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Pass of Balmaha, later SMS Seeadler
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History | |
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United Kingdom | |
Name | Pass of Balmaha |
Namesake | Pass of Balmaha |
Owner | |
Port of registry | Glasgow |
Builder | Robert Duncan and Company, Port Glasgow |
Yard number | 237 |
Launched | 9 August 1888 |
In service | 5 September 1888 |
Out of service | 1914 |
Identification | ON 95087 |
Fate | Wrecked on 2 August 1917 on a reef at the island of Mopelia |
United States | |
Name | Pass of Balmaha |
Owner | Harby Steamship Company, New York |
Port of registry | Boston, Massachusetts |
Acquired | 1914 |
Out of service | 1915 |
German Empire | |
Name | SMS Seeadler |
Namesake | sea eagle |
Acquired | 1915 |
Commissioned | 1915 |
Fate | Wrecked 2 August 1917 |
General characteristics | |
Displacement | 4500 tons (1,571 GRT) |
Length | 83.5 m (273 ft 11 in) |
Beam | 11.8 m (38 ft 9 in) |
Draught | 5.5 m (18 ft 1 in) |
Installed power | 900 hp (670 kW) |
Propulsion |
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Sail plan | 3 masts, full rig, 2,600 square metres (28,000 sq ft) sail area |
Speed | 9 kn (16.7 km/h; 10.4 mph) when using engine |
Complement | 64 |
Armament |
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SMS Seeadler (Ger: sea eagle) was a three-masted steel-hulled sailing ship. She was one of the last fighting sailing ships to be used in war when she served as a merchant raider with Imperial Germany in World War I. Built as the British-flagged Pass of Balmaha, she was captured by the German submarine SM U-36, and in 1916 converted to a commerce raider. As Seeadler she had a successful raiding career, capturing and sinking 15 ships in 225 days until she was wrecked, in 2 August 1917, in French Polynesia.