S.S.  Dwinsk  (Russian American Line) Ocean Liner, Merchant shipping duties, cattle Boat. Formally known as the Rotterdam, then renamed C.F. Tietgen. June 18, 1918 the Dwinsk was sunk by German U-boat U-151, 400 miles N.E. of Bermuda. Of the seven lifeboats that were launched, all were recovered except one, the seventh boat disappeared with 22 men.

•    Norway Heritage   http://www.norwayheritage.com/p_ship.asp?sh=cftie

•     Norway Heritage   http://www.norwayheritage.com/articles/templates/ships.asp?articleid=49&zoneid=5

•     Ships List      http://www.theshipslist.com/ships/lines/rusamline.html

•     Wikipedia   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Dwinsk

•     uboat.net   http://uboat.net/wwi/boats/index.html?boat=151

May 3, 2001

My father, Heinrich (Henry) Ioganowitsch Arnowitz, was a machinist on the Dwinsk when the Tuscania went down. He served on the Dwinsk from 1915 - 1918, he worked for the Russian America Line. .  The "Dwinsk" and the "Kursk" originally belonged to the Russian Amerika Line and must have been taken over by the Imperial Russian Navy as troop transports in 1914. After the outbreak of the Russian Revolution, the British Admiralty put those ships under the management of the Cunard Line and the British flag.  I do not know the arrangements that were made when this ship came under Cunard management and the British flag.  I do not remember my father telling me anything about what they carried on that particular voyage.  I do remember that he told me that they sailed into Halifax after the big explosion. My father was a Russian citizen at that time. He was of German-Baltic descent and his hometown was Riga, Livonia, its now the Republic of Latvia.

 

Edwin Arnowitz

yve{at}mnsi.net

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Jan. 6, 2007

My great grandfather Robert Jones Pritchard was the 1st Officer on SS Dwinsk when it was torpedoed by U151 on 18th June 1918 and was adrift in a lifeboat for 10 days before being rescued, If anyone can give me anymore details about the sinking of SS Dwinsk or anything about Robert Jones Pritchard, it would be most appreciated. I found the site very interesting.

 

Terry Day

terry{at}spalding2004.wanadoo.co.uk