MV Kota Pinang was a cargo liner ordered by Rotterdam Lloyd and built by Nederlandsche Scheepsbouw Maatschappij in Amsterdam in 1930.

[2] In May 1940, the ship was requisitioned by the Kriegsmarine, renamed Clara and converted into a Reconnaissance scout [3] for naval operations by the German battleship Bismarck and cruiser Prinz Eugen in the Atlantic.

Kota Pinang was one of a number of cargo liners built from the mid-1920s onwards by Rotterdam Lloyd to take Muslim pilgrims from the Dutch East Indies to Jeddah, on their journey to the Hajj.

[7] At 17:43 the captain ordered the crew to abandon ship and at 17:45, scuttling charges exploded in Kota Pinang's engine room.

[7] The German submarine U-79 had been ordered to escort Kota Pinang to the South Atlantic and waited at their rendezvous point, not realising she had already been sunk.