Diary
* illustrated description of the wreck and salvage of SS ''Suevic''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Suevic
1900 ships
Cornish shipwrecks
Maritime incidents in 1907
Maritime incidents in April 1942
Ships built by Harland and Wolff
Ships built in Belfast
Ships of the White Star Line
Troop ships of the United Kingdom
Whaling ships
World War II merchant ships of Norway
World War II shipwrecks in the Baltic Sea
Scuttled vessels