The Steamship Appam was a British passenger and cargo steamship built in the early 20th century. Launched in 1913 by the shipbuilding firm Harland & Wolff in Belfast, she was owned by the British shipping line Elder, Dempster & Co. and operated on the trans‑Atlantic route between the United Kingdom and West Africa.
Technical specifications
- Type: Steam‑powered passenger/cargo vessel
- Tonnage: Approximately 7,000 gross register tons
- Length: About 140 m (460 ft) overall
- Propulsion: Triple‑expansion steam engines driving twin screw propellers, giving a service speed of roughly 13 knots
Service history
During World War I the Appam continued commercial voyages under the protection of the Royal Navy. On 15 January 1916, while en route from Liverpool to West Africa, she was intercepted and captured by the German auxiliary cruiser SMS Möwe in the Atlantic Ocean. The German prize crew took the vessel to Newport News, Virginia, United States, where she was interned.
The United States government seized the Appam under the Trading with the Enemy Act. The ship’s owners contested the seizure, leading to the United States Supreme Court case The Steamship Appam (1917). In a 5‑2 decision, the Court ruled that the United States had the authority to detain the vessel as an enemy prize, but that the owners were entitled to compensation for the period of detention.
After the war, the Appam was returned to her British owners in 1919 and resumed commercial service. She remained in operation throughout the 1920s, undergoing several refits. The vessel was eventually scrapped in the early 1930s, concluding her approximately two‑decade career.