The keel of this steamer with the hull No. 495 was probably laid in 1946 in the shipyard of Short Brothers Ltd, Pallion, Sunderland. Pallion is a suburb of Sunderland on the southern shore of the River Wear on the East Coast of England. The launching under the name AIDA was on 06.03.1947 and the delivery to her owners Olof Wallenius, Stockholm was on 07.07.1947. The vessel was registered under the Swedish flag with home port Stockholm (registered owner: A/B Soya, Stockholm, official No: 8885, callsign: SLVT, GRT: 5565, NRT: 3045, DWT: 9030 tons). This ship was the first newbuilding for Swedish account delivered by the United Kingdom after the termination of World War II.
This freighter was a steam ship, propulsion was by one triple-expansion reciprocating steam engine, giving a power of 2'100 HP. The boilers were heavy oil-fired. The cargo gear for the 5 hatches consisted of one heavy lift derrick, 10 cargo derricks and 10 steamdriven cargo winches. The capacity of the derricks is unknown.
In September 1949 the steamer was purchased by SGS, Société Générale de Surveillance S.A., Geneva, renamed NADIA and registerd under the flag of Panama. The name NADIA obviously was choosen in memory of Nadia Goldstück (assumed 1861 – 1921), the only daughter of the founder of SGS, Henri Goldstück. The registered owner was Compañia de Navegación Rio Grande S.A., Panama (call sign: HORH).
In 1958 the ship was remeasured, new tonnage GRT: 7195, NRT: 4297, DWT: 10'440 tons.
Arriving from Rotterdam with a cargo of coal (other sources say a cargo of flour and general cargo) the NADIA hit on 14.03.1958 an underwater reef in the Great Pass, on the approaches to the harbour of Alexandria, Egypt. Other sources say, she hit the wreck of the freighter CITY OF PITTSBURG Subsequently the steamer went aground, but sank later completly. The entire crew was saved, but the ship became a total loss.
SwissShips MB, HPS, March 2017
Additional Information and Stories
Mathias Münger, an army radio operator and later also an amateur radio operator, who obtained a ship's radio operator license from the former PTT (Post, Telephone & Telegraph) the Swiss Post Office, has told us about his time on board and the stranding of the NADIA, below his account:
The last voyages of the NADIA
Preliminary remark:
I thank H.P. Schwab for revising my text and endorsing it with the nautical terms, to make professional seamen understand my story as a "landlubber" with presumably the shortest career as a ship's radio operator in Swiss maritime shipping. This profession is not existing anymore.
Mathias Münger, ex radio officer HORH, ex HB9QK
I signed on in late summer 1957 in Savona, Italy and relieved the Swiss sparky Walser. Then we shifted to the nearby Genoa for dry docking. Afterwards we sailed in Ballast without any order into the Atlantic, until we received new orders from SGS, sent from our coastal radio station Zürich (see comments below), to proceed to Norfolk on the East Coast of the USA to load coal for Argentina. There I noted the highly efficient loading technic. The railway cars were simply hoisted over the cargo hold and turned over to dump the coal into our holds. Impossible to overlook, were the many laid-up Liberty ships in the harbour (see also NEVADA), giving proud evidence about the huge productivity of the American war industry.
In contrary, the discharge works in Argentina were very slow and enabled me to make beautiful, extended shore excursions with visits to relatives and the Swiss Club, an unexpected encounter with an old school mate, highly bureaucratic retrieval of a Christmas parcel from home and many other things. I tried also to learn Spanish, of course for our Italians this was much easier than for me. Part of our cargo was discharged in Buenos Aires, then we steamed up the Parana river, into the "pampas" direction Rosario; if I'm right to a point, where whole cargo trains were moved across the river with an old ferry, taking the railway cars one by one and where the railway telegraph communication was made with equipment, using paper rolls. With permission of the old man, I made a two days excursion to Rosario. The return trip was again with a call in Buenos Aires, where a cargo of grain for animal feed was loaded for Rotterdam. Then with coal from Rotterdam to Alexandria and finally "L’échouage" (see also newspaper report). The next trip, it was assumed, had been via South Africa to Brazil….
The crew of 35 men consisted of Italians, most of them from Trieste. He master and the chief engineer
were Germans, then myself and two others came from Switzerland. Captain Theodor Kuster (not Köscher as wrongly mentioned in the newspaper) sailed during the war on submarines and the chief engineer served on freighters in the supply chain of Field Marshall Rommel to North Africa; thereby his ship was lost. It was torpedoed by an allied submarine and disappeared bottom-up below the waves within minutes, as he told me in the hospital. As a landlubber I was treated by the master and his officers in a careful and friendly manner, as sort of an exotic. Only that the uniform aware Italians did not really approve, that I walked around in an old and shabby motorcycle coat and coarse shoes.
First thing, due to language problems with the Italian crew, I was relieved from my duties as a purser. Then, in the middle of the Atlantic, Capt. Kuster demonstrated to me, how it is, when a freighter makes a 360 degree circle*). Just like that!!! I still see today the beautiful circle before my eyes!
Of no help I was, when the master asked to inform a passing ship with light morse signals (aldislamp) about our voyage (southbound/northbound). Once they asked me to the bridge to show me the dolphins playing around the ship. As an exercise in the English Channel, I should find out our position, using the radio direction finder. Unfortunately my result was a bit out of place, about 50 km south of Paris. Therefore, to keep the log of the ship's chronometer was much easier, I just had to follow the time signal transmitter WWV from the USA.
