SS ''Appam'' was a British steamship owned by the British & African Steam Navigation Company, a subsidiary of Elder Dempster Shipping Limited, that was captured at sea by the German raider in 1916. The Germans took the ship to port at

Hampton Roads Hampton Roads is the name of both a body of water in the United States that serves as a wide channel for the James River, James, Nansemond River, Nansemond and Elizabeth River (Virginia), Elizabeth rivers between Old Point Comfort and Sewell's ...

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the East Coast of the United States, Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography an ...

in the United States where the

Supreme Court of the United States The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point ...

decided who would get ownership of the vessel.

History

''Appam'' was built in 1913 by

Harland & Wolff Harland & Wolff is a British shipbuilding company based in Belfast, Northern Ireland. It specialises in ship repair, shipbuilding and offshore construction. Harland & Wolff is famous for having built the majority of the ocean liners for the ...

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingd ...

, United Kingdom. She had a gross register tonnage of 7,781 and was 425 feet long with a 57 foot beam. On 11 January 1916 the ship left

Dakar Dakar ( ; ; wo, Ndakaaru) (from daqaar ''tamarind''), is the capital and largest city of Senegal. The city of Dakar proper has a population of 1,030,594, whereas the population of the Dakar metropolitan area is estimated at 3.94 million in ...

in Senegal for

Plymouth Plymouth () is a port city and unitary authority in South West England. It is located on the south coast of Devon, approximately south-west of Exeter and south-west of London. It is bordered by Cornwall to the west and south-west. Plymout ...

, United Kingdom, carrying 168 passengers and 133 crew members. Among the passengers were: Sir

Francis Charles Fuller Sir Francis Charles Bernard Dudley Fuller, CMG, KBE (1866–1944) was the chief commissioner to the Ashanti Empire during World War I. He joined the Colonial Service in 1884. He was posted to Fiji as his first assignment. He was appointed chief ...

, the British

Chief Commissioner A chief commissioner is a commissioner of a high rank, usually in chief of several commissioners or similarly styled officers. Colonial In British India the gubernatorial style was chief commissioner in various (not all) provinces (often after b ...

to the

Ashanti Region The Ashanti Region is located in southern part of Ghana and it is the third largest of 16 administrative regions, occupying a total land surface of or 10.2 percent of the total land area of Ghana. In terms of population, however, it is the mo ...

; and Sir

Edward Merewether Sir Edward Marsh Merewether, (9 September 1858 – 28 December 1938) was a British colonial administrator. Early life and background Merewether was born in Meriden, Warwickshire, England on 9 September 1858, the second son of British Indi ...

, the Governor 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. In actuality, with

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

raging, the

Imperial German Navy The Imperial German Navy or the Imperial Navy () was the navy of the German Empire, which existed between 1871 and 1919. It grew out of the small Prussian Navy (from 1867 the North German Federal Navy), which was mainly for coast defence. Wilhel ...

merchant raider Merchant raiders are armed commerce raiding ships that disguise themselves as non-combatant merchant vessels. History Germany used several merchant raiders early in World War I (1914–1918), and again early in World War II (1939–1945). The cap ...

captured ''Appam'' on 15 January 1916. The Germans put a

prize crew A prize crew is the selected members of a ship chosen to take over the operations of a captured ship. Prize crews were required to take their prize to appropriate prize courts, which would determine whether the ship's officers and crew had sufficie ...

aboard ''Appam'', and, under German control as a

prize A prize is an award to be given to a person or a group of people (such as sporting teams and organizations) to recognize and reward their actions and achievements.

, ''Appam'' separated from ''Möwe'' on 17 January and made her way to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

, where she went into port at

, Virginia. The United States was a

neutral country A neutral country is a state that is neutral towards belligerents in a specific war or holds itself as permanently neutral in all future conflicts (including avoiding entering into military alliances such as NATO, CSTO or the SCO). As a type ...

at the time, so ''Appams British owners filed suit in

U.S. federal court The federal judiciary of the United States is one of the three branches of the federal government of the United States organized under the United States Constitution and laws of the federal government. The U.S. federal judiciary consists primaril ...

to have ''Appam'' returned to them. On 29 July 1916, U.S. Federal Judge

Edmund Waddill Edmund Waddill Jr. (May 22, 1855 – April 9, 1931) was Virginia lawyer and Republican politician who became a United States representative from Virginia's 3rd congressional district, as well as served as both a trial and appellate judge. Before ...

of Virginia directed that ''Appam'', 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. The German Empire appealed the decision to the

, which heard the case as ''The Steamship'' Appam, . 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 SS ''Mandingo'', before reverting to her original name at the end of the war.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Appam 1912 ships Ships built in Belfast Ships built by Harland and Wolff World War I merchant ships of the United Kingdom Maritime incidents in 1916 Captured ships