Welcome to DiversHotSpot

SS Harburg
Cleaned up debris: 0 lb
Baltic sea, Sweden
Booked 0 Planned 0
52°F
59°F
52°F
SS Harburg information SS Harburg's wall
BRIEFING MAPTYPE OF DIVE
Briefing map added by DiversHotSpot AB Map 1 of 1  
INFORMATION
Location Baltic sea, Sweden
Water type Brackish water
Average current Not available
Average logged depth Not available meters (Not available feet)
Maximum logged depth Not available meters (Not available feet)
DESCRIPTION
DiversHotSpot AB2011-09-20Report
The 16th of February in 1957, the German cargo steam ship SS Harburg was on it's way from Hamburg(someone writes it comes from Gent in Germany, but I can't locate where this would actually be. Gent btw is a city in Belgium) in Germany delivering iron to Liljeholmen in Stockholm, Sweden. The trip over the Baltic sea went well, but when entering the archipelago surrounding the entrance to Stockholm a thick fog appeared over the water. The ship dropped anchor to await further better weather.
At shore the bigger ship Tinny was waiting for better weather too, before it would transport gasoline to stora höggarn's reservoirs. In the afternoon the fog lifted, and both ships proceeded the transport towards their destinations.
Both ships had men on lookout and radar equipment, that didn't really work well due to bad weather, but they still didn't see what was about to happen. The first who saw what was going to happen were the small tow boats steering the big Tinny out from the inner archipelago and the tow boat steering Harburg, and they saw that a collision was about to happen. Both ships put the gears in reverse, but to late.. The larger Tinny rammed the smaller Harburg on it's port side which tore up the side of the ship and caused an explosion because it also hit the steam boiler on the inside of the wall. The Harburg leaked a lot of water and everyone inside drowned with the ship that quickly sank to the bottom of the sea. 9 crew members and the tow captain died, and 5 people survived from the Harburg side, and everyone on the Tinny's side survived.
Two days after the accident the Neptune company diver's dived on the wreck for inspection and could see that where she had descended she had landed on the prow that had been pushed down under the muddy ocean floor so she stand with 30 degrees on it's nose with the stern and her propellers hanging free in the water.
It's possible to dive inside the wreck through some corridor looking passageways but it is very dark. No deceased crew members are said to have been found inside or nearby the shipwreck.
Written by Fredrik Mattsson for DiversHotSpot.