SS Rio de Janeiro 1940
_River_Scheldt_AS.1968.001.0469.jpg){kind=link}
Marker: recorded wreck position (Second World War).
Key facts
| Name | SS Rio de Janeiro | Wikidata label |
|---|---|---|
| Year lost | 1940 | Wikidata P793 significant event, point-in-time qualifier |
| Era | Second World War | derived from year |
| Ship type | cargo ship | Wikidata P31 instance of |
| Cause of loss | War action | Keyword match in English Wikipedia lead sentence |
| Nationality / flag | Nazi Germany | Wikidata P8047 country of registry |
| Operator | Kriegsmarine | Wikidata P137 operator |
| Conflict | World War II | Wikidata P607 conflict |
| Nearest coast | Norway | Natural Earth (public domain) |
| Position | 58.6667, 9.1167 | Wikidata P625 coordinate location (CC0) |
About the wreck
SS Rio de Janeiro was a German cargo steamship owned by the Hamburg Südamerikanische shipping company and registered in Hamburg. She was built as Santa Ines in 1914 and renamed Rio de Janeiro in 1921. Until World War II she carried passengers and freight between Germany and South America.
On 7 March 1940 Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine requisitioned her to carry troops and equipment before Operation Weserübung, the invasion of Norway and Denmark, began on 9 April 1940. En route to Bergen, it was stopped by the Polish submarine Orzel and sunk by torpedoes.
Diving & visiting
The exact location of the wreck of Rio de Janeiro was unknown for many years. Fishermen over the years caught parts from the wreck in their fishing nets in this area, and the Royal Norwegian Navy tried to find the wreck.
In June 2015, more than 75 years after the torpedoing, the wreck was finally located by a Norwegian diving company at about 135 metres (443 ft) depth off Lillesand. The wreck is considered a war memorial and thus protected by Norwegian law.
Location
- Recorded position: 58.6667, 9.1167 (Wikidata P625 coordinate location (CC0); may be approximate)
- Nearest coast: Norway
Wreck positions on this site are for interest only and are not for navigation. Many wrecks are war graves or legally protected: never disturb human remains or remove artefacts, and check local law before diving.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article SS Rio de Janeiro (revision 1369572962), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section and section(s) “The wreck”; condensed by selecting paragraphs; citations and formatting removed. No text added. This excerpt is available under the same licence.
Wreck facts from Wikidata (CC0).
Nearby wrecks
- German cruiser Karlsruhe 1940 · 91 km
- HNoMS Thor 1919 · 91 km
- MS Seattle 1940 · 95 km
- German torpedo boat Albatros 107 km
- MV Langeland 2009 · 112 km
- U-1273 1945 · 115 km
Other wrecks of the World War II
- Stanbrook 1939
- U-12 1939
- U-27 1939
- U-39 1939
- USS Sailfish 1939
- Artigliere 1940
- Bartolomeo Colleoni 1940
- French destroyer Maillé Brézé 1940
- German destroyer ZH1 1940
- German submarine U-15 1940
All 599 wrecks of the World War II →
Browse more: Europe wrecks · wrecks off Norway · Second World War