Editing Rudolf Diesel (section)

==Disappearance and death==
[[File:A. J. Jansen - The Steam Ship 'Dresden' in Antwerp Harbour, 1913 4be78552-08c9-464b-97ab-8b23bfdd41d9 570.jpg|thumb|''Dresden'' in Antwerp Harbour, 1913]]
On the evening of 29 September 1913, Diesel boarded the [[Great Eastern Railway]] steamer [[SS Dresden (1896)|SS ''Dresden'']] in Antwerp on his way to a meeting of the Consolidated Diesel Manufacturing company in London. He took dinner on board the ship and then retired to his cabin at about 10 p.m., leaving word to be called the next morning at 6:15&nbsp;a.m., but he was never seen alive again. In the morning his cabin was empty and his bed had not been slept in, although his nightshirt was neatly laid out and his watch had been left where it could be seen from the bed. His hat and neatly folded overcoat were discovered beneath the afterdeck railing.<ref name="pahl">Greg Pahl, "Biodiesel: Growing a New Energy Economy", Chelsea Green Publishing, 2008. {{ISBN|978-1-933392-96-7}}</ref>

Shortly after Diesel's disappearance, his wife Martha opened a bag that her husband had given to her just before his ill-fated voyage, with directions that it should not be opened until the following week. She discovered 20,000 [[German mark (1871)|German marks]] in cash<ref>{{citation |url=https://time.com/4049401/diesel-disappearance/|title=Time Magazine:The Mysterious Disappearance of the Diesel Engine's Inventor |date=29 September 2015 }}</ref> (US$120,000 today) and financial statements indicating that their bank accounts were virtually empty.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1370&dat=19880922&id=jZxOAAAAIBAJ&pg=5572,1837129|quote=It is alleged the cause of the loss of his fortune was due to unsuccessful stock market speculations and poor real estate deals.|work=Manila Standard|date=22 September 1988|title=Rudolf Diesel – A tragic end|author=Josef Luecke|page=24}}</ref> In a diary Diesel brought with him on the ship, for the date 29 September 1913, a cross was drawn, possibly indicating death.<ref name="pahl" /> <!--This is the limit of what can be said encyclopedically. Beyond this, readers will have to read secondary sources to learn more. -->

Ten days after he was last seen, the crew of the Dutch pilot boat ''Coertsen'' came upon the [[Cadaver|corpse]] of a man floating in the [[Eastern Scheldt]]. The body was in such an advanced state of decomposition that it was unrecognisable, and they did not retain it aboard because of heavy weather. Instead, the crew retrieved personal items (pill case, wallet, I.D. card, pocketknife, eyeglass case) from the clothing of the dead man, and returned the body to the sea. On 13 October, these items were identified by Rudolf's son, Eugen Diesel, as belonging to his father.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045462/1913-10-14/ed-1/seq-13/#date1=1913&index=12&rows=20&searchType=advanced&language=&sequence=0&words=Diesel+Rudolf&proxdistance=5&date2=1913&ortext=&proxtext=Rudolf+Diesel&phrasetext=&andtext=&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=1 |work=The Evening News Star|location= Washington, D.C.|title=Diesel's Fate Learned|date=14 October 1913|page= 13}}</ref><ref>''Cincinnati Enquirer'', 14 October 1913</ref> Five months later, in March 1914, Diesel’s wife, Martha, went missing in Germany.<ref>Brunt, Douglas, The Mysterious Case of Rudolf Diesel, 2023; ISDN 9781982169909</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Is Dr. Diesel in Canada? Disappearance of His Widow |author=Berlin Correspondent |work=Daily Citizen |date=March 24, 1914}}</ref>

There are various theories to explain Diesel's death. Some, such as Diesel's biographers Grosser (1978)<ref name="Grosser 1978"/> and Sittauer (1978)<ref>{{Harvnb|Sittauer|1990}}, p. 122.</ref> have argued that he died by suicide. Another line of thought suggests that he was murdered, given his refusal to grant the German forces the exclusive rights to using his invention; indeed, Diesel had boarded ''Dresden'' with the intent of meeting with representatives of the [[Royal Navy]] to discuss the possibility of powering British submarines by diesel engine.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.autoblog.com/2015/10/06/diesel-engine-history-feature/|title=The tumultuous history of the diesel engine|work=Autoblog|access-date=3 September 2018|language=en}}</ref> Another theory is that his apparent death was a ruse staged by the British government to cover his defection to the British cause, and that he then went to Canada, worked for the [[Canadian Vickers|Vickers shipyard in Montreal]] and was responsible for a sudden acceleration in its ability to produce a successful Diesel engine for submarines.<ref>Brunt, Douglas,  The Mysterious Case of Rudolf Diesel, 2023; ISDN 9781982169909</ref> Given the limited evidence at hand, his disappearance and death remain unsolved.

In 1950, [[Magokichi Yamaoka]], the founder of [[Yanmar]], the diesel engine manufacturer in Japan, visited West Germany and learned that there was no tomb or monument for Diesel. Yamaoka and people associated with Diesel began to make preparations to honour him. In 1957, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Diesel's birth and the 60th anniversary of the diesel engine development, Yamaoka dedicated the Rudolf Diesel Memorial Garden ([[:de:Rudolf-Diesel-Gedächtnishain|Rudolf-Diesel-Gedächtnishain]]) in Wittelsbacher Park in [[Augsburg]], Bavaria, where Diesel had undertaken his early technical education and original engine development.