Built as a wooden cargo-whaling vessel by Lindstøl Skibsvaerft, Risør for A/S Bjørn (Chr. Christensen) Sandefjord, Norway.
Launched under the name BJØRN.
Tonnage 527 gross, 344 net, dim. 153.2 x 29.7 x 18ft. (draught)
Fitted out with an auxiliary compound steamengine, speed 8 knots.
1904 delivered to owners
1910 Sold to the Deutsche Antarktische Expedition, Hamburg and refitted by Blohm & Voss in Hamburg in a polar expedition vessel. Rigged as a barque. Renamed DEUTSCHLAND.
On 03 May 1911 under command of Capt. Reichardt Vahsel the DEUTSCHLAND sailed from Hamburg for the Antarctic waters.
31 May off the Azores.
26 July 1911 arrived at Pernambuco, Brazil.
07 September 1911 arrived at Buenos Aires for stores and bunkers, Dr. Wilhelm Filchner (1877-1957) the leader of the expedition joined the vessel at this port. She left this port on 04 October.
18 October she arrived at Grytviken, South Georgia. 11 December the DEUTSCHLAND left for the Antarctic.
30 January 1912 land was sighted in position 76 48S 30 25W, what was named by Filchner, Prinz Regent Luitpold Land (Luitpold Coast).
09 February in an ice rimmed bay the unloading of materials for the building of a winter camp commenced.
17 February the building was almost finished, and dogs, stores and ponies were landed, when the ice mass on which the camp was built broke off and drifted northward to open water.
The next two days were used to dismantle the winter camp, and with lifeboats the materials, stores and animals were ferried back to the DEUTSCHLAND who was waiting off the drifting ice mass.
08 March 1912 on her way back to the South Georgia for the winter the DEUTSCHLAND in position 73 40S 31 06W she was caught in the ice, and the next nine months solidly frozen in slowly drifting to the north.
08 August 1912 Captain Vahsel died suddenly, and was buried in the sea, and Alfred Kling was appointed master by Filchern.
26 November 1912 the DEUTSCHLAND was free of the ice in position 63 37S 36 34W.
19 December 1912 she reached Grytviken.
After the DEUTSCHLAND arrived in Buenos Aires, Filcher left the vessel and boarded a steamer for Genoa, to find financially backing in Germany for a new expedition in the Antarctic.
In the meantime the DEUTSCHLAND was used for relief and supply ship for a voyage to the South Orkney, Argentinean weather station there.
Filchern did not raise sufficient money and a second expedition with the DEUTSCHLAND did not take place.
1914 She was sold to F Köning, Trieste at that time Austria, and renamed ÖSTEREICH. Dr. Köning was an Austrian scientist and a member of the expedition with the DEUTSCHLAND to the Antarctic.
When World War I broke out the planned expedition with the vessel was abandoned.
1920 Sold to Soc. Anon. Di Nav. Nautica, Trieste, renamed in SAN ROCCO and under Italian flag in use as a cargo vessel.
22 January 1926 on a voyage from Barletta to Venice loaded with salt she stranded in position 42 43N 16 20E ( Pelagosa Island, Adriatic Sea). She was a total loss.
The 70p stamp features Wilhelm Filchner, leader of the German South Polar Expedition, and their ship DEUTSCHLAND. In 1911 the expedition spent three weeks at South Georgia en route to Antarctica. They made scientific observations and hydrographic surveys of coastal waters which resulted in a much improved chart of South Georgia. The DEUTSCHLAND also made a brief visit to the South Sandwich Islands but bad weather prevented a landing. The ship was trapped in the pack-ice of the Weddell Sea for the winter. When freed, she returned to South Georgia where she left the expedition's polar equipment, ponies and dogs in the hope that they could be used by a subsequent expedition.
Source: South Georgia Post.
South Georgia 2015 70p sg?, scott?
Source:
http://www.south-pole.com/p0000103.htm http://www.antarktis.ch/42b.htm Navicula.
Register of Merchant Ships Completed in 1904.