SS Antilla ( 1939 ) SS " Antilla " ( or " ES " Antilla " " , with " ES " standing for " " Electroschiff " " ) was a Hamburg America Line ( HAPAG ) cargo ship that was launched in 1939 and scuttled in 1940 . " Antilla " was built for trade between Germany and the Caribbean , and was named accordingly . Antilla is a city in Holguín Province in eastern Cuba . Building . " Antilla " was launched in Hamburg on 21 March 1939 and completed on 11 July . She was one of three sister ships launched in 1939 for HAPAG . She and her sister were built by Deutsche Werft in Finkenwerder , Hamburg , while their sister " Arauca " was built by Bremer Vulkan in Bremen - Vegesack . " Antilla " and her sisters had turbo - electric transmission . Each ship had two oil - fired high pressure boilers that fed a single AEG turbo generator . This produced current for an AEG electric propulsion motor that drove a single propeller shaft . Maiden voyage . On 15 July 1939 " Antilla " left Hamburg on her maiden voyage , which took her to the Caribbean . The voyage was hampered by technical problems with her propulsion system but she eventually reached Curaçao in the Netherlands Antilles . On 9 August " Antilla " left Curaçao for Galveston , Texas , where she loaded 3 , 000 tons of sulphur for Europe . On 25 August , while still in Galveston , she received a radio message from Germany that included the code word " " Essberger " " , which was a signal for her Master , Captain Ferdinand Schmidt , to open sealed orders . The sealed orders had been issued to all German merchant ships , and directed them to leave main shipping lanes . Shortly afterwards " Antilla " received a second radio message with the same code word . According to the sealed orders this was an order for captains to alter their ships ' names and appearance , communicate only in code and return to Germany as soon as possible . Flight and refuge . " Antilla " left Galveston to bunker at Cartagena , Colombia . " En route " on 28 August she received a coded radio message that all German ships unable to reach a German harbour within four days should seek refuge in neutral ports . On 1 September , the day Germany invaded Poland , " Antilla " bunkered at Cartagena and sailed for neutral Curaçao . However , " en route " Schmidt learnt that Willemstad Harbour was already full of German merchant ships so he and three other German ships changed course for Aruba . In October " Antilla " discharged her cargo of sulphur at San Nicolaas in the south of Aruba . However , the four ships ' anchorage was in Bay in the northwest of the island . The Royal Netherlands Navy submarine monitored the German ships in Dutch Antilles waters . Outside Dutch Antilles waters , ships of the Royal Navy America and West Indies Station and of the French Navy patrolled , blockading any German ships from leaving . However , on 9 January 1940 ten members of " Antilla " s crew signed on to one of the other German ships , ' s , which that evening successfully escaped through the Allied blockade . On 29 February the other two ships , ' s and HAPAG ' s tried to escape . Royal Navy ships intercepted them so their crews scuttled the two merchantmen to prevent their capture . Scuttling . On 9 April Germany invaded Denmark and Norway . This increased the fear that the Netherlands would also be invaded , so on 12 April Dutch authorities in Aruba confined " Antilla " s crew to their ship . On 10 May Germany invaded the Netherlands so the Dutch government ordered the seizure of all German ships in the Dutch Antilles . At 0310 hrs on 11 May a section of Dutch Marines in two boats approached " Antilla " to board her but Schmidt refused to lower the gangway . The Dutch marines were commanded by a Captain who anticipated armed resistance from the German crew . He therefore postponed the boarding to first light , when a machine gun positioned ashore could provide cover . The German crew used the delay to start scuttling " Antilla " . One crewman locked himself in the engine room , opened her seacock s and climbed out through the funnel . Other crew set fire to several parts of the ship . At 0500 hrs the Dutch marines boarded the ship and at 0530 the German crew was assembled on the poop deck . The Marines escorted the crew ashore in a lifeboat and handed them into the custody of the Royal Marechaussee . At 0600 hrs two Netherlands Coastguard vessels , HM " Aruba " and HM " Practico " , reached Malmok Bay and found " Antilla " on fire . Two of " Aruba " s crew boarded " Antilla " , found the engine room and numbers 4 and 5 holds afire , and that it was not possible to reach the seacocks and close them . After the Dutch marines had removed the German crew , " Aruba " fired two rounds at " Antilla " from her 37mm gun . By 0650 hrs " Antilla " was afire from stem to stern and listing 20 degrees to port . " Aruba " left Malmok Bay at 1130 hrs , by which time " Antilla " s list had increased to 30 degrees and she was sinking . Internment . The Dutch Antilles authorities interned as enemy alien s 220 German nationals including " Antilla " s 35 crew . The Dutch made " Antilla " s crew build an internment camp on Bonaire to house their fellow detainees . However , the British authorities had agreed to take them and intern them on Jamaica . On 5 July 1940 all 220 detainees were embarked on the British banana boat . It took them to Jamaica , where they were interned for the rest of the war . Wreck . " Antilla " is one of the Caribbean ' s largest shipwrecks , exceeded by only the cruise liners and . " Antilla " lies on its port side in Malmok Bay , Aruba in up to of water , but with a small part of its starboard side exposed above water . By 1953 storm damage had broken the wreck in two amidships . Corals and tube sponge s have colonised the wreck , which attracts lobsters , hawksbill sea turtle s and many species of fish including moray eel s and blue tang . In 2010 a large Jewfish was reported living in the forward section . " Antilla " is a popular dive site , and has been popular for penetration diving . Storm damage has continued to break up the wreck and some divers consider it now unsafe to enter . Misconceptions . Popular misconceptions have arisen around " Antilla " . One is that she was she was secretly a U - boat tender . In fact between her arrival off Aruba in September 1939 and Germany ' s invasion of the Netherlands in May 1940 the Dutch authorities repeatedly searched " Antilla " for weapons and found none . One source even claims " Antilla " was a tender for Operation Neuland , despite the fact that this operation was in February and March 1942 , 21 months after " Antilla " was scuttled . A second misconception is that when the Dutch sought to take over the ship , Captain Schmidt negotiated a 24 - hour delay . In fact the delay between the Dutch marines reaching " Antilla " and boarding her was less than two hours . This was achieved not by negotiation but by Schmidt refusing to lower the gangway and the marines ' Captain deciding to wait for daybreak . A third misconception is that when scuttling the ship , the crew heated her boilers so that the seawater entering through her seacocks caused a boiler explosion , and that this explosion broke the ship in half . In fact between May and August 1940 Dutch divers found that the wreck was intact . It was not until 1953 that it was found to have broken in half , and this was caused by storm damage .