SS Tubantia SS " Tubantia " was an ocean liner for Royal Holland Lloyd ( ) built in 1913 by Alexander Stephen and Sons of Glasgow . She was built as a fast mail and passenger steamer for service between the Netherlands and South America . " Tubantia " was a sister ship of , also of Royal Holland Lloyd . " Tubantia " was torpedoed and sunk by German submarine on 16 March 1916 . As a vessel of the neutral Netherlands , her sinking caused great fury amongst the Dutch public . The Germans initially claimed that " Tubantia " must have been sunk by a mine or a British torpedo , but when fragments of a German torpedo were found in one of " Tubantia " s lifeboats , the Germans claimed that " UB - 13 " had fired the torpedo on 6 March at a British warship but it had remained active until hitting " Tubantia " ten days later . To redirect Dutch anger over " Tubantia " s sinking , Germany spread rumors of an impending British invasion of the Netherlands , which one author called a " propaganda coup " . Germany initially offered a settlement of £300 , 000 — the ship ' s original cost — to Royal Holland Lloyd , but was rejected . In 1922 , an international arbitration committee awarded the company £830 , 000 compensation from Germany for the loss of the ship . This was followed by an attempt to recover a fortune in gold coins from the wreck , which was the subject of a landmark court case , but the salvage operation was unsuccessful . Design and construction . " Tubantia " was ordered by Royal Holland Lloyd from the Scottish shipbuilding firm Alexander Stephen and Sons of Glasgow . The ship was about long ( overall ) and abeam . She was powered by twin quadruple - expansion steam engine s powered by three double - ended and six single - ended boilers . Her top speed of exceeded the design requirements . Built at a cost of about £300 , 000 , " Tubantia " was , according to author Nigel Pickford , one of the most luxurious passenger ships of the era . Royal Holland Lloyd made extensive use of electricity throughout " Tubantia " , powering everything from fans and ventilation , to laundry equipment , to cigar lighters for passengers . The ship also boasted her name spelled out in lights , suspended between the two funnels . " Tubantia " could accommodate up to 1 , 520 passengers : 250 first - class , 230 intermediate - class , 140 special third - class , and 900 third - class passengers . The liner was launched on 13 November 1913 , and completed trials in the River Clyde in March 1914 . Career . Upon completion and acceptance by Royal Holland Lloyd , " Tubantia " was used in service between Amsterdam and Buenos Aires . At the outbreak of World War I in August 1914 , " Tubantia " was returning from South America with £500 , 000 in gold destined for banks in London , a large portion of which was intended for the German Bank of London . She was also carrying about 150 German reservists in steerage and a cargo of grain destined for Germany . After making an intermediate stop in Vigo , Spain , " Tubantia " was stopped and boarded by an officer and crewmen from the Royal Navy cruiser , and escorted into port at Plymouth . There , the German reservists were taken off " Tubantia " by Royal Marines ; the gold was confiscated and removed from the ship . Although news accounts do not report when it occurred , " Tubantia " was released from Plymouth and allowed to resume her Royal Holland Lloyd service . On 18 October , " The New York Times " carried a report that indicated " Tubantia " had run aground on the coast of Kent the previous day . According to the report , " Tubantia " was returning from Buenos Aires and suffered the accident while heading for Rotterdam with a large number of passengers . Although the article also reported that aid had been summoned from Dover , there was no indication of the extent of damage , if any , to " Tubantia " . In December 1915 , " Tubantia " again made news when the Overseas News Agency in Berlin released a report saying that the British had seized all South America mail and parcels from the ship . After the United States expressed concerns about related seizures from two other Dutch ships in service to the United States — and — the British Foreign Office issued a statement that reported that contraband intended for Germany — which included four packages of rubber , and seven containers of wool — had been found among " Tubantia " s mail . Sinking . " Tubantia " began her regularly scheduled voyage from Amsterdam to Buenos Aires on 15 March 1916 nearly empty of passengers , despite Royal Holland Lloyd advertisements that boasted of " submarine signalling apparatus " on their passenger ships . After sailing to a position about from the North Hinder Lightship , about off the Dutch coast , " Tubantia " anchored at about 02 : 00 on 16 March to wait for daylight and avoid any chance of misidentification or attack . To that end , the ship was completely illuminated . At about 02 : 30 , crewmen aboard " Tubantia " spotted a stream of bubbles rapidly approaching the ship ' s starboard side , followed by an explosion . The ship quickly began sinking . Distress calls sent out by " Tubantia " were answered by three ships , " Breda " , " Krakstau " , and " La Campine " , which between them rescued all 80 passengers and all 294 members of the crew . The ship and her cargo were a total loss . " Tubantia " was the largest neutral vessel sunk during the entire war . Aftermath . A war in the British and German press erupted , with each attempting to blame the other country for the egregious violation of Dutch neutrality . The German press first proffered the explanation that " Tubantia " must have been sunk by a British mine . The British reported that the liner had been sunk by a German torpedo ; the German press countered by saying that if it were a torpedo that sank the ship , it had to have been a British one . The matter was seemingly settled when a stray lifeboat of " Tubantia " s was examined and torpedo fragments made of bronze were found embedded in it ; Germany was the only country that used bronze in its torpedoes . Presented with evidence that it was torpedo no . 2033 which had been assigned to the small , coastal submarine , the Germans presented a forged log from " UB - 13 " that showed her nowhere near " Tubantia " at the time of the attack . Further , they reported , " UB - 13 " had fired that specific torpedo at a British warship on 6 March , ten days before " Tubantia " was sunk . The U . S . Minister to the Netherlands , Henry van Dyke , writing in " Fighting for Peace " in 1917 , called this explanation " amazing " and derided it : The Dutch public was furious at what they believed a hostile German act . To help divert the public anger against his country , German diplomat Richard von Kühlmann began a coordinated campaign to spread rumors of an impending British invasion of the Netherlands . Author Hubert van Tuyll van Serooskerken called the German plan a " propaganda coup " , and reports in his book " The Netherlands and World War I " that the rumors caused some panic in the streets and forced the government to declare a four - day emergency from 30 March to 2 April . Despite denials and rumor - spreading , Germany nevertheless offered compensation in the amount of £300 , 000 , " Tubantia " s original cost . Rejected by the Dutch , the two countries agreed to have the issue arbitrated after the end of the war . The dispute was finally settled in 1922 , when compensation in the amount of £830 , 000 was awarded to Royal Holland Lloyd . Salvage attempt . In 1924 the wreck was the subject of a salvage dispute between two sets of salvors , both seeking to recover a reputed £2 million worth of gold coins from it ( £100 million in 2012 prices ) . This was resolved in the English court decision " The Tubantia " [ 1924 ] P 78 , and remains the leading authority under English law as to when a salvor takes possession of a sunken shipwreck . The winning party , war hero Sydney Vincent Sippe , spent three years and £100 , 000 trying to access the gold , but abandoned the attempt after concluding that it was too dangerous for divers to recover it .