SS Insterburg
Title
SS Insterburg
Description
An article about SS Insterburg, a ship used for transporting prisoners of war, July 1944. Using the height of an individual on the ship as a guide, an estimate of its dimensions has been included in the text.
Date
1944-07
Temporal Coverage
Spatial Coverage
Coverage
Language
Format
Two copies of one handwritten sheet with a b/w photograph
Conforms To
Publisher
Rights
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
MWatersDW910761-200907-05, MWatersDW910761-200907-05
Transcription
THE FACT THAT YOU ARE ABLE TO HAVE THIS COPY OF A PHOTOGRAPH OF THE ‘INSTERBURG’, IS DUE TO THE PERSISTENT KRIEGIE DOGGEDNESS OF ONE ‘WHO WAS THERE’, ON THE BALTIC CRUISE FROM THE 15th to 18th JULY 1944. NAMELY DES DUNPHY, 43 ELM PARK, FILTON, BS12 7PS. EVERYONE IN THAT DARK, STINKING, FILTHY, DUST LADEN HOLD, WILL HAVE THEIR OWN MEMORIES AND RECOLLECTIONS. YOUR FIRST REACTION ON SEEING THIS PICTURE MAY WELL BE SIMILAR TO THAT OF DES, AND IN FACT, MYSELF, THAT, “[underlined] SURELY [/underlined] THIS CAN [underlined] NOT [/underlined] BE THE INSTERBURG [underlined] WE [/underlined] KNEW?”
AS CORIOLANUS MIGHT SUGGEST, THAT, “THE DUST OF ANTIQUE TIME WOULD LIE UNSWEPT, - MOUNTAINOUS ERROR BE TOO HIGHLY HEARED, - FOR TRUTH TO O’ER PEER.” BE THAT AS IT MAY, ARE WE OBLIGED TO BELIEVE SOMETHING WE FEEL WE CANNOT ACCEPT? THE CAMERA IS SAID NOT TO LIE. IS THIS THEN REALLY [underlined] OUR [/underlined] INSTERBURG? APPARENTLY IT IS! DES TELLS ME THAT NO OTHER SHIP WAS REGISTERED WITH A NAME EVEN SIMILAR. BUILT IN SWEDEN IN 1919, SO DES HAS ESTABLISHED, THEN OWNED BY RUSSIA, UNTIL WW2, WHEN IT WAS CAPTURED BY THE GERMANS, ON THE INVASION OF RUSSIA. IT WAS FINALLY ATTACKED BY BRITISH FIGHTER/BOMBERS ON THE 3rd MAY 1945, AND SUNK, AND NOW RESTS AS A REGISTERED WRECK AT POSITION 54-31.44 N – 10-21.8 E. WHO REMEMBERS A SUPERSTRUCTURE OF SUCH DIMENSIONS AS THE PHOTO SHOWS? ALTERATIONS DO OF COURSE TAKE PLACE, - EVEN IN OUR MEMORIES, AND I HAVE NO INFORMATION AS TO WHEN THIS PHOTOGRAPH WAS TAKEN OR WHERE. WAS NOT THE DECK SOME 30 FEET ABOVE THE WATER? IT CERTAINLY SEEMED TO ME TO BE NO LESS THAN THAT, AT LEAST FROM WHERE I WAS SITTING, AMONGST THAT COAL DUST, IN THE HOLD BY THAT THROBBING PROPELLER SHAFT HOUSING. FROM THE PHOTO, IF WE TAKE THAT GENTLEMAN STANDING HALF WAY ALONG TO BE 6 FEET TALL, IT MAKES THE DECK, AT THAT POINT, ONLY ABOUT 10 1/2 FEET ABOVE THE WATER, BY THE SAME SCALE THE BOW WOULD BE ABOUT 22 1/2 FEET, ABOVE.
