By hook or by crook: Sinking of the cargo ship Melanie Schulte

Shortly before Christmas 1952, the cargo ship Melanie Schulte disappeared almost without a trace in the North Atlantic. The accident has now been reconstructed at the Helmholtz Centre Hereon.

The sinking of the multi-purpose freighter Melanie Schulte west of the Scottish coast on the night of 21-22 December 1952 is considered one of the worst disasters in German merchant shipping after the Second World War. All 35 crew members lost their lives and it was not until weeks later that wreckage and a lifebuoy washed up on the Scottish coast. The parts indicated that the ship, which had a displacement of 10,000 tonnes, had broken apart.

The Melanie Schulte, which only entered service on 9 November 1952, was to carry a cargo of ore from the Norwegian port of Narvik to Mobile in the USA on its second voyage. Because bad weather was forecast, the