A CENTURY has passed since a former Harwich passenger ship was sunk by a German submarine.

Of the 228 men on board that day, on January 20, 1918 1981, only 16 survived.

The SS Dresden was the last ship to be built for The Great Eastern Railway from Earles and Co and began sailing between Harwich and Antwerp in Belgium on June 29, 1897.

David Whittle, vice-chairman of the Harwich Society, has researched the ship’s history as part of a talk he has out together on railway ships being commandeered during wartime.

“I came across the Dresden and I don’t think many people know about it,” he said.

“It began when I bought a book detailing the railway ships that went to war around the whole country. I do about 30 lecturers a year and was interested in the Harwich ones for a talk.”

During his research, Mr Whittle came across a mystery that was never solved.

On September 29, 1913, Dr Rudolf Diesel, the German engineer who invented the diesel engine, boarded the SS Dresden at Antwerp for an overnight crossing to Harwich for a meeting in London.

It is said that he retired to his cabin at about 10pm with a request to be called at 6.15am - but he was never seen again.

Mr Whittle added: “The bed in his cabin had not been slept in, but his night attire was still laid out and his watch was found in the cabin. “There were many rumours circulated, but none could be proved.A fishing boat found a body, but it was so badly decomposed, they put it back. Was he pushed or did he jump?”

I Two years later, in 1915, the Dresden was commandeered by the British Government and renamed HMS Louvain.

The admiralty changed the ship from a passenger ferry to an armed boarding steamer - a warship that was mainly used for boarding enemy ships in the First World War.

But on January 20, 1918 while in the Aegean Sea, the Louvain was torpedoed by a German U-boat.

Seven officers and 217 men drowned.