German thermal engineer Rudolf Diesel invented the internal-combustion engine and produced a series of increasingly successful models. The developments culminated in his 1897 demonstration of a twenty-five-horsepower, four-stroke, single vertical cylinder compression engine.

Diesel’s namesake engine was an immediate success and earned him a fortune. He obtained patents for his design in Germany and several other countries, including the United States.

Some believe his invention could have contributed to his disappearance and demise.

Rudolf Diesel

On the evening of September 29, 1913, Diesel boarded the German steamer SS Dresden in Antwerp, Belgium.

He was to travel to a meeting of the Consolidated Diesel Manufacturing Company in London to meet with representatives of the British Royal Navy to discuss powering British submarines with his engine.

SS Dresden in Antwerp Harbor, 1913

Diesel returned to his cabin at approximately 10:00 that evening. When he failed to meet friends for breakfast the following morning, crew members were dispatched to his room.  They found his clothes were neatly folded and his bed had not been slept in.

Diesel was nowhere to be found.

Diesel’s Disappearance Makes Headlines

Ten days later, on October 9, the crew of the Dutch boat Coertzen came upon a man’s corpse floating in the North Sea near Norway. The body was unrecognizable due to an advanced state of decomposition. The crew retrieved personal items including a pill case, wallet, I.D. card, pocketknife, and eyeglass case from the clothing of the dead man, and returned the odorous body to the sea.

Rudolf’s son Eugen identified the items as belonging to his father. Five days later, on October 14, a boatman found what was again likely Diesel’s body at the mouth of the Scheldt River, but the heavy weather forced him to throw it overboard.

Although his body was never conclusively identified, Diesel, one way or the other, almost certainly wound up in the sea. Some believe he accidentally fell into the water or committed suicide, but others believe he was murdered, possibly because of his refusal to grant Germany the exclusive rights to his invention.

Diesel’s Demise is Debated

One week after Diesel’s disappearance, his wife Martha opened a bag which her husband had given to her just before his ill-fated voyage. She discovered 200,000 German marks in cash (equivalent to approximately U.S. $1.2 million today) and a number of financial statements showing their bank accounts were virtually depleted.

These findings led some to believe that Diesel had engineered his own disappearance to live off his wealth in parts unknown.

Did The Inventor Engineer His Disappearance?

Evidence is limited for all explanations as to the fate of the famed engineer.

Rudolf Diesel was inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame in 1978, sixty-five years after his bizarre disappearance.

           SOURCES;

• History Today
• The News Wheel
• Smithsonian Magazine
• Time Magazine