Alfried Krupp (ship)

**Good luck for** p1
Ship data
Ship type	Daughter boat
Shipyard	Fassmer , Berne
Build number	1060
Ship dimensions and crew
length	8.18 m ( Lüa )
width	2.8 m
Draft	Max. 0.82 m
Machine system
Machine ; performance	132 kW (179 hp)
Top ; speed	17 kn (31 km / h)
propeller	1

**Alfried Krupp**
Ship data
flag	Germany
Ship type	Rescue cruiser
class	27.5 m class
Shipyard	Lürssen , Vegesack
Build number	13526
baptism	June 14, 1988
Launch	1988
Whereabouts	Sold in 2020
Ship dimensions and crew
length	27.5 m ( Lüa )
width	6.53 m
Draft	Max. 2.1 m
displacement	103 t
crew	4 men
Machine system
machine	3 diesel engines
Machine ; performance	2,349 kW (3,194 hp)
Top ; speed	23 kn (43 km / h)
propeller	3

The Alfried Krupp is a sea rescue cruiser of the 27.5 m class of the German Society for the Rescue of Shipwrecked People (DGzRS)

The ship was in 1988 by the Lürssen - Werft in Bremen-Vegesack at shipyard no. 13526 built. The DGzRS internal designation is KRS 18. In an accident on January 2, 1995 two crew members of the Alfried Krupp were killed in the North Sea.

The daughter boat Glückauf , also built in 1988 by the Fassmer shipyard in Berne (hull number 1060), has the internal designation KRT 18. The Glückauf is an improved version of the daughter boats for the previously built 27.5 m cruisers Berlin and Hermann Helms .

Naming

The cruiser was christened in Bremen-Vegesack on June 14, 1988 in the name of Alfried Krupp , the founder of the Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach Foundation , which had provided essential funds for the construction of the rescue cruiser.

This foundation also contributed a sum of money to the costly repair of the Alfried Krupp after the serious accident in 1995.

The dinghy got its name after the miners' greeting Glückauf .

deployment

From June 1, 1988, Alfried Krupp was stationed on the island of Borkum , where she replaced Georg Breusing , who had been lying there up to that point . On April 24, 2020, it was replaced by the new Hamburg building.

The accident of 1./2. January 1995

Course of the accident

On Sunday, New Year's Day 1995, a severe hurricane with wind speeds of up to 100 km / h moved across the 7 degree cold North Sea. The Norwegian freighter Linito made an emergency call off the coast of Texel . Due to the swell , his load had slipped and he was about to capsize. As a result, the Dutch sea rescuers set out first from the islands of Terschelling and Lauwersoog . While the rescue men were still on their way, a Swedish freighter managed to take the five-man crew of the Linito on board.

A Dutch rescue man fell overboard as the sea was getting higher and higher. Immediately the distress call “Man overboard” was placed on the Lauwersoog rescue boat Gebroeders Luden .

This was received at 7:40 p.m. by the rescue cruiser Alfried Krupp stationed in Borkum . The cruiser routinely sailed into the search area in the Dutch Wadden Sea with the performance of all three main engines . The foreman on this trip was the 53-year-old Bernhard Gruben, who, as a very experienced rescue man, had already worked on other units of the DGzRS .

At 10:10 p.m., the lifeguard who had gone overboard was spotted and rescued by a helicopter .

After the happy report, the main engine on the Alfried Krupp was switched off and the two side engines provided the power for the return trip. There was still a north-westerly wind around 9 Beaufort on the North Sea . At this time, foreman Gruben was buckled up on the port side of the open upper control position. Next to him on the starboard side sat the engineer Theo Fischer. The rescue man Dittrich Vehn occupied the lower, closed control station. The second foreman, Bernd Runde, was injured in his chamber because he hit his head while the ship was heavily heeling on the way to the search area .

The cruiser was about two nautical miles west of the Westerems approach buoy when a very high lateral ground sea hit the ship at 10:14 p.m. The Alfried Krupp capsized 360 °. The pulley buckled the signal mast and searchlights . The seaworthy panes of the lower control stand were pushed out of their anchorages. Theo Fischer was torn from the ship. The other two rescue men below deck were injured and in shock. Bernhard Gruben was also injured, but was still in the upper control position.

Due to the roller, the two side machines switched off automatically due to insufficient oil pressure and overspeed. The Alfried Krupp was now unable to maneuver in the waves. Using a VHF radio, the sea rescuers managed to send the emergency call “ Mayday, Mayday, Mayday ”, after which the entire electronics failed and radio contact was broken.

At 10:40 p.m., about 26 minutes after the accident, a SAR helicopter sighted the cruiser drifting off the Hubertgat buoy off Borkum.

At around 10:50 p.m., the rescue cruiser Otto Schülke stationed in Norderney ran out under foreman Peter Saß.

An hour later, at 11:50 p.m., a helicopter hovered over the damaged vessel and tried to rescue the sea rescuers despite wind force 11 . As the ship was repeatedly hit by high waves, it rolled up to 100 °. The cruiser kept straightening up, but under these circumstances a rescue was next to impossible. Although foreman pits was hooked into rails, he was washed off board by other very high waves.

The first rescue units arrived shortly after 2 a.m. The Dutch lifeboat Jan von Engelenburg managed to bring a rescue man to the Alfried Krupp. The Otto Schülke introduced a line connection to the cruiser. Together, the damaged ship was towed to Eemshaven . The two injured were taken to a hospital. Now the search for the two sea rescuers who had gone overboard began. Ships DGzRS , customs, Coast Guard and the Navy scoured systematically an area of 250 square miles.

After two days the search was stopped without success. There was no sad certainty until the end of February, when Bernhard Gruben's body was found on the beach in Juist . Theo Fischer's body was found near Borkum in August 1995.

Cause of accident

Investigations of the crashed ship indicated that the Alfried Krupp had become the victim of a basic lake that reached an average height of up to 13 meters. One has to consider that these values are only mean values and the actual height of the wave that hit the ship remains unknown. However, a measuring system on the Norwegian Draupner platform recorded a maximum wave height of 25.6 meters that same night. This wave has since become known as the Draupner wave .

consequences

The cruiser, which was badly damaged in the accident, was repaired and converted. As part of the renovation, it was given a new, closed upper operator's platform. On the starboard rear of this control station, a small external control station with a minimum of maneuvering aids was set up for special maneuvers (walking alongside an injured man, berthing or casting off, etc.) or operations in which the rescue men were dependent on acoustic perception from outside. The lower control stand that had been in place until then was omitted, leaving space free in the front part of the lower deck structure. From then on, the mess hall was located there and behind it the on-board hospital with a different arrangement of the cabinets with the medical equipment. In addition, a new companionway to the engine room was built in the lower deckhouse so that it could be reached without leaving the superstructure.

As is tradition at the DGzRS, the new buildings were baptized in honor of the deceased in their names. Since that day, a memorial stone in the center of the island of Borkum commemorates the lifeguards who died on the 1995 hurricane night.

A very similar accident happened to the rescue cruiser Adolph Bermpohl in 1967, whereby there were no survivors.