 SSAppam circa 1915 | |
| History | |
|---|---|
| Name |
|
| Owner | British & African Steam Navigation Company |
| Builder | Harland & Wolff,Belfast |
| Yard number | 431 |
| Launched | 10 October 1912 |
| Completed | 27 February 1913 |
| Fate | Scrapped in 1936 |
| General characteristics | |
| Tonnage | 7,781 gross register tons (GRT) |
| Length | 425 ft (130 m) |
| Beam | 57 ft (17 m) |
SSAppam was a British steamship owned by the British & African Steam Navigation Company, a subsidiary ofElder Dempster Shipping Limited, that was captured at sea by the German raiderSMS Möwe in 1916. The Germans took the ship to port atHampton Roads inVirginia in the United States where theSupreme Court of the United States decided who would get ownership of the vessel.
Appam was built in 1913 byHarland & Wolff inBelfast, United Kingdom. She had agross register tonnage of 7,781 and was 425 feet long with a 57 foot beam.[1]
On 11 January 1916 the ship leftDakar in Senegal forPlymouth, United Kingdom, carrying 168 passengers and 133 crew members. Among the passengers were: SirFrancis Charles Fuller, the BritishChief Commissioner to theAshanti Region; and SirEdward Merewether, theGovernor of the Leeward Islands, and wife. By 15 January communication with the vessel stopped and the vessel was thought to have sunk when an empty lifeboat was spotted.[1]
In actuality, withWorld War I raging, theImperial German Navymerchant raiderSMS Möwe capturedAppam on 15 January 1916. The Germans put aprize crew aboardAppam, and, under German control as aprize,Appam separated fromMöwe on 17 January and made her way to theUnited States, where she went into port atHampton Roads, Virginia. The United States was aneutral country at the time, soAppam's British owners filed suit inU.S. federal court to haveAppam returned to them. On 29 July 1916, U.S. Federal JudgeEdmund Waddill of Virginia directed thatAppam, along with the cargo remaining aboard her and the proceeds of her perishable cargo that already had been sold, be returned at once to the ship′s British owners.[2]
TheGerman Empire appealed the decision to theSupreme Court of the United States, which heard the case asThe Steamship Appam,243 U.S. 124 (1917). On 6 March 1917, the Supreme Court found in favour of the British owners, handing down a decision that a belligerent nation may not bring prizes of war into a neutral port. On 28 March 1917,Appam was returned to her British owners and renamed SSMandingo, before reverting to her original name at the end of the war.[2]
Media related toAppam (ship, 1912) at Wikimedia Commons| International | |
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Shipwrecks and maritime incidents in January 1916 | |
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