Arawa (ship, 1907)
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The Arawa (II) was a 1907 passenger ship of the British shipping company Shaw, Savill & Albion Steamship Company , which was built for passenger and cargo traffic between Great Britain and New Zealand . In 1928 the Arawa was sold to Arnold Bernstein in Germany and renamed Königstein . From 1940 she drove under the name Gandia for the Belgian company Maritime Belge until she was sunk in the North Atlantic by a German submarine on January 22, 1942 , killing 65 people.
Early years
The 9626 GRT, steel- built combined passenger and cargo ship Arawa was built at the Swan, Hunter & Wigham Richardson Ltd. shipyard . in Wallsend ( Tyne and Wear ). The 146.3 meter long and 18.29 meter wide ship was launched on November 29, 1906 and was completed in February 1907. It had a chimney, two masts, and two propellers and was powered by triple expansion steam engines from the Wallsend Slipway Company Ltd. powered, which developed 899 nominal horsepower and allowed a top speed of 14 knots.
The Arawa was built mainly for the transport of frozen meat on the Shaw, Savill & Albion Steamship Company's New Zealand route and could carry a total of 220 passengers in three price ranges. The ship was registered in Southampton . On August 22, 1907, the Arawa ran on her maiden voyage from London via Cape Town to Wellington . She stayed on this route in the following years. During a crossing in 1909, after leaving Cape Town, she lost her starboard propeller and continued the voyage to Wellington with just one propeller.
During the First World War , the Arawa fell under the Liner Requisition Scheme like many other merchant ships and served temporarily as a British troop transport until it resumed its regular service from London via the Panama Canal to Wellington on May 3, 1921 . In 1926 the three-class system on board was abolished. The Arawa offered from now on only accommodation in the cabin class. On May 25, 1928, their last voyage for Shaw, Savill & Albion began in Southampton.
sale
It was then sold to Arnold Bernstein's Arnold Bernstein Steamship Company, based in New York , and renamed Königstein . The shipping company operated under the name Arnold Bernstein Schiffahrtsgesellschaft mbH from 1930. Since Bernstein bought the American-Belgian shipping company Red Star Line in 1935 , the ship was transferred to their fleet and came under the Belgian flag.
In 1939 the ship was sold to the company Établissements Van Heyghen Frères, who wanted to sell it on for demolition. The following year, however, the steamer was bought by the Compagnie Maritime Belge (CMB) based in Antwerp , which also owned the Léopoldville and Albertville passenger liners . The CMB named the ship Gandia .
Sinking
On Monday, January 12, 1942, ran Gandia in Liverpool to a crossing of the North Atlantic to St. John's from Canada. The ship was under the command of Captain Maurice Potié and had 69 crew members (including 62 Belgians) and ten gunners on board. The freight included 500 tons of potash . The Gandia was part of the convoy ON-54.
More than a week after leaving the port, on January 22, 1942 at 10:21 p.m., the Gandia , which was meanwhile sailing alone, was hit 420 nautical miles east of Cape Race in heavy seas by a torpedo from the German U 135 submarine (Kapitänleutnant Friedrich-Hermann Praetorius). The submarine had fired two torpedoes, but only one of them hit the stern of the steamer.
The 79 crew members and gunners left the sinking ship in four lifeboats, two of which overturned and sank in the heavy seas . Most of the boat occupants drowned. One of the remaining boats, No. 2, was picked up on February 5, 1942 by the American destroyer Bernadou (Lieut. Commander Robert E. Braddy). Ten of the original 18 inmates were still alive. The second boat that had survived the stormy weather (No. 4) with four living occupants of the initial eight was discovered by the Portuguese motor trawler João Corte Real and brought ashore on February 26, 1942 in Porto . These 14 people were the only survivors of the sinking.
See also
→ List of ships with the name Königstein