Pass of Balmaha

A fullrigged steel ship built in 1888 by Robert Duncan & Co., Port Glasgow as Yard No. 237. Dimensions: 245'4"×38'8"×22'5" and tonnage: 1571 GRT, 1498 NRT and 1453 tons under deck.

1888 August: Launched at the shipyard of Robert Duncan & Co., Port Glasgow, for Gibson & Clark, Glasgow. Assigned the official British Reg. No. 95087 and signal KTRP. Captain A. Hay was given command of the new vessel.
1899: Sailed from Newcastle, NSW, to Sourabaya in 42 days under Captain Scougall.
1900: Sailed from Buenos Ayres to Newcastle, NSW, in 42 days under Captain Scougall.
1901: Sailed from Caledonia to Isle of Wight in 103 days.
1908: Sold to River Plate Shipping Co., USA.
1908: Sailed from Piver Plate to Boston, MA, in 34 days under Captain Dick Lee.
1915 March 15: Stranded at Rantum/Sylt during a thick fog with a cargo of 1500 tons of cotton.
1915 March 30: Refloated and towed to Bremen after 2/3 of the cargo had unloaded.
1915: Arrested by the British Royal Navy on voyage from New York to Archangel with a cargo of cotton who could not rule out that the cargo was intended for the Germans. Sent to Kirkwall, Orkney Islands, with a prize crew of six men and an officer.
1915 August 3: Captured by the German submarine U-36 and sent to Cuxhaven. Renamed the Walter and was sent to Geestemünde and rebuilt at the Joh. C. Tecklenborg A.-G. Equipped with a 1500 hp aux. engine, two 4,2 inch guns, machine-guns and a wireless set.
1916 December 21: Left Bremerhaven disguised as the Norwegain barque Irma under command of Count Felix von Luckner to act as a commerce raider.
1916 December 25: Intercepted by the British aux. cruiser Avenger 180 miles south of Iceland but was not recognised as a German raider and was released.
1917 January 9: Captured and sank the British steamer Gladys Royle in position 37°50'N, 20°15'W on voyage from Cardiff to Buenos Ayres with a cargo of coal.
1917 January 9: Captured and sank the British steamer Lundy Island 190 miles SEbE of Santa Maria, Azores, on voyage from Mauritius to Nantes with a cargo of sugar.
1917 January 19: Captured and sank the French barque Charles Gounod by explosives in pos. 8°N, 26°W, in the South Atlantic, which was on voyage from Durban to Havre with a cargo of maize.
1917 January 28: Captured and sank the British aux. schooner Percy in position 2°49'S, 27°16'W on voyage from Halifax to Santos with a cargo of fish & lumber.
1917 February 3: Captured and sank the French four-masted barque Antonin (1902) in position 7°N, 36° W on voyage from Iquique to Brest. Under command of Captain F. Lecoq.
1917 February 19: Captured the British four-masted barque Pinmore off the coast of Argentina on voyage from Buenos Ayres to England with a cargo of saltpetre. The capturer sailed the Pinmore into Rio de la Plata to buy stores and then returned to the Seeadler which had been waiting off the coast. The Pinmore was subsequently sunk.
1917 February 7: Captured and sank the Italian full-rigged ship Buenos Ayres in the South Atlantic on voyage from Iquique to Gibraltar with a cargo of saltpetre.
1917 February 26: Captured and sank the British barque British Yeoman in position 4°N, 32°W on voyage from Buenos Ayres to Nantes with a cargo of wheat.
1917 February 27: Captured and sank the French full-rigged ship La Rochefoucauld by gun-fire in pos. 5&feg;N, 31°30'W, in the South Atlantic, which was on voyage from Iquique with a cargo of saltpetre to Rochefort under command of Captain Malbert.
1917 March 5: Captured and sank the French barque Dupleix in pos. 1°30'N, 28°W, the Atlantic, which was on voyage from Iquique to France with a cargo of saltpetre.
1917 March 11: Captured and sank the British steam ship Horngarth in position 2°15'N, 26°20'W on voyage from Montevideo to Plymouth with a cargo of maize.
1917 March 21: Captured the French barque Cambronne in position 20°10'S, 28°05'W on voyage from Iquique to Brest with a cargo of saltpetre. The 263 prisoners on board the Seeadler were transferred to the Cambronne and her top-gallant masts were removed and the spare sails and spars thrown overboard before she was allowed to sail for Buenos Ayres under command of Captain John Mullen late of the Pinmore.
1917 June 14: Captured and sank the American four-masted schooner A.B. Johnson in position 2°S, 150°W on voyage from Willapa to Newcastle with a cargo of lumber.
1917 June 17: Captured and sank the American four-masted schooner R.C. Slade in position 2°N, 150°W on voyage from Sydney to San Francisco with a cargo of copra.
1917 July 8: Captured and sank the American four-masted schooner Manila in position 10°N, 144°W on voyage from Newcastel to Honolulu with a cargo of coal.
1917 August 2: Wrecked by a tidal wave caused by an underwater earth quake while careened at the Mopelia Island, Society Group.

References:

Square-rigged ships, general references.
Harksen, Helmut: Die Strandung der "Pass of Balmaha" vor Sylt im Jahre 1915.
Das Logbuch 15. Jg, Heidesheim, 1979. pp 59-60, ill.
Luckner, Felix von: Havet mitt liv.
Berghs förlag, Stockholm, 1968. 8vo, 224 pp.
Luckner, Felix von: Seeteufel
1921.
Luckner, Felix von: Seeteufel, Abenteuer aus meinem Leben.
Verlag K.F. Koehler, Leipzig, 1921-1923. In Deutschland im Weltkrieg V.

Updated 1998-01-19 by Lars Bruzelius

Sjöhistoriska Samfundet | The Maritime History Virtual Archives | Ships | Search.