SS Berlin was a steel ship, which was owned by the Great Eastern Railway and built for use on their ferry service from Harwich and the Hook of Holland, which the company had initiated in 1893.

At 0500 on Thursday, 21 February 1907, the Hook lighthouse keeper recorded that Berlin was navigating the channel when she suddenly veered off course northward after a huge wave struck her on her port quarter.

Captain Precious and pilot Bronders managed to return the ship to her original course, but another wave struck Berlin and she swung northward again, causing her to become impaled on the tip of the granite breakwater at the entrance to the New Waterway.

The Dutch steam lifeboat President van Heel attempted to offer aid, but the rough seas prevented her from approaching the stricken vessel.

The Tehran bag contained belongings of the Persian Prince ala-as-Saltanch: his jewelled sword and his decorations including the insignia of the Knight Grand Commander of the Royal Victorian Order.

[9] William Dearborn Munroe, general manager of the Arctic Coal Company, and Lotte Wetterling, wife of the opera singer Theodor Bertram, also drowned in the wreck.