Obdam (ship)
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The Obdam was a passenger ship put into service in 1881 , which was used from 1889 to 1898 by the Dutch shipping company Holland-America Line as a transatlantic liner on the North Atlantic and carried passengers , freight and mail from Rotterdam to New York . In the 37 years of its service, the ship had six different names and sailed under several national flags for at least half a dozen different owners until it was sunk by a German submarine on August 30, 1918 off the coast of St. Ives in the Bristol Channel .
The ship
The later Obdam was built by Harland & Wolff in Belfast , Northern Ireland , and was launched on November 4, 1880. On January 15, 1881, the 3,558 GRT steamship was handed over to its owners under the name British Queen (I). The British Queen was a 128.10 meter long and 11.82 meter wide, iron- built passenger and cargo ship, which had three decks , four masts and the rigging of a schooner bar. The four-cylinder compound steam engine drove a single propeller and was able to ensure an average cruising speed of 10 knots and a maximum speed of 12 knots. The machine output was 1200 PSi . The passenger accommodation could accommodate 112 first class passengers, 72 second class passengers and 430 third class passengers. 1210 tons of coal could be stored in the ship's coal bunkers .
Owner of the vessel was in 1864 by businessman and shipowner in James Beazley (1819-1891) Liverpool shipping company founded British Shipowners Company . This shipping company was unusual for its time in that it regularly chartered its ships for longer periods to other shipping companies, for example to the Anchor Line , American Line , Cunard , New Zealand Shipping or Shaw, Savill & Albion .
The British Queen had three sister ships : the British Empire (I) (3,607 GRT, 1878), the British Crown (I) (3,607 GRT, 1879) and the British King (II) (3,559 GRT, 1881). These three ships later also went to the Holland-America Line and were named Rotterdam (II), Amsterdam (II) and Werkendam .
Early years (1881-1889)
On January 31, 1881, the British Queen sailed from Liverpool to Philadelphia on her maiden voyage on the American Line . She stayed on this route for the next two years. From March 22, 1883, she made four crossings from London to New Zealand for the Shaw, Savill & Albion Steamship Company . Between May 28 and October 29, 1885, there were three Atlantic crossings between London and New York for the Anchor Line , followed by four trips on the London– Halifax - Boston route for the same shipping company between December 1885 and June 1886. In the In the first half of 1887 the British Queen operated for the Inman Line between Liverpool and New York and then until November 1888 for the Furness Line between London and Boston.
Holland-America Line (1889–1898)
In January 1889 it was sold to the Dutch Nederlandsch-Amerikaansche Stoomvaart Maatschappij NV (NASM), better known as Holland-America Line (HAL), which also bought and renamed other older ships from the British Shipowners Company and the White Star Line during the period . The British Queen was named Obdam and was equipped with accommodation for 80 passengers in first, 60 in second and 800 in third class. After completion of the renovations, the Obdam cast off on March 23, 1889 in Rotterdam for her first crossing for the HAL to New York.
In 1890 the ship was equipped with electric lights and in 1896 the old compound steam engine was replaced with new triple expansion steam engines . This increased the ship's maximum speed to 15 knots. In addition, the promenade deck was expanded.
On March 4, 1893, the Obdam ran aground in suddenly changing weather on the Roamer Shoals sandbar in the Hudson River . The same thing happened to at least three other ships on the same day, including the French CGT's La Gascogne ocean liner . During another crossing in October 1895 the wave of the ship broke, so that the Obdam had to break off the voyage to New York and be towed by the Pennland of the Red Star Line to Halifax. The last crossing from Rotterdam to New York began on June 9, 1898.
Sales and war missions (1898–1918)
On June 24, 1898, the Obdam was bought along with seven ships of the Atlantic Transport Line by the US government, as this was interested in using them as a troop transport in the Spanish-American War of 1898 . As the USS Obdam (Troop Transport No. 30), it was able to carry 50 officers, 1,300 soldiers and 100 horses . In February 1899 the ship was given the new name McPherson . It stayed in the US Army for a total of six years .
In 1905, the New York-based Frank Zotti Steamship Company, founded by the Croatian-American shipping agent and banker Frank Zotti (1872-1947), bought the ship and renamed it Brooklyn . She was the first ship acquired by this company. On October 19, 1905, the first of five round trips on Brooklyn began from New York via the Azores to Naples and Genoa and back (the last took place in June 1906).
In 1908, the now 25-year-old ship went to the Luckenbach Steamship Company ( Luckenbach Line ) founded by Lewis Luckenbach in New York in 1850 and was named Susan V. Luckenbach (II). The last sale came in 1914, this time to the Onega Steamship Company in New York, for which the ship was used as an Onega .
On August 30, 1918, the Onega was torpedoed and sunk in the Bristol Channel on the Cornish coast by the German submarine UB 125 (Oberleutnant zur See Werner Vater) at position 50 ° 17 ′ N , 5 ° 22 ′ W. The ship was en route from Bordeaux to Swansea with a load of pit punches . 26 people were killed by the sinking. The Onega was the largest ship sunk by UB 125 .