I received a funny diploma after the crossing of the equator on our way to Argentina.
Further I had to make a translation about the health advantages of salt water gushes for the captain's own, private use and many other peculiar things.
Summa summarum: A good time, but only a short interlude in the Swiss deep sea shipping community, not more! And in retrospect, hardly to be justified, that I was hired without any sea experience. However, I remained active for many years as an amateur radio operator (HB9QK).
*) It is assumed, he made a so-called "Williamson-Turn", which is used for "Man-over-Board" manoeuvres to bring the ship back to her previous course line.
The stranding of the NADIA off Alexandria
With comments from Mathias Münger, the radio officer on board the NADIA and from the detailed article in the local, French language newspaper "La Réforme" we were able to reconstruct the events during the accident. But let Mathias tell us the story himself:
In the morning of Friday 14.03.1958 the NADIA approached the port of Alexandria with a full cargo of coal from Rotterdam. The weather was clear and sunny, however a considerable swell prevailed. About 10:00 the pilot guided another ship, the CORINTHIA into the harbour and the NADIA followed her, however without a pilot on board. Apparently the NADIA came off the course and ran onto a group of underwater cliffs, known as the "Rochers du Nord", an estimated 2-4 miles before the harbour entrance.
The vessel assumed quickly a heavy list to port and the master gave me the orders to take-up contact with the Alexandria coastal radio station. With a "XXX-Distress alert" this did not work due to the heavy radio traffic. The international 500 kHz 3-minute Radio silence periods, every hour from 00.15-00.18 and from 00.45-00.48 I could not wait for. Therefore I decided to take into service the automated SOS-distress transmitter to alert all vessels within a circle of approximately 30 nautical miles. The hand-sent SOS on 500 kHz was already technically partly "out" and a usable radiotelephone for a "Mayday" on 2182 kHz was not available on the NADIA.
The necessary radio messages I had to send on my knees (heavy list!) with the left arm around the receiver, the right hand on the screwed-down morse key. My knowledge of English and my solid practice as an amateur radio operator were very helpful to transmit the emergency messages from memory. In the meantime the chief engineer had to release the steam from his boilers to avoid a boiler explosion. For a while electricity was delivered by an emergency generator, then I had to resort to the emergency batteries and to an emergency transmitter, which was already old-fashioned during the time of the TITANIC. Fortunately, a Russian freighter was able to read my messages and forward it.
Due to the extreme list, the life-boats could not be lowered, but after about one hour the pilot boat EL KAED appeared on the scene to take-over the whole crew. During this operation fifteen seamen went overboard and were fighting against the waves and spilled heavy fuel, until they were rescued by the men from the pilot boat. In this action, one of our seamen, Lugnani, showed extreme courage and jumped twice into the cold water to save two of his comrades. The remaining crew was transferred in a dangerous action from the freighter directly to the pilot boat, using a rope ladder. Once at the lower end, one had to jump in the right moment, when the boat was up and near the ship's hull. Correct as prescribed in the book, I left the ship as the second last, followed by Capt. Kuster with the ship's documents, as the last one. "Na Müngerchen, not everybody can say, he lost his ship on his first sea trip" was the master's dry comment. From my memory cannot say anymore, how long the whole rescue mission lasted, but surely more than one hour. The local newspapers reported in detail and with justified pride about the heroism of their pilots.
The entire crew was saved without any serious injuries and on arrival in the port many journalists awaited us, plenty shots were taken and we were assailed with many questions. Afterwards the crew was taken to the Italian hospital in Alexandria. Later, when the sea had calmed down, we went out with the port authorities to the NADIA. She had now less list and had settled on the ground. I "saved" a
Philips Hi-Fi tube amplifier and my lama skin blanket from my cabin near the bridge. The blanket still serves me after almost 60 years. Myself returned with SWISSAIR from Cairo to Geneva to report to Mr. Mosimann of SGS, as it was not sure, if I had to testify at Lloyds. To my disappointment I had missed the pyramids.
Remark:
According to the newspaper report the ship touched the underwater rocks "Rochers du Nord", but other sources say, the NADIA hit the wreck of the freighter CITY OF PITTSBURG. We assume, both versions are part of the truth. Further, we do not know, if attempts were undertaken to salvage the ship or part of her cargo, in any case the wreck still lies on the shallow sea bed, together with many other wrecks in the vicinity.
The Swiss coastal radio stations:
During World War II the radio contact with the Swiss ships at sea was maintained by the coastal radio station Zürich HEZ. First, the station was installed at the airport in Dübendorf (near Zürich), later at the new international airport Zürich-Kloten. The radio operators worked in the airport building and the antennas were located in Waltikon/ZH, a few kilometres away, remotely controlled from Kloten.
At a later stage the coastal radio station was moved to our capital Bern and became Bern Radio HEB and was run by Radio Schweiz AG. The radio operators worked in the PTT-Telegraph office (PTT = Post, Telephone & Telegraph) opposite the main railway station. The remotely controlled transmitter antennas were first in Münchenbuchsee, later in Prangins on the Lake of Geneva. The remotely controlled receiver antennas were at Riedern, a village just outside of Bern.
SwissShips MM, HPS, March 2017