Built as a cargo vessel under yard No 309 by the Flensburger Schiffbau Ges., Flensburg, Germany for the Deutsche-Austral Dampfs. Ges., Hamburg.
12 May 1911 launched under the name ADELAIDE, three sisters.
Tonnage 5.898 gross, 8.825 dwt, dim. 137 (bpp.) x 17.67 x 8.99m., draught 7.71m.
One triple expansion steam engine 4.000 ihp., manufactured by the builder, one propeller, speed 12.5 knots. Four coal fired boilers.
Bunker capacity 2.400 ton, daily consumption circa 58 ton coal.
July 1911 completed.
She was built for the service between Germany and Australia; she was one of four vessels all with Australian names.
She was a typical example of German cargo liner design prior to WW I.
“National design characteristic” listed the very short forward well deck, the casing at the base of the funnel, and the location of the lifeboats aside the after mast instead of by the bridge-house. Another German trademark was the positioning of engine room and funnel slightly forward of amidships.
Thus, the majority of holds were aft the bridge-house, the ADELAIDE did have one hold before the bridge and four aft. While this arrangement improved the trim, it called for an excessively long propeller shaft.
When World War I broke out the ADELAIDE proceeded to Luanda, Angola a neutral port, but when Portugal declared war on Germany in 1916, the ADELAIDE was seized at Luanda by the Government of Portugal and given in management by Transportes Maritimos do Estad, Lisbon, renamed in CUNENE.
Till 1925 her owner is given as it Portuguese Government, she was little used when owned by the government, with long times of laid up.
1925 Sold to Sociedade Geral de Commércio Industria e Transportes Ltda., Lisbon.
Thereafter mostly used in the services between Portugal and the west coast of South America, but she made also some voyages to the then Portuguese Africans colonies.
On the end of her career mostly used in the service from Portugal to the Persian Gulf.
31 December 1954 arrived at Dunston-on-Tyne, U.K. by the scrap yard of Clayton & Davie Ltd. for scrapping.
By that time she had outlived the last of her sisters by 14 years.
Maldive Islands 1997 sg3r, scott2226b.
Source: Merchant Ships of the World in color 1910-1929 by L. Dunn. Register of Merchant ships completed in 1911.
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