An Encounter in the Sky
On April 23, 1917, the German Navy Zeppelin L 23 encountered the Norwegian cargo ship Royal on the North Sea, roughly 85 nautical miles off the Bovbjerg Lighthouse. To halt the vessel, the airship dropped a bomb just ahead of its bow. The blast forced the crew to abandon ship and take to the lifeboats.
Hovering low above one boat, Commander Bernhard Bockholt demanded the ship’s papers and dispatched a boarding party to inspect the cargo.
Neutrality Breached
The boarding team—boatman Bernhard Wiesemann and chief mates Ernst Fegert and Friedrich Engelke—boarded Royal and confirmed it was transporting pit props to West Hartlepool in England.
This timber cargo violated Norwegian neutrality and justified the seizure of the vessel under wartime prize law. The airship’s officers deemed the ship a legal target and initiated its capture.
A Risky Prize
The German team locked the Norwegian crew in their quarters and attempted to sail the bark toward Germany. Struggling to manage the sails, they released the original crew and ordered them to navigate the vessel to Cuxhaven.
The ship arrived there 43 hours later. German authorities confiscated and sold the vessel, which remained in commercial use until it was scrapped in 1924.
Orders from Above
The daring mid-sea capture, conducted from the air by Zeppelin crewmen, was viewed as a notable feat by the Zeppelin corps and boosted morale.
However, the German high command criticized the action, arguing it endangered a valuable airship for limited gain. Commanders issued new orders to avoid similar seizures in the future.
On April 23, 1917, a German Navy Zeppelin intercepted a Norwegian cargo ship in the North Sea, halting it with a bomb dropped ahead of its bow.
What followed was an unusual act of aerial boarding, uncovering illegal cargo and drawing both praise and reprimand…🧵👇 pic.twitter.com/M1OkJqA0mL
— Detective Tiger's Stories (@TigerDetective) May 25, 2025