Hi Roger
This is what I have on her:

B. O. BORJESSON, ex GEORGE HARPER

Wreck óó
Depth 14m
Reference: 53 36’.149 N 000 20’.620 E
Location: 8.56-n.miles ENE from Spurn Head

The B.O.BORJESSON was a 1,586-ton steel hulled Swedish steamship that had dimensions measuring: 79.67m by length, an 11.61m-beam and a draught of 5.03-metres. Aktien Gesellschaft ‘Neptun’, Schiffswefft and Maschinenfabrik built and completed her at Rostock, Germany as Yard No-268 in November 1917 and launched her as the GEORGE HARPER for Otto Zelck of Rostock. Her single steel propeller was powered by a 3-cylinder triple expansion steam engine that developed 132nhp. Her cylinder diameters measured: 45.72cm, 76.20cm & 121.92cm with an 83.82cm stroke (18in., 30in. & 48-inches with a 33-inch stroke). The ship’s builders also manufactured the machinery at Rostock. In 1910, she was registered under Dampfsch. Gesellschaft George Harper m. b. H. of Rostock, with Otto Zelck the manager. On 4 August 1914, the British government seized her the vessel, whilst she was discharging a cargo of timber at Grimsby. The Admiralty then requisitioned her and she was allocated to Everett & Newbigin of Newcastle-upon-Tyne as managers, but registered at the port of London. In May 1921 Rederei Aktieb. Gefion of Helsingborg (Joh & Stig Gorthon of Helsingborg) who was the owner at the time of loss acquired the ship and renamed her B.O.BORJESSON, with Frans Borjesson the manager.
The company owned a fleet of fourteen ships, averaging about 3,305-tons each (46,280-tons total) and all but three of them, the B.O.BORJESSEN, VERONICA and the CONVALLARIA, ended with the name GORTHON. The B.O.BORJESSON was the first of the company’s ships to sink by detonating a mine.
(The second B.O.BORJESSON, a vessel of 3,425-tons and built at Malmo in 1946, sank on 19 January 1964. She had been sold to an East German company and renamed KAP ARKONA. Following a collision with the 20,592-ton Norwegian tanker IDA KNUDSEN three-nautical miles west of Wandelaar lightship, near Antwerp, the KAP ARKONA sank, while the IDA KNUDSEN was left with a large hole in her bow. IDA KNUDSEN was built by Rosenberg Mekaniske Verksted in Stavanger and delivered to D/S A/S Jeanette Skinner of Haugesund on 29 January 1958. An earthquake off the coast of Portugal, also heavily damaged IDA KNUDSEN on 28 February 1969. She was condemned and sold in April 1969 to Achilles Halcovessis in Piræus for $730,000. The vessel was repaired and returned back in service as PETROS HAJIKYRIAKOS of Piræus. Sold in 1979 to Nissho-Iwai Co. Ltd. in Tokyo for breaking up and arrived at Pusan on 23 August 23, but was sold again to Taiwan and delivered to Tung Ho Steel Enterprise Co. at Kaohsiung on 5 September 1979).

Final voyage:
At 0415hrs on 19 November 1939, the SS B. O. BORJESSON foundered and was lost off the Humber Light-vessel, after detonating a German laid mine. Her voyage was from London for the Tyne and Sunderland, but when she struck the mine she was in ballast, on passage from Northfleet for Hull. Six of her crew were lost with the vessel.

Wreck-site
The wreck lies in a small scour, on a hard seabed of sand and gravel, in a general depth of 14m, being the lowest astronomical depth. She is now totally collapsed and well broken up, having been dispersed using heavy explosives. The highest section stands some 2m off the seabed around her broken machinery and the whole site is a mound of broken steel debris, with bits of bent and battered non-ferrous piping showing amongst it. The wreck-site would make a reasonable forage-dive, but she is in the main shipping lanes and should be treated like a grave. Tidal streams are quite brisk and rather confused, while underwater visibility is usually poor and often grim.


Cheers Ron