Qualla: SS Appam https://qualla.com/ss-appam en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:40:13 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/k/z/ss-appam-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: SS Appam https://qualla.com/ss-appam SS Appam: Introduction https://qualla.com/ss-appam/ Photo credit Bain, Public domain. Imagine you are a passenger on a British liner bound from West Africa for Plymouth in January 1916. The First World War is in its second winter. Somewhere off the Canary Islands a stranger flying the wrong flag closes with your ship, demands her surrender, puts a small German crew aboard, and then — instead of sinking you — sends your ship sailing across the Atlantic to a neutral American port. That was the strange fate of the SS Appam: a routine West African mail run that ended at Hampton Roads, Virginia, where the United States Supreme Court eventually had to work out who owned the ship her captors had so politely delivered.

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Image: Bain | Public domain

]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/k/z/ss-appam-wp/gckz-ss-appam-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full SS Appam: Built in Belfast https://qualla.com/ss-appam/ Photo credit Willy Stöwer (1864-1931), Public domain. The Appam was a 7,781-ton British steamship, 425 feet long with a 57-foot beam, built in 1913 by Harland & Wolff in Belfast — the same yard that had built the Titanic a year earlier. She belonged to the British & African Steam Navigation Company, a subsidiary of the Liverpool-bas...

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Image: Willy Stöwer (1864-1931) | Public domain

]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/k/z/ss-appam-wp/gckz-ss-appam-built-in-belfast.mp3 0:06 2 full SS Appam: Captured by the Möwe https://qualla.com/ss-appam/ Photo credit Willy Stöwer (1864-1931), Public domain. That confidence was sometimes misplaced. On 15 January 1916, while Appam was on her way home from West Africa, she was intercepted by the SMS Möwe, an Imperial German Navy auxiliary cruiser disguised as a merchantman. The Möwe was on her first commerce-raiding cruise under Korvet...

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Image: Willy Stöwer (1864-1931) | Public domain

]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/k/z/ss-appam-wp/gckz-ss-appam-captured-by-the-m-we.mp3 0:06 3 full SS Appam: Arrival at Hampton Roads https://qualla.com/ss-appam/ Photo credit Willy Stöwer (1864-1931), Public domain. She made Hampton Roads, Virginia on the last day of January 1916. America was still neutral; American newspapers covered the arrival as a sensation. Photographers swarmed the harbour. The German prize crew flew the Imperial naval ensign above the British red ensign, an unmistakab...

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Image: Willy Stöwer (1864-1931) | Public domain

]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/k/z/ss-appam-wp/gckz-ss-appam-arrival-at-hampton-roads.mp3 0:06 4 full SS Appam: The Supreme Court Decides https://qualla.com/ss-appam/ Photo credit Willy Stöwer (1864-1931), Public domain. On 29 July 1916, U.S. Federal Judge Edmund Waddill of Virginia ruled for the British owners: the Appam, her remaining cargo, and the proceeds of the perishable cargo already sold should be returned at once. The German Empire appealed all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. The cas...

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Image: Willy Stöwer (1864-1931) | Public domain

]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/k/z/ss-appam-wp/gckz-ss-appam-the-supreme-court-decides.mp3 0:06 5 full SS Appam: After the War https://qualla.com/ss-appam/ Photo credit Willy Stöwer (1864-1931), Public domain. She was renamed SS Mandingo for a brief period — a sensible piece of wartime caution — and then, when the war ended, reverted to her original name. She went back to the Liverpool–West Africa run she had been built for. The captain of the German prize crew, Hans Berg, was interned...

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Image: Willy Stöwer (1864-1931) | Public domain

]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/k/z/ss-appam-wp/gckz-ss-appam-after-the-war.mp3 0:06 6 full