GOSLAR

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GOSLAR

Post by shipstamps » Mon Nov 24, 2008 4:07 pm


On this stamp of Surinam you can see behind the wooden jetty a bulge, looks like a small island.
She is the wreck of the German cargo vessel GOSLAR which on 10 May 1945 by her own crew was scuttled in the Surinam River, when German forces invaded the Netherlands. At that time Suriname was still a colony of the Netherlands.

(Historical Sketches of Watercraft on Stamps gives that it is the 50c stamp scott C38, but that is wrong.)

She was built as a cargo vessel under yard No 485 by Blohm & Voss, Hamburg for the Norddeutscher Lloyd, Bremen.
03 October 1929 launched under the name GOSLAR.
Tonnage 6.040 gross, 3.613 net, 5.402 dwt., dim. 449.6 x 57.6 x 26.8ft. (draught).
Powered by a Blohm &Voss steam turbine, 3.800 shp, speed 13 knots.
30 November 1929 delivered to owners.

After delivery used in the liner service between Germany and Australia and New Zealand.

24 August 1939 was she berthed in a port on the East Coast of North America, and on that day the German radio station at Norddeich transmitted the first message the QWA 7 to all German shipping.
In the message the captains of the German merchant vessels got instructions to open the sealed envelope where they got instructions what to do.
A few hours later followed by QWA 8, and on 26 August by QWA 9 in the last was given that the captains were instructed to proceed full speed to the nearest homeport within four days, when it was not possible she had to proceed to a port in the nearest neutral country, but not the United States.

The same day the GOSLAR under command of Capt. K. Berghoff sailed from the American port, and while Berghoff believed that the Netherlands stayed neutral, he proceeded to Paramaribo, Surinam, the nearest neutral country.

05 September 1939 he arrived at Paramaribo.
While there were not any Dutch navy forces at Surinam, the GOSLAR was not inspected till 10 May 1940, only her radio sender was sealed.
At that time she had a crew of 16 Germans and 38 Chinese.
10 May 1940 when war broke out between Germany and the Netherlands, Surinam was also in war with Germany and at 02.30 a.m. the police commissioner Van Beek accompanied by a detachment of military and police went to the ship, to arrest the crew.
The German crew was given a half hour to pack all there belongings, but in that time some crewmembers went down and opened the sea-cock’s in the engine room, and water flowed in the engine room.
Without any navy or merchant personnel, the Dutch did not know what to do, and slowly the GOSLAR was filled with water and settled on the bottom of the river on her starboard side.

At that time not any salvage material was in Surinam, and the GOSLAR was left as she was.

After the war in 1968 the Dutch salvage company Wijsmuller had plans to salvage the vessel, but not any action was taken.

Till today the ship is still there broken in two parts, but outside the fairway. By the local people the wreck is known as “van Beek Island”.

Surinam 1965 45c sg558 scott C37

Source: De Blaauwe Wimpel. Norddeutscher Lloyd Bremen by Edwin Drechsel.

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