SS Dresden (1896)

The SS Dresden was a British passenger ship which operated, as such, from 1897 to 1915. She is known as the place of the 1913 disappearance of German engineer Rudolf Diesel, inventor of the Diesel engine. The ship was built in 1897 by the Earle Company at Hull for the Great Eastern Railway. She operated on the North Sea route between Harwich and the Hook of Holland.[2] She was renamed HMS Louvain in 1915 and was used by the Royal Navy in World War I.[2] until her loss in 1918.

For other ships with the same name, see SS Dresden.

Dresden in 1915, painting by A. J. Jansen
History
United Kingdom
Name
  • SS Dresden (1897–1915)
  • HMS Louvain (1915–18)
Owner
  • Great Eastern Railway (1897–1915)
  • Royal Navy (1915–18)
Port of registry
  • United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland Harwich (1897–1915)
  • United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland Royal Navy (1915–18)
RouteHarwich - Hook of Holland (1897–1915)
BuilderEarle Company
Launched17 November 1896[1]
FateSunk 21 January 1918
General characteristics
Tonnage1,830 GRT

Diesel's Disappearance
Dresden in Antwerp Harbour, 1913

On 29 September 1913 Rudolf Diesel, German engineer who invented the Diesel engine, boarded the Dresden at Antwerp, Belgium on his way to a meeting in London.[3] He retired to his cabin about 22:00 with a request to be called at 06:15 in the morning, but he was not seen alive again. Later a Dutch ship found a body floating in the sea and from the items and clothes recovered the remains were identified as Diesel's.[3]

Royal Navy

In 1915 Dresden was taken over by the admiralty as an armed boarding steamer and renamed HMS Louvain.[2] On 21 January 1918, she was torpedoed by the Imperial German Navy submarine SM UC-22 in the Aegean Sea[4] with the loss of seven officers and 217 men.[2] There were only 16 survivors.[5]

The dead included 70 Maltese naval ratings, which made the loss of the ship Malta's largest incident of loss of life during the war. A Naval and Dockyard Families Help Society was set up to help the families of the Maltese victims of the sinking.[6]

References
  1. "The Great Eastern Railway Co.'s Steamer "Dresden"". The Marine Engineer and Naval Architect. 1 September 1897. pp. 206–207.
  2. "Naval Vessel Sunk. Louvain Torpedoed in Mediterranean., Loss of 224 Lives". News. The Times. No. 41704. London. 4 February 1918. col F, p. 6.
  3. "Dr. Diesel's Disappearance. Discovery of a Body in the Scheldt". News. The Times. No. 40342. London. 14 October 1913. col F, p. 8.
  4. "Great Eastern Railway". The Ships List. Archived from the original on 31 December 2009. Retrieved 1 November 2010.
  5. "HMS Louvain Commemorative Page". Gaunt and Salway. Retrieved 28 March 2015.
  6. Galea, Michael (9 September 2018). "More wartime newspaper snippets from 1918" (PDF). The Sunday Times of Malta. pp. 54–55. Archived from the original (PDF) on 14 March 2020.
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