SS Vale

Between 1935 and 1939, Nordseewerke Emden built three sister ships for Seereederei „Frigga“, a shipping company with which it had close links. The „Frigga“ company named its ships after Norse gods. Yard number 176 was completed in 1935 as Widar, after Víðarr. Yard number 186 was completed in 1937 as Bragge, after Bragi. Yard number 192 was completed in 1939 as Vale, after Váli. All were built to the same design and specification. In 1938, Nordseewerke also built two ships to the same design for the Bernhardt Howaldt shipping company in Flensburg. Yard number 188 was completed as Sabine Howaldt, and yard number 189 was completed as Klaus Howaldt. ==Specifications==

Vales registered length was , her beam was , and her depth was . Her tonnages were and . She had a cruiser stern, , and the separation between her bridge and the superstructure around her funnel. Vale had a single screw. Rheinmetall-Borsig in Tegel, Berlin, built her engines. Her main engine was a four-cylinder compound steam engine, with two high-pressure and two low-pressure cylinders. Exhaust steam from its low-pressure cylinders drove an exhaust steam turbine, which drove the same propeller shaft via a Föttinger fluid coupling and double reduction gearing. The combined power output of her two engines was rated at 478 NHP, and gave her a speed of . Vales navigation equipment included wireless direction finding, and an echo sounding device. She was equipped with wireless telegraphy, but her maritime call sign was never entered in ''Lloyd's Register'', possibly because the beginning of the Second World War intervened. She was registered in Hamburg. ==Career and loss==

colours, and has anti-aircraft guns on raised platforms on her fo'c's'le and flying bridge. In April and May 1941, Vale was off the west coast of Norway, heading north. On 27 June she arrived on Stavanger from Kristiansand. By May 1944, all four of Vales sister ships had been sunk. Mines sank Brage in May 1940; Widar in March 1941; and Sabine Howaldt in May 1944. She then returned to East Prussia. As the Battle of Königsberg continued, tens of thousands of refugees gathered in Pillau, about west of the city, to be evacuated by sea. Soviet air attacks at sea off Pillau sank ships including Hamburg Süd's Mendoza on 22 March; „Frigga“s Vale on 9 April; The sinking of Vale killed about 250 people. ==References==