THE POLSHANNON

Dominion, Volume 15, Issue 30, 29 October 1921, Page 10

THE POLSHANNON

CATTUR.ED GERMAN STEAMER NOW IN PORT. Quite a unique history attaches to the Polshannon, which is now in port, with ono of the largest cargoes of benzine and fuel oil that has ever been shipped to Wellington. Tho vessel is owned by the Anglo-Saxon Petroleum Company, Ltd., and is under tho command of Captain W. Lane. "This ship,” said the captain to a Dominion reporter last evening, “is tho late Birkenfels, a unit of tho Hansa, Line, and was built by T. C. Tecklenborg, Geestenmunde, Germany, in 1910. In August, 1914, she was proceeding from New York with a full general cargo for Australia and New Zealand. When off Capo Town word reached her skipper that there was something amiss in Europe, and he immediatolv endeavoured to get into touch with the wireless station in German West Africa. Their efforts were fruitless, for the simple the British station was “jamming them intercepting and blocking each message. After three days, however, she put into Cape Town, and was promptly seized. She lay in Cape Town for nine months, and was put into dry dock, fuDy In tho meantime a crew had been dis patched from England, and in 191 a the ship, the name of which was then changed to Tanden, proceeded on her voyage to Australia, as though her journey had never been interrupted. She arrived m Wellington, berthed at the Q u °en s Wharf, and discharged her original inst 18 months after she had left New York under charter to a German line. £n c£ge a d to “Sb! was later dispatched to Mudros Island, where she remained for two years «lr. March of 1918,” continued Captain Lane "the vessel was sent to Alex f t n cr ft2fe<L in curry imb , r? phia to Parfeet until the end of tho W “I Vs her first trip to these waters • he concluded with n smile, since 1915, ne . nole-screw The Polshannon is a steel 5111 - lfr?c / 5 ci,n ie Of 6121 tons gross dts-phX-nt and 3956 tons net, and her £Xions are: length, 421 ft-; breadth, of 4000 tons o f T fuel oil and 99.000 cases of benzine h Jarge quantity of which is consigned to Polshannon will remain in port for a number of days.