Then, there were these “stationary target ships”, that was in one case torpedoed, and at least one other was rammed and sank by a freighter. Even washed up on the beach during a hurricane, dragging a 5500 pound anchor.
Thanks for the update. I knew it was a sub and when I think sub I think torpedo. But from reading WW 1 history I remember at times the sub would allow the ships crew and or passengers a chance to abandon ship before shelling the ship.
Just been watching a youtube video about the African Queen story. This ship is still sailing. It was built in 1913, the last warship built for the Imperial German Navy.
SS John W. Brown, launched September 7th, 1942.
One of only two remaining, operational Liberty Ships (out of 2710 built).
Designed and intended for a single one-way trip; this one made 13 wartime round trips, was involved in the D-Day invasion and Operation Dragoon, was a vocational maritime high school for the state of New York until 1986. She is still fully operational, maintains a USCG COI, and acts as a museum ship, training ship for a number of organizations, and is a USCG authorized training school (Fireman/Watertender training program).
Video taken a week and a half ago during her return trip from the shipyard. Picture taken from the bridge wing of an inbound ship, NOT a drone. She turns 82 in a few days.
I was unaware of this amazing logistics feat (from the Wikipedia link):
Graf von Goetzen was built in 1913 in Germany. […] After preliminary assembly Goetzen was taken apart and shipped in 5000 boxes loaded on three cargo vessels to Dar es Salaam in German East Africa (modern day Burundi, Rwanda and Tanganyika (the mainland part of present Tanzania)). From there the trains of the Mittellandbahn [Central Line] carried the boxes to Kigoma. She was rebuilt there in 1914 and launched on 5 February 1915.
I have mentioned the Orient Explorer (ex Sognefjord ex HMS Kilham ex PCE 833) in several posts on the forum, like here: Back to the stone age? - #4 by ombugge
After several galant attempts to save her she is now at a shipbreaking yard in Malaysia, Here a picture from 01.Sept. 2024:
Both pictures by Dean Aldrian in KK via Knut Dale, M/S Sognefjord
Today a post from Mathias Eriksson who more or less grew up onboard her as the “Orion II” during the time his father owned her and operated her as a cruise boat in Finland and out of Cyprus (1987-97):
Pullman Standard Car Manufacturing designed and built the ship in Chicago in 1943. David Sandved designed the rebuilding of the ship at Haugesund Mek. Verksted in 1949/50.
Anybody has any info for Mathias about her US building yard, or time as HMS Kilham?
When I was a little boy in the 1960-ties, Stella Polaris was the most famous ship that visited Geiranger. Here is a photo of the ship in Geiranger in 1959, Photo: Normann.
“MY «Stella Polaris» was a motor yacht built for the Bergen Steamship Company (BDS). The ship was build number 400 at the Swedish shipyard Götaverken in Gothenburg. She was launched on 11 September 1926 and handed over in February 1927. The ship was 127 meters long (including bowsprit) and had room for 200 passengers.
MY “Stella Polaris” sailed on cruises around the world and became not only the company’s most famous ship, but also one of the most famous cruise ships in the world. During World War II, she was requisitioned by the German occupying forces and used as a lodging ship for German soldiers. In 1951, the ship was sold to the Swedish shipping company Clipper Line, but continued in cruise traffic until 1969 when she was sold to Japan and anchored as a restaurant and hotel ship. In August 2006, the ship sank off Japan under tow to China.” Source: Wikipedia.
The ship for Fridjof Nansen’s 1893 Arctic expedition was launched at Colin Archer’s shipyard in Larvik on 26 October, 1892.
Eva, Nansen’s wife, christened the ship Fram.
Image: Nasjonalbiblioteket
The Fram is preserved at the Fram Museum in Oslo, where can still be visited:
At the same place is also the Gjøa that was used by Roald Amundsen for the first successful North West Passage transit in 1903-06.
She is now also preserved in a climate controlled enclosure: