M/S Seattle - A wreck from the Fjords
Posted By Steve Copeland on 3 October 2003
The M/S Seattle, a cargo ship displacing nearly 8,000 tons and built in 1928
in Hamburg, met its watery fate on 8 April 1940 during world war two, after
being ablaze in the Kristiansand fjords for 3 days. Sailing past the south
of Kristiansand looking for a safe haven to avoid severe fog the ship came
under fire from the Germans, racing to find cover the ship headed for
Kristiansand, only to come under fire from the Norwegian forces!
Following several hits from the Norwegian guns she caught fire and drifted
unmanned and ablaze for three days, before finally hitting the side of the
fjord with her stern. The impact caused her to break her back and start
sinking rapidly into the cold waters, finally coming to rest on the sea bed
in approximately 85 meters of water. On hitting the sloping seabed, the
vesse'ls steel hull tore once again as she settled into her final
resting-place. Fortunately, the Captain and crew were able to escape the
ship in the lifeboats and so she went down with no loss of life. The ship
was 145 meters long; nearly eighteen meters wide and had a draft of over
eight meters.
Her accommodation comprised of cabins for twenty-four first class passengers, twenty-four second class passengers and crew quarters but her primary role Captained by Captain Hermann Lehmann was as a cargo ship ferrying supplies for the war effort. She was driven by a single screw, with 5400 horsepower engines and capable of 14 knots. At the time of her sinking, her holds were allegedly empty but rumors still abound that she was carrying some precious metals, possibly even gold in the forward holds. With a distance from the end of the shotline on the funnel to the seabed of nearly 40 meters this is a seriously impressive wreck and an incredible dive.
So here we were in the depths of Norwegian winter readying ourselves to dive
one of the most notorious of Scandinavian technical dives. Preparing our kit
was an experience in its self, preparing stage cylinders and regulators in
the freezing conditions requires special care to prevent first and second
stage freezing and the resulting unwanted freeflows. Here was where we had
the biggest advantage as we were using our Inspiration rebreathers for the
dive which have proven themselves on our other trips here to be fairly well
impervious to the extreme cold. But the stage cylinders, needed in case of a
bailout, still needed special attention. We were also to be very grateful of
the warm breathing gas and the accelerated decompression the units provided
us with! Loading our kit onto what appeared at the time to be a very small
boat we readied ourselves for the 10 minute ride out into the fjord. Finally
arriving at a small white buoy marking the site of the wreck.
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