The cargo ship MV BONITA was built in Denmark in 1930. On the 14th October 1941 she was involved in a collision with the Ship SS BOJAN when close to Trelleborg when on route from Lulea for Holtenau with a cargo of iron ore.
Tonnage: 3198 grt
Dimensions: 99,2 x 15,3 x 6,3 (m)
Motor: 1 x 6 cyl. B&W 4 SCSA diesel engine, single shaft, 1 screw
Speed: 10,5 kn
1930 Built as SKULE (LHWT) by Aalborg Maskin & Jernskibsbyggeri, Aalborg, Denmark for A/S Skule (B. A. Sanne), Oslo.
1931 she was sold in a forced auction to Rederi-A/S Mascot (Arth. H. Mathiesen), Oslo and renamed as BONITA (LHWT)
1932 she was sold to P/R Bonita (LDNR) (C. H. Sørensen & Sønner), Arendal.
1938 she was sold to A/S D/S Dania (OYYQ) (Chr. Andersen), Esbjerg, Denmark.
1941 she sank 14th October in a collision with the Swedish SS BOJAN South East of Trelleborg, Sweden while she was on a voyage from Luleå, Sweden to Holtenau, Germany with iron ore.
The faith
The Austrian newspaper “Illustrierte Kronen Zeitung” 22. Okt 1941 wrote:
Ship collision at night
On one of the last nights, a serious ship accident occurred off the Swedish coast near Trelleborg, killing 21 sailors.
The following details are known about the disaster: The Danish steamer “Bonita”, which collided with the Swedish steamer “Bojan”, had darkened navigation lights, which caused the disaster. The Danish ship was torn aft and sank in barely a minute. The captain of the ship, who was rescued, was asleep in his cabin when the helmsman threw open the door and shouted: “Captain, we are sinking!” The next moment the water rushed into the cabin, so that the captain had to break a window to get on deck. Here he was caught by a falling wave and dragged into the depths. At the last moment he was able to cling to a Balt so that he could be saved. Of the Danish ship’s twenty-five-man crew, only four men, including the captain, could be saved. The Swedish ship “Bojan”, which was on its way to Gothenburg with a load of coal, was also badly damaged, but was able to reach the port of Trelleborg under its own engine power despite the side of the ship being ripped open. The Danish ship had a displacement of 6,000 GRT and was on its way to Molkenau.
The Dive
I dived the wreck on August 15th 2024 on the Marine-Research-Germany tour (Link). The depth is 40m.
Actually the scan was quite difficult, because we were quite many divers (27) and the wreck is 100m long and in 40m depth. I would have needed a second dive to make the model flawless. There wasn’t enough time to scan the complete surface of 2200m². So, I skipped some areas of the ship’s side hull and cargo hold #3 was occupied with divers, so I couldn’t scan that correctly.
The model
The model is not ‘perfect’, but good enough for briefings and to put it on a shelf if you like the wreck. You can find the 3D-Files in my Download area.
