SMS Seeadler (Pass of Balmaha)

History

The SMS Seeadler ("Seeadler") was a successful warship of the Imperial German Navy in the trade war during the First World War (1914-1918). Originally, the ship was an American businessman named Paz Balmaha, referring to the Scottish village of Balmaha.

She was ordered and built in 1888 by R. Duncan & Company in Port Glasgow, Scotland, before she entered commercial service under the American flag - a position she held until 1915.

Her design included three sail masts, and she was classified as a "windjammer", a sail-powered boat built with a steel or iron hull. Her crew consists of 64 people, and she doesn't carry any weapons for the role.

Dimensions include a length of 83.5 meters, a width of 11.8 meters and a height of 5.5 meters.

In the summer of 1914, war broke out in Europe. Although the United States remained neutral until 1917, it still had to navigate difficult seas.

The ship was intercepted by the British Navy on its way to the Russian port city of Arkhangelsk to deliver supplies for Russia's war against Germany (along the Eastern Front). The British forced the American ship to be diverted to Kirkwall in northern England for a full inspection, and even posted a security guard at Balmaha Pass as insurance. Now sailing under the British flag, she was eventually trapped by the German submarine U-36 and driven out of Cuxhaven, where she underwent a full inspection by the enemy - her crew was released, but the ship fell into German hands .

Balmaha Pass was reborn as SMS Seeadler while serving in 1915, playing the role of a trade robber for the Germans. Several changes were made to her design, such as the introduction of a 2 x 105mm cannon, a machine gun for local defense, and modifications to the interior of the crew and prisoner quarters.

To complement her inherent sailing capabilities, an auxiliary 900 hp diesel engine was installed.

SMS Seeadler passed the British blockade in late 1916 under the cover of a Norwegian sailing ship. This gave her full access to the Atlantic once she had overcome the danger.

Since then, she has built a notable career as a successful merchant hunter in the German Imperial Navy - capturing or sinking a total of 16 enemy ships (worth about 30,100 tons).

Her luck ran out in August 1917 when she hit a reef near Tahiti in French Polynesia. In September, she captured another enemy ship, a French schooner, and was deliberately held on Easter Island.

The crew were then taken and detained by the Chilean government, marking the end of their reign on the high seas.

Specification

Basic

Roles

Dimensions

Weight

Performance

Performance

Armor

Wing