Built as a passenger-cargo vessel under yard 75 by Blohm & Voss at Hamburg for the Die Africanische Dampfschiffs A.G. (Woerman Line) Hamburg.
23 Oct. 1890 launched under the name EDUARD BOHLEN.
Tonnage 2.272 gross, 1.443 net, 2.795 dwt., dim. 94.7 x 11.6 x 6.9m. (draught).
One triple expansion steamengine 1.240 ihp., speed 10.5 knots.
Passenger accommodation for 32 first and 14-second class, crew 43.
28 Jan. 1891 delivered to owners.
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After delivery used in the liner service of the Woerman Line from Hamburg to West Africa.
She was the first German steam vessel that carried the direct mail from Germany to Walvis Bay in 1891
20 Feb.1895 Adolph Woerman, and the African Steam Ship Co., together with the shipowner and shipping agent John Picard Best, from Antwerp, founded the Cie. Belge Maritime du Congo, at Antwerp, and the EDUARD BOHLEN was for a short period transferred to the new founded company, with homeport Antwerp, under Belgian flag, till she was replaced by the BRUXELLESVILLE.
Used in the monthly liner service between Belgium and the Congo. The other vessels in this service were COOMASSIE and LÉOPOLDVILLE.
06 March 1895 sailed for the first time from Belgium to the Congo.
1898 Transferred back to the Woerman Line K.G., Hamburg, again under German flag.
05 Sept. 1909, she approached Conception Bay to discharge stores and equipment for the diamond diggers on shore on a voyage from Swakopmund to the Table Bay loaded with general cargo.
During heavy fog grounded 100 meter from the beach on a sandbank.
Some cargo was discharged and the OTAVI tried to tow her from the beach but to no avail. The 30 passengers disembarked and were brought to Swakopmund.
During the next 10 days so much sand settled around the ship that during low tide the vessel could be reached by foot.
The vessel was later complete landlocked and used by nearby diamond miners as a hotel ship, the manager of the mine used the captains quarters.
The South African painter Keith Alexander made 13 paintings of the wreck, the Deutsche Africa Linien bought a few for their head office at Hamburg.
1987 She was still visible but only her frames are standing, a few hundred meters inland from the high water mark.
South West Africa 1987 40c sg 485.
Navicula No 146 page 2240. South African Philatelist Jan. 1987. Blauwe Wimpel 1987 page 174.
Register of Merchant Ships completed in 1891.