According to a tiding dated Valparaiso 17 July was due to a heavy storm the Chilean troop transport Abtao wrecked nor far from Valparaiso. Of the 39 men on board was just one saved. Other ships which were in the neighbourhood couldn’t response quick enough when the S.O.S.-signal was broadcasted. The Abtao was in 1923 at Emden, Germany launched as the Ernst Hemsots and just recently bought by the Chilean government.
The evening edition of the newspaper Het Vaderland dated 17 July published two small items dealing with the disaster. She sunk almost immediately after broadcasting her S.O.S. before the entrance of the port of Valparaiso just before the afternoon of 16 July.
The evening edition of the Nieuwe Rotterdamsche Courant dated 17 July added that later a second sailor was saved, so two of the 40 and ships which arrived on the place of the disaster saw many bodies floating. The measurement of the Abtao was 1,124 tons and she was in 1923 build at the Nordsee-werke at Emden.
The newspaper De Sumatra Post dated 18 July added none new details.
A special site dealing with wreck sites supplies additional information. The url is http://www.wrecksite.eu/wreck.aspx?139410 According to this site measured she 1.139 GRT with as dimensions 6,9 x 10,3 metres. and indeed built in 1923 as a cargo steamship at the yard of Nordsee-Werke GMBH at Emden. She was fitted out with triple expansion engines allowing a speed of 8,5 knots.
The apparently official Chilean navy website http://www.armada.cl/prontus_armada/site/artic/20090708/pags/20090708184306.html said that this was the second Abtao, a transport built in 1889 with a displacement of 8,600 tons, a horsepower of 3,500 hp and a speed of 10 knots. She was the former Pontia and Ernest Hemseth acquired at Southampton, England and commissioned on 9 January 1928 in the Chilean navy und, arriving 3 June at Valparaiso and sunk with just one survivor on the 16th off the Rapel river. In this note must be two ships named Abtao mixed up. This site does publish a photo of a ship. The website http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ships_of_the_Chilean_Navy mentioned a corvette Abtao dating form 1866 of 1,600 tons and which was broken up in 1922.
The website http://oceania.pbworks.com/w/page/25836056/De_Thyssen mentioned a Ernst Hemsoth built in 1923 with a measurement of 1,139 tons.
But the most comprehensive site of all was http://skipshistorie.net/Oslo/316Laboremus/Tekster/OSL31619240200000Pontia.htm Here I was able to find all the details I was looking for. She was fitted out with one 3-cylinder triple expansion engine manufactured at Görlitz Machinenbay at Emden, Germany allowing a speed of 8,5 knots. She was indeed launched as the Ernst Hemsoth at the yard of Nordseewerke, Emden in December 1923 for the company of Wilh. Hemsoth AG of Hamburg. Germanybuilding no. 78. She was sold in 1924 to the company A/S Pontia (T. Dannevig&Co.) of Kristiana, Norway and renamed Pontia. In 1928 became the Chilean navy her new owner which renamed her Abtao. Underway from Lota towards Iquique was she lost on 16 July 1929. With a tonnage of 1,650 tons deadweight and 1,123 tons BRT were her dimensions 212’7” x 34’1” x 15’1”. IMO no. 5605952. This site supplies us with a nice photo as she was the Norwegian tanker Pontia.
