SS Elbe was a transatlantic ocean liner built in the Govan Shipyard of John Elder & Company Ltd., Glasgow, in 1881 for the Norddeutscher Lloyd of Bremen.

The Elbe spent most of the next ten years working the North Atlantic service, but she also made three voyages to Adelaide in Australia, two of which were in December 1889 and 1890.

She did not alter her course, with such disastrous consequences, that she struck the liner on her port side with such force that whole compartments of the Elbe were immediately flooded.

The Elbe began to sink immediately and the captain, von Goessel, gave the order to abandon ship.

The others were four male second-class passengers and a young lady's maid by the name of Anna Boecker, who had been lucky enough to be pulled from the raging sea after the first boat had capsized.

When later asked why they had not stayed on to help the Elbe and her passengers, the captain, Alexander Gordon, said that he feared that his ship would sink, and in any case he did not hear any cries for help coming from the liner.

The blame was put squarely on the first mate, who had left his post at the bridge at the critical time to chat in the galley with other crew members, and therefore had failed in his job of operating the ship's warning lights.

The captain, officers and sailors of the SS Elbe received no rebuke from the court either, which caused some concern amongst the German public.

Each crew member of the fishing smack, Wildflower, were given, by Kaiser Wilhelm II, a silver and gold watch bearing his monogram and £5 as a gesture of thanks for saving the lives of the eighteen German citizens, an Austrian, and the English pilot.

In the early part of 1987, a group of Dutch amateur divers searched and located the wreck of the Elbe on the sea bed.