SS ''Valdivia'' was a

passenger ship A passenger ship is a merchant ship whose primary function is to carry passengers on the sea. The category does not include cargo vessels which have accommodations for limited numbers of passengers, such as the ubiquitous twelve-passenger freig ...

that was built in England and launched in 1886 as ''Tijuca''. She was renamed ''Valdivia'' in 1896, ''Tom G. Corpi'' in 1908 and ''Flandre'' in 1909. She had a succession of

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

owners until 1909, when she was bought by a French shipping company. She was scrapped in 1927. ''Valdivia'' is the ship in which the German

marine biologist Marine biology is the scientific study of the biology of marine life, organisms that inhabit the sea. Given that in biology many phyla, families and genera have some species that live in the sea and others that live on land, marine biology clas ...

Carl Chun Carl Chun or Karl Friedrich Gustav Chun (1 October 1852 – 11 April 1914) was a German marine biologist who worked as a professor at the Universities of Königsberg (1883), Breslau (1891) and Leipzig (1898). He was a pioneer of German oceanogr ...

undertook the

Valdivia Expedition The ''Valdivia'' Expedition, or ''Deutsche Tiefsee-Expedition'' (German Deep Sea Expedition), was a scientific expedition organised and funded by the German Empire under Kaiser Wilhelm II and was named after the ship which was bought and outfit ...

in 1898–99. This was the first of three ships to be named after

Tijuca Tijuca () (meaning marsh or swamp in the Tupi language, from ''ty'' ("water") and ''îuk'' ("rotten")) is a neighbourhood of the Rio de Janeiro#North Zone, Northern Zone of the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It comprises the region of Saens P ...

, a suburb of

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro, or simply Rio, is the capital of the Rio de Janeiro (state), state of Rio de Janeiro. It is the List of cities in Brazil by population, second-most-populous city in Brazil (after São Paulo) and the Largest cities in the America ...

. The second was a passenger and cargo steamship that was built for in 1899; seized by Brazil in 1917; and renamed . A

U-boat U-boats are Submarine#Military, naval submarines operated by Germany, including during the World War I, First and Second World Wars. The term is an Anglicization#Loanwords, anglicized form of the German word , a shortening of (), though the G ...

sank her in 1942, with great loss of life. The third was a cargo steamship that was built in 1923 as ' for

Norddeutscher Lloyd Norddeutscher Lloyd (NDL; North German Lloyd) was a German shipping company. It was founded by Hermann Henrich Meier and Eduard Crüsemann in Bremen on 20 February 1857. It developed into one of the most important German shipping companies of th ...

(NDL). chartered her from 1935, and bought and renamed her in 1938. She was surrendered to the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

in 1945; sold to Danish owners in 1946; renamed ''Marie Skou''; and after a further change of owners and name; she was scrapped in 1959.

Building

Armstrong, Mitchell & Co built ''Tijuca'' in its shipyard at

Low Walker Low or LOW or lows, may refer to: People * Low (surname), listing people surnamed Low Places * Low, Quebec, Canada * Low, Utah, United States * Lo Wu station (MTR code LOW), Hong Kong; a rail station * Salzburg Airport (ICAO airport code: L ...

as yard number 496 for

Hamburg Süd Hamburg Südamerikanische Dampfschifffahrts-Gesellschaft A/S & Co KG, widely known as Hamburg Süd, was a German container shipping company. Founded in 1871, Hamburg Süd was among the market leaders in the North–South trade. It also served a ...

amerikanische DG. She was launched in 28 August 1886 and completed that October. Her registered length was , her beam was and her depth was . She had berths for 40 first class and 280 steerage class passengers, and her

tonnage Tonnage is a measure of the capacity of a ship, and is commonly used to assess fees on commercial shipping. The term derives from the taxation paid on '' tuns'' or casks of wine. In modern maritime usage, "tonnage" specifically refers to a cal ...

s were and . The

Wallsend Slipway & Engineering Company Wallsend Slipway & Engineering Company Ltd was formerly an independent company, located on the River Tyne, England, River Tyne at Point Pleasant (Wallsend), Point Pleasant, near Wallsend, Tyne & Wear, around a mile downstream from the Swan Hunte ...

built her three-cylinder

triple-expansion engine A compound steam engine unit is a type of steam engine where steam is expanded in two or more stages. A typical arrangement for a compound engine is that the steam is first expanded in a high-pressure (HP) Cylinder (engine), cylinder, then ha ...

, which was rated at 265 NHP or 1,400 ihp. Throughout her German ownership, the ship was

registered Registered may refer to: * Registered mail, letters, packets or other postal documents considered valuable and in need of a chain of custody * Registered trademark symbol, symbol ® that provides notice that the preceding is a trademark or service ...

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

. Her

code letters Code letters or ship's call sign (or callsign) Mtide Taurus - IMO 7626853"> SHIPSPOTTING.COM >> Mtide Taurus - IMO 7626853/ref> were a method of identifying ships before the introduction of modern navigation aids. Later, with the introduction of ...

were RHCJ.

''Valdivia''

In 1896

Hamburg America Line The Hamburg-Amerikanische Packetfahrt-Actien-Gesellschaft (HAPAG), known in English as the Hamburg America Line, was a transatlantic shipping enterprise established in Hamburg, in 1847. Among those involved in its development were prominent Germ ...

bought ''Tijuca'' and renamed her ''Valdivia'', after the

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

an city of

Valdivia Valdivia (; Mapuche: Ainil) is a city and commune in southern Chile, administered by the Municipality of Valdivia. The city is named after its founder, Pedro de Valdivia, and is located at the confluence of the Calle-Calle, Valdivia, and ...

, which had a German emigré community. On 7 September 1900, the German government requisitioned ''Tijuca'' as a

troopship A troopship (also troop ship or troop transport or trooper) is a ship used to carry soldiers, either in peacetime or wartime. Troopships were often drafted from commercial shipping fleets, and were unable to land troops directly on shore, typic ...

for the relief force for the

Boxer Rebellion The Boxer Rebellion, also known as the Boxer Uprising, was an anti-foreign, anti-imperialist, and anti-Christian uprising in North China between 1899 and 1901, towards the end of the Qing dynasty, by the Society of Righteous and Harmonious F ...

. On the morning of 13 February 1907, while she was off

Cape Hatteras Cape Hatteras is a cape located at a pronounced bend in Hatteras Island, one of the barrier islands of North Carolina. As a temperate barrier island, the landscape has been shaped by wind, waves, and storms. There are long stretches of beach ...

, the boiler of her donkey engine exploded, badly damaging the ship. Her Fourth Engineer and six members of her

engine room On a ship, the engine room (ER) is the Compartment (ship), compartment where the machinery for marine propulsion is located. The engine room is generally the largest physical compartment of the machinery space. It houses the vessel's prime move ...

crew were killed; and her Chief Officer and three other crew members were injured. She buried her dead at sea the next day. The explosion put her steam

steering engine A steering engine is a power steering device for ships. History Prior to the invention of the steering engine, large steam-powered warships with manual steering needed huge crews to turn the rudder rapidly. The Royal Navy once used 78 men hauli ...

out of action, but her main boilers were undamaged. on 16 February she reached

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

, where two of her stokers were hospitalised.

''Tom G. Corpi'' and ''Flandre''

In 1908 Peter R Hinsch of Hamburg bought ''Valdivia'' and renamed her ''Tom G. Corpi''. In 1909 the Société Générale de Transports Maritimes à Vapeur bought ''Tom G. Corpi'' and renamed her ''Flandre''. She was registered in

Marseille Marseille (; ; see #Name, below) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Bouches-du-Rhône and of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Regions of France, region. Situated in the ...

, and her code letters were JGMW. In January 1927, ''Flandre'' was scrapped at

La Seyne-sur-Mer La Seyne-sur-Mer (; "La Seyne on Sea"; ), or simply La Seyne, is a commune in the Var department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in Southeastern France. La Seyne-sur-Mer, which is part of the agglomeration of Toulon, is situated adja ...

References

Bibliography

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Valdivia 1886 ships Maritime incidents in 1907 Passenger ships of Germany Ships built by Armstrong Whitworth Steamships of France Steamships of Germany World War I passenger ships of France