SS Dresden (1896)
{{other ships|SS Dresden}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2020}}
| {{Infobox ship begin}}
{{Infobox ship image | Ship image =A. J. Jansen - SS 'Dresden' ESX COM COLEM 1963 614 4-001.jpg | Ship caption =Dresden in 1915, painting by A. J. Jansen }} {{Infobox ship career | Hide header = | Ship country = United Kingdom | Ship flag ={{shipboxflag|United Kingdom|civil}} | Ship name =*Dresden (1897–1915)
| Ship namesake = | Ship owner =*Great Eastern Railway (1897–1915)
| Ship operator = | Ship registry =*{{flagicon|UKGBI|civil}} Harwich (1897–1915)
| Ship route = Harwich - Hook of Holland (1897–1915) | Ship ordered = | Ship awarded = | Ship builder = Earle Company | Ship original cost = | Ship yard number = | Ship way number = | Ship laid down = | Ship launched = 17 November 1896{{cite magazine |title=The Great Eastern Railway Co.'s Steamer "Dresden"|magazine=The Marine Engineer and Naval Architect |date=1 September 1897|pages=206–207}} | Ship sponsor = | Ship christened = | Ship completed = | Ship acquired = | Ship commissioned = | Ship recommissioned = | Ship decommissioned = | Ship maiden voyage = | Ship in service = | Ship out of service = | Ship renamed = | Ship reclassified = | Ship refit = | Ship struck = | Ship reinstated = | Ship homeport = | Ship identification = | Ship motto = | Ship nickname = | Ship honours = | Ship honors = | Ship captured = | Ship fate =Sunk 21 January 1918 | Ship notes = | Ship badge = }} {{Infobox ship characteristics | Hide header = | Header caption = | Ship class = | Ship type = | Ship tonnage = {{GRT|1,830}} | Ship displacement = | Ship length = | Ship beam = | Ship height = | Ship draught = | Ship draft = | Ship depth = | Ship hold depth = | Ship decks = | Ship deck clearance = | Ship ramps = | Ship ice class = | Ship power = | Ship propulsion = | Ship sail plan = | Ship speed = | Ship range = | Ship endurance = | Ship test depth = | Ship boats = | Ship capacity = | Ship troops = | Ship complement = | Ship crew = | Ship time to activate = | Ship sensors = | Ship EW = | Ship armament = | Ship armour = | Ship armor = | Ship aircraft = | Ship aircraft facilities = | Ship notes = }} |
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. She was renamed HMS Louvain in 1915 and was used by the Royal Navy in World War I. until her loss in 1918.
Diesel's Disappearance
On 29 September 1913 Rudolf Diesel, German engineer who invented the diesel engine, boarded Dresden at Antwerp, Belgium on his way to a meeting in London. 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.
Royal Navy
In 1915 Dresden was taken over by the British Admiralty as an armed boarding steamer and renamed HMS Louvain. On 21 January 1918, she was torpedoed by the Imperial German Navy submarine {{SMU|UC-22}} in the Aegean Sea with the loss of seven officers and 217 men. There were only 16 survivors.
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.{{cite news |last1=Galea |first1=Michael |title=More wartime newspaper snippets from 1918 |url=https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/bitstream/123456789/52345/1/More_wartime_newspaper_snippets_from_1918.PDF |work=The Sunday Times of Malta |date=9 September 2018 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20200314125014/https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/bitstream/123456789/52345/1/More_wartime_newspaper_snippets_from_1918.PDF |archivedate=14 March 2020 |pages=54–55}}
References
{{reflist|refs=
{{Cite newspaper The Times
|title=Naval Vessel Sunk. Louvain Torpedoed in Mediterranean., Loss of 224 Lives
|department=News
|date=4 February 1918
|page=6
|issue=41704
|column=F
}}
{{Cite newspaper The Times
|title=Dr. Diesel's Disappearance. Discovery of a Body in the Scheldt
|department=News
|date=14 October 1913
|page=8
|issue=40342
|column=F
}}
{{cite web |url=http://www.theshipslist.com/ships/lines/feeders.html#eastern |title=Great Eastern Railway |publisher=The Ships List |accessdate=1 November 2010 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20091231142723/http://www.theshipslist.com/ships/lines/feeders.html#eastern |archivedate=31 December 2009}}
{{cite web|url=http://www.salways.co.uk/HMS%20Louvain%20Commemorative.htm |title=HMS Louvain Commemorative Page
|publisher=Gaunt and Salway |accessdate=28 March 2015}}
}}
External links
- {{Commons category-inline|Dresden (ship, 1896)}}
- [http://www.simplonpc.co.uk/LNERailway/GER_Dresden-01_700.jpg Postcard of Dresden]
- [http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/80023040 IWM Interview with survivor Charles Black]
{{GER Ships}}
{{January 1918 shipwrecks}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dresden}}
Category:Ships built on the Humber
Category:Steamships of the United Kingdom
Category:Merchant ships of the United Kingdom
Category:Ships of the Great Eastern Railway
Category:World War I merchant ships of the United Kingdom
Category:World War I naval ships of the United Kingdom
Category:Ships sunk by German submarines in World War I
Category:Maritime incidents in 1918