Sliedrecht was a Dutch motor tanker that was built in 1924. A U-boat sank her in the North Atlantic in November 1939, violating the Netherlands' neutrality. She was the first Dutch ship to be torpedoed by a German U-boat in the Second World War. Five survivors were rescued after spending a week in an open lifeboat. Another 26 officers and men, who were in another lifeboat, were never found.

Building and registration Between 1923 and 1925, Dutch shipyards built three sister ships for van Ommeren's Scheepvaart Bedrijf ("van Ommeren's Shipping Company") of Rotterdam. Rotterdamsche Droogdok Maatschappij launched Sliedrecht in May 1924, and Katendrecht in January 1925; and Maatschappij voor Scheeps- en Werktuigbouw Fijenoord launched Woensdrecht in November 1925. Each ship was a flush deck, single screw screw motor tanker, named after a place in the Netherlands. Sliedrecht is a town in South Holland.

Rotterdamsche Droogdok built Sliedrecht as yard number 92. She was laid down on 21 June 1923, launched on 31 May 1924, and completed on 10 September 1924. Her registered length was , her beam was , and her depth was . Her tonnages were , , and . Her bridge and main superstructure were amidships, and her engine room and single funnel were aft. She had a six-cylinder, single-acting, four-stroke Diesel engine, which was made by Harland & Wolff in Govan, Glasgow. It was rated at 489 NHP, and gave her a speed of .

Van Ommeren's registered Sliedrecht at Rotterdam. Her code letters were PSHL.

Changes By 1930, Sliedrecht was equipped with wireless direction finding. In 1931 she returned to Rotterdamsche Droogdok, who lengthened her hull by . This increased her registered length to , and her tonnages to , , and . By 1934, her wireless telegraph call sign was PHOG, and this had superseded her code letters.

Fate In October 1939, Sliedrecht left Abadan, Iran carrying 4,704 tons of gas oil, 998 tons of kerosene, and 936 tons of benzene, destined for Trondheim and Svolvær in Norway. She went via the Suez Canal and the Strait of Gibraltar, and by mid-November she was in the Western Approaches. Her Master was Captain C Boer, and he commanded a crew of 30 officers and ratings.

The Netherlands was neutral, and Sliedrecht was clearly marked on either side of her hull with her name in huge capital letters, and a painting of a Dutch flag. However, at 20:30 hrs on the evening of 16 November, intercepted her about southeast of Rockall, ordered her to heave to, and demanded to examine her papers. Sliedrechts Chief Officer, Pieter Brons, embarked in one of her boats with the papers and four crewmen, who rowed him to the U-boat. The papers showed that the British authorities in Gibraltar had ordered Sliedrecht to call at Kirkwall in Orkney for inspection. U-28s commander, Günter Kuhnke, took this as enough pretext for him to sink her, so he gave the Dutch 30 minutes to abandon ship. He warned that if they tried to transmit any distress signal, he would sink her immediately. Due to the heavy sea, it took the four oarsmen nearly an hour to row the Chief Officer back to the ship to deliver Kuhnke's message. Captain Boer and the remaining 25 members of his crew duly abandoned ship in a second lifeboat. U-28 then fired a single torpedo, which sank Sliedrecht at position at 00:20 hrs on 17 November (German time).

By dawn, the two lifeboats had lost contact with each other. With no compass, the Chief Officer navigated his boat by the stars, aiming for the coast of Ireland. His boat was poorly stocked, with only a little bread and drinking water. He and his four crewmen were cold, despite all wearing overcoats. After a week, they used two of the coats to improvise a sail, to take advantage of a westerly wind. On the night of 22–23 November they sighted land, and in the morning they passed Barra Head Lighthouse, at the southern tip of the Outer Hebrides. They sighted a Fleetwood-registered trawler, Merisia. The five survivors were so exhausted that the trawlermen had to carry them out of their small boat. Merisia landed them at Oban in Argyll, where they were taken by ambulance to West Highland cottage hospital.

Aftermath

On 18 November, before Sliedrechts survivors were rescued, a German mine in the Thames Estuary sank the Dutch passenger liner Simon Bolivar, killing a large number of her passengers and crew. On 24 November, shortly after Pieter Brons and his four shipmates reached Scotland, the Netherlands protested to Germany at Sliedrechts sinking. It made a further protest on 7 December. However, also on 7 December, another U-boat torpedoed another Dutch merchant ship, the Netherland Line motor ship , killing six of her crew.

Germany warned that unless the Netherlands ceased transporting goods to Britain, "the German Government would not consider her truly neutral", and claimed that "True neutrality... involved declining to ship anything to Britain." Unofficially, Germany also urged neutral countries, including the Netherlands, that they should arm their merchant ships to resist the Allied blockade of Germany. The authoritative Nieuwe Rotterdamsche Courant newspaper dismissed as "ridiculous" the German idea of Dutch ships trying to break the Royal Navy blockade. It added that it would be "even more absurd" to arm or convoy Dutch merchant ships to resist the Royal Navy.

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