SMS Seeadler (1915)
Pass of Balmaha, later SMS Seeadler | |
| History | |
|---|---|
| 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 |
|
| 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 |
|
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.