PERHAPS IN THE PHOTO, THE SHIP IS HEAVILY LADEN AND SITTING LOW IN THE WATER. IF WE ALLOW FOR THE ANGLE AT WHICH THE PHOTO IS TAKEN, IT WOULD SEEM THAT THE VISIBLE LENGTH IS ABOUT 135 FEET, SO PERHAPS A FURTHER 60 FEET OR SO IS NOT VISIBLE. THANKS TO DES FOR HIS RESEARCH AND DEDICATION. THE DAY THE OLD CRATE WAS SUNK, WE WERE TASTING OUR NEW FOUND FREEDOM, BUT WHAT OF THE OCCUPANTS THAT DAY?? KEN COTTRELL, QUITE INDEPENDENTLY OF THIS PHOTO WROTE RECENTLY SAYING “DOES ANYONE REMEMBER THAT THE CREW OF THE INSTERBURG WERE IN FACT RUSSIAN? (PRESUMABLY WHITE).
- YO! HO! HEAVE HO!! – Keep Paddling – Perc.
[black and white photograph of the ship ‘Insterburg’]
[page break]
[duplicate of page one]
AS CORIOLANUS MIGHT SUGGEST, THAT, “THE DUST OF ANTIQUE TIME WOULD LIE UNSWEPT, - MOUNTAINOUS ERROR BE TOO HIGHLY HEARED, - FOR TRUTH TO O’ER PEER.” BE THAT AS IT MAY, ARE WE OBLIGED TO BELIEVE SOMETHING WE FEEL WE CANNOT ACCEPT? THE CAMERA IS SAID NOT TO LIE. IS THIS THEN REALLY [underlined] OUR [/underlined] INSTERBURG? APPARENTLY IT IS! DES TELLS ME THAT NO OTHER SHIP WAS REGISTERED WITH A NAME EVEN SIMILAR. BUILT IN SWEDEN IN 1919, SO DES HAS ESTABLISHED, THEN OWNED BY RUSSIA, UNTIL WW2, WHEN IT WAS CAPTURED BY THE GERMANS, ON THE INVASION OF RUSSIA. IT WAS FINALLY ATTACKED BY BRITISH FIGHTER/BOMBERS ON THE 3rd MAY 1945, AND SUNK, AND NOW RESTS AS A REGISTERED WRECK AT POSITION 54-31.44 N – 10-21.8 E. WHO REMEMBERS A SUPERSTRUCTURE OF SUCH DIMENSIONS AS THE PHOTO SHOWS? ALTERATIONS DO OF COURSE TAKE PLACE, - EVEN IN OUR MEMORIES, AND I HAVE NO INFORMATION AS TO WHEN THIS PHOTOGRAPH WAS TAKEN OR WHERE. WAS NOT THE DECK SOME 30 FEET ABOVE THE WATER? IT CERTAINLY SEEMED TO ME TO BE NO LESS THAN THAT, AT LEAST FROM WHERE I WAS SITTING, AMONGST THAT COAL DUST, IN THE HOLD BY THAT THROBBING PROPELLER SHAFT HOUSING. FROM THE PHOTO, IF WE TAKE THAT GENTLEMAN STANDING HALF WAY ALONG TO BE 6 FEET TALL, IT MAKES THE DECK, AT THAT POINT, ONLY ABOUT 10 1/2 FEET ABOVE THE WATER, BY THE SAME SCALE THE BOW WOULD BE ABOUT 22 1/2 FEET, ABOVE.
PERHAPS IN THE PHOTO, THE SHIP IS HEAVILY LADEN AND SITTING LOW IN THE WATER. IF WE ALLOW FOR THE ANGLE AT WHICH THE PHOTO IS TAKEN, IT WOULD SEEM THAT THE VISIBLE LENGTH IS ABOUT 135 FEET, SO PERHAPS A FURTHER 60 FEET OR SO IS NOT VISIBLE. THANKS TO DES FOR HIS RESEARCH AND DEDICATION. THE DAY THE OLD CRATE WAS SUNK, WE WERE TASTING OUR NEW FOUND FREEDOM, BUT WHAT OF THE OCCUPANTS THAT DAY?? KEN COTTRELL, QUITE INDEPENDENTLY OF THIS PHOTO WROTE RECENTLY SAYING “DOES ANYONE REMEMBER THAT THE CREW OF THE INSTERBURG WERE IN FACT RUSSIAN? (PRESUMABLY WHITE).
- YO! HO! HEAVE HO!! – Keep Paddling – Perc.
[black and white photograph of the ship ‘Insterburg’]
[page break]
[duplicate of page one]
Collection
Citation
“SS Insterburg,” IBCC Digital Archive, accessed June 14, 2025, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/collections/document/35590.