In May 1916, Batavier V struck a mine laid by German submarine UC-6 off the British coast and sank with the loss of four lives.

Batavier V was powered by a single 3-cylinder, triple-expansion steam engine of 2,300 indicated horsepower (1,700 kW) that moved her at a speed of up to 14.5 knots (26.9 km/h).

[1] The Batavier Line service between Rotterdam and London was offered daily except Sundays,[5] with each ship making multiple round trips per week.

U-28 left an officer and a sailor on board Batavier V, and proceeded to stop and similarly seize Zaanstroom.

[8] According to Popular Mechanics, one of Batavier V's passengers was a photographer who was able to snap pictures of the ship's encounter with the U-boat.

[11] According to Popular Mechanics, which published one of the photos in its July 1915 edition, the photographs give a sense of the "enormous size and power of the latest German submarines".

The women and children were fed what one woman called "unpalatable black bread" before being sent to Ghent and on to Terneuzen in the Netherlands.