Baron Stjernblad

Ordered on 31st December 1888 the Baron Stjernblad was delivered to Det Forende Dampskibs Selskab (DFDS), Copenhagen in early March 1890 after four months of fitting out and extensive sea trials. She measured 203.9′ x 31.3′ x 15.8′ and her tonnage was 991 gross tons, 612 net tons.  She was powered by a triple expansion steam engine by Motola MV delivering 99 nominal horse power. DFDS had paid 314,000 Kroner for their new ship and immediately put her into service on her maiden voyage from Copenhagen to Stettin on 12th March, 1890.

Until the outbreak of World War One she was used on various routes in the Baltic and between the ports of the East Atlantic seaboard with a few voyages into the Western Mediterranean. Her career was mainly routine apart from an incident in March 1912 when, en route from Copenhagen to Reval with a general cargo, she ran aground. She was successfully refloated by two Russian salvage ships and returned to service after repairs to her damaged hull at A/S Kobenhavn Flydedok and Skibsverft costing 89,000 Kroner.

In April 1917 she arrived at Hull where she loaded a valuable general cargo and four passengers bound for her home port of Copenhagen. She was commanded by an experienced company captain named Sorensen who had a crew of seventeen men under his command. What they did not know was that, at the same time as they steamed out of Hull and set a route up the Scottish east coast, only a few miles off shore the German U-boat UC-44 commanded by Kapitanlieutnant Kurt Tebbenjohanns was on a deadly patrol attacking allied shipping in the area. Tebbenjohanns had left his home port in Helgoland on 15th April on a voyage that was to result in the loss of eleven allied or neutral vessels in the Western North Sea.

On the 23rd of April the steamship was attacked by the German submarine.  Only the previous day UC-44 had stopped the fishing vessel Nightingale south of Aberdeen and sunk her with gunfire after ordering the crew into their boats.  At 8:20am on the morning of the 23rd they attacked and sank the steamship Auriac off St Abbs Head, again with gunfire.  At 9:10am on a flat calm morning Tebbenjohanns spotted the Baron Stjernblad and he closed in to attack. 

His initial intention was to surface and sink her with gunfire thus avoiding using one of his valuable remaining torpedos but his earlier attack on Auriac had alerted the naval defences on the Firth of Forth and he spotted an airship heading towards the area.  He decided instead to fire a single torpedo which hit the Danish vessel but, although she was disabled and helpless, it was not sufficient to sink her instantly allowing the passengers and crew of the Baron Stjernblad to escape in the ship’s boats before she went down. They were picked up later by a passing fishing vessel.  

Tebbenjohanns later reported he was attacked by depth charges as he fled the scene but was undamaged by the explosions although they did come close to his ship. Indeed he went on the sink yet another steamship, SS Scot, in the same area later that same day before he set course to return to base

The wreck of the Baron Stjernblad lies in position 55° 55.651’N, 01° 55.984’W. Oriented 050°/230°,  she lies in 74 metres with a least depth over the wreck of 64 metres. The wreck is somewhat broken and partially buried on a rock and sand seabed. The wreck was positively identified by local divers when first, uniform buttons with DFDS crest, then conclusively identified with the recovery of the ship’s bell clearly inscribed ‘Baron Stjernblad 1890‘.

We would like  to thank Steve Sanders for his permission to use his underwater photographs of the wreck in this article.