[3][4] The Bremer Vulkan pair each had a three-cylinder triple-expansion engine as its main propulsion unit, augmented by an exhaust steam turbine.

Berghoff feared that if she made for Mexico, Goslar might encounter a Royal Navy warship, so he set her course toward Brazil.

His crew disguised Goslar by painting her funnel and ventilators a different colour, changing her name, and replacing her German flag with a US one.

[9] In December 1939 the Italian ocean liner Orazio, which operated between Genoa and Curaçao, was diverted to pick up the Chinese members of the crew.

He immediately ordered the internment of all German males over the age of 15, including Goslar's skeleton crew.

At 0300 hrs van Beek heard metallic noises from below deck, followed by the sound of water entering the ship.

She listed to port, and at 1330 hrs a team led by van Beek's marine advisor, Egger, began to try to pump water out of the ship.

[11] On 21 May Kielstra reported to the Dutch Ministry of the Colonies, Charles Welter, that van Beek and his boarding party had failed to keep all Germans under supervision at all times.

Van Beek had the advantage of boarding Goslar when her crew was asleep, yet one of the engineers had managed to activate the prepared scuttling arrangements unobserved.

Van Beek was suspected of sympathising with Germany, so a Dutch government decree of 15 May temporarily suspended him from duty.

[11] At first the Dutch authorities interned German males, including those from Goslar, in Fort Zeelandia, which had been a prison.

From there they were transferred briefly to a former hospital, and then permanently to a Roman Catholic boarding school about 16 kilometres (10 miles) outside Paramaribo, which was converted into Copieweg internment camp.

They were Chief Officer Anton Boyksen, engine room assistant Heinrich Scharfenberg, and a man called Schubert, who had owned the Beekhuizen plantation.

They stole a canoe, and on 7 September 1941 they reached the Marowijne River, which forms the border with French Guiana.

The UK Admiralty chartered a Merritt-Chapman & Scott salvage tug, the Panamanian-registered Killerig, to try to raise the wreck.

[10] Over the next few years, salvage companies based in Jamaica, Panama, the USA, Curaçao and the Netherlands took an interest, but did not try to raise the wreck.

[10] In 2016 Sediba NV offered to salvage the ship free of charge in order to make a two hour documentary.