SS Glitra

SS Glitra was a steam ship that was the first British merchant vessel to be sunk by a German submarine in the First World War.

History
United Kingdom
Name: SS Glitra
Owner:
Builder: Swan Hunter, Newcastle upon Tyne
Launched: 3 March 1881
Christened: Saxon Prince
Renamed: Glitra (1895)
Homeport: Leith
Fate: Captured and scuttled by U-17 20 October 1914
General characteristics
Tonnage: 866 tons
Length: 215 ft (65.53 m)
Beam: 30 ft (9.14 m)
Draught: 6 ft (1.83 m)
Speed: 9 knots (17 km/h)

History

SS Saxon Prince was the first ship built for Prince Steam Shipping Ltd., otherwise known as "Prince Line". She was launched on 3 March 1881, and in 1884 entered service with Prince Line. She served for eleven years with Prince Line and was then sold to Christian Salvesen in 1895. Saxon Prince was renamed Glitra and served with Christian Salvesen for nineteen years. She was fated to be the first British merchant vessel sunk by German submarine in the First World War.[1]

Capture and sinking
Kapitänleutnant Johannes Feldkirchener

On 20 October 1914, Glitra was outbound from Grangemouth with a destination of Stavanger, Norway laden with coal, iron plate and oil when she was stopped and searched 14 nautical miles (26 km) west southwest of Skudenes, Rogaland, Norway by the German U-boat U-17, under the command of Kapitänleutnant Johannes Feldkirchener. The stop and search was done in accordance with the "prize rules" of war. The crew were ordered into the lifeboats, and once all were safely aboard the captors opened the sea valves and scuttled Glitra.[1][2]

As U-17 searched and scuttled Glitra the two vessels were being observed by the Royal Norwegian Navy 1. class torpedo boat HNoMS Hai on neutrality protection duties. The Norwegians did not interfere with the incident itself, as it took place outside Norwegian territorial waters, but after U-17 left the scene Hai took the British lifeboats under tow and brought the crewmen to the southwestern Norwegian port of Skudeneshavn.[3]

Thus Glitra became the first British merchant vessel to be lost to a German submarine[4]

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See also
  • Defensively Equipped Merchant Ships

References
  1. "s.s. GLITRA". Facta Nautica. Retrieved 24 March 2008.(Polish)
  2. "British Merchant Ships Lost to Enemy Action Part 1 of 3 - Years 1914, 1915, 1916 in date order". Naval History. Retrieved 20 January 2013.
  3. Jon Rustung Hegland, & Johan Henrik Lilleheim (1998). Norske torpedobåter gjennom 125 år (in Norwegian). Hundvåg: Sjømilitære Samfund ved Norsk Tidsskrift for Sjøvesen. p. 43. ISBN 82-994738-1-0.
  4. Helgason, Guðmundur. "Ships hit during WWI: Glitra". German and Austrian U-boats of World War I - Kaiserliche Marine - Uboat.net. Retrieved 24 March 2008.

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