SMS Seeadler (auxiliary cruiser)
Pass of Balmaha, later SMS Seeadler
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| History | |
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 German Empire
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| Name: | SMS Seeadler |
| Namesake: | sea eagle |
| Ordered: | 1888 as Pass of Balmaha |
| Builder: | R Duncan & co |
| Launched: | 1888 |
| Acquired: | 1915 |
| Commissioned: | 1915 |
| Fate: | Wrecked 2 August 1917 |
| General characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 4500 tons (1,571 GRT) |
| Length: | 83.5 m |
| Beam: | 11.8 m |
| Draught: | 5.5 m |
| Installed power: | 900 hp |
| Propulsion: | 1 shaft auxiliary diesel engine |
| Sail plan: | 3 masts, full rig, 2,600 square metres (28,000 sq ft) sail area |
| Speed: | 9 knots (17 km/h) |
| Complement: | 64 |
| Armament: | 2 × 105mm guns |
SMS Seeadler (Ger: sea eagle) was a three-master windjammer. She was one of the last fighting sailing ships to be used in war when she served as a merchant raider with Imperial Germany in World War I. Built as the US-flagged Pass of Balmaha, she was captured by the German submarine SM U-36, and in 1916 converted to a commerce raider. As Seeadler she had a successful raiding career, capturing and sinking 15 ships in 225 days until she was wrecked, in September 1917, in French Polynesia.
Originally named Pass of Balmaha, she was built by Robert Duncan Company, Port Glasgow, Scotland, in 1888. She was a 1,571 GRT steel-hulled sailing vessel 245 feet (75 m) long owned by the Harris-Irby Cotton Company, Boston.
She was captured by U-36 in the North Sea en route to Kirkwall. The circumstances of her capture are somewhat peculiar. She departed from New York Harbor in June 1915. Originally bound for the Arctic port of Arkhangelsk to deliver a cargo of cotton for the Russian war effort, she was intercepted by the British auxiliary cruiser Victorian off the coast of Norway. A boarding party was sent aboard to inspect the cargo for contraband, headed by the captain of the cruiser. The British captain found reason to find the ship suspect, and ordered the captain of the Pass, Captain Scott, to set sail for Kirkwall in the Orkney Islands for further inspection. A prize crew of one officer and six marines was left aboard to ensure that Scott did not alter his course.
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Wikipedia