Athos (ship, 1915)
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||
The Athos (I) was a steamship of the French shipping company Messageries Maritimes put into service in 1915 , which was built for the transport of passengers, cargo and mail from Marseille to the Far East . However, the ship was never used for passenger traffic, but served as a troop transport in the First World War from the beginning . On February 17, 1917, the Athos was sunk near Malta by a German submarine, killing 754 people.
The ship
The 12,644 GRT steamer Athos was laid down at the Ateliers et Chantiers de France shipyard in Dunkirk and was launched on July 25, 1914. Due to the bombing of Dunkirk during the First Battle of Flanders in autumn 1914, the Athos had to be towed to Saint-Nazaire , where it was completed in May 1915. She was the structurally identical sister ship of the Porthos , which was launched at Forges et Chantiers de la Gironde in Bordeaux . After the 14,368 GRT André Lebon , which also entered service in 1915, the Athos and the Porthos were the largest ships of their shipping company. They were built