page_title: SS Suevic
section_title: Skytteren
hierarchical_section_title: SS Suevic / Skytteren
caption_attribution_description: English: Norwegian kvarstadship, whaler S/S Skytteren berthed in Göteborg harbour in the beginning of WWII. Svenska: Norska kvarstadsbåten, valkokeriet S/S Skytteren förtöjd i Göteborgs hamn i början av andra världskriget.
context_page_description: SS Suevic was a steamship built by Harland and Wolff in Belfast for the White Star Line. Suevic was the fifth and last of the Jubilee Class ocean liners, built specifically to service the Liverpool-Cape Town-Sydney route, along with her sister ship SS Runic. In 1907 she was wrecked off the south coast of England, but in the largest rescue of its kind, all passengers and crew were saved. The ship herself was deliberately broken in two, and a new bow was attached to the salvaged stern portion. Later serving as a Norwegian whaling factory ship carrying the name Skytteren, she was scuttled off the Swedish coast in 1942 to prevent her capture by ships of Nazi Germany.
context_section_description: In October 1928, White Star sold her to Yngvar Hvistendahl's Finnhval A/S of Tønsberg, Norway for £35,000, who renamed her Skytteren and sent her to Germaniawerft at Kiel to be converted into a whaling factory ship. The conversion involved the installation of a stern ramp, whereby whale carcases could be hauled onto deck, and the installation of tanks with the capacity for 80,000 barrels of whale oil. Skytteren was then employed on the Antarctic whaling fleet.
  When Nazi Germany invaded Norway in the Second World War, Skytteren was interned in the neutral port of Gothenburg, Sweden, with several other Norwegian ships in April 1940. The exiled Norwegian government claimed these ships as its property, which was contested by the collaborationist Nasjonal Samling government in occupied Norway. However, a court ruling favoured the exiled government's claim.
  On 1 April 1942, 10 Norwegian ships at Gothenburg made an attempt to escape into Allied-controlled waters, where they would be met and protected by a group of British warships. However, Sweden would not allow the Norwegian ships to use their neutral waters for this, and so Swedish ships steered the escapees towards international waters; the Germans however had been tipped off about the escape attempt and were lying in wait. Of the 10, only two made it through to the British, two turned back to Gothenburg, two were sunk by the Germans, and the remaining four were scuttled by their crew after being confronted by German warships, of which Skytteren was one. Skytteren was scuttled in the waters off Måseskär, Sweden, with the loss of one crew member. The rest of her 111 strong crew were captured by the Germans and taken as prisoners of war.
caption: Skytteren in Gothenburg harbour at the beginning of the Second World War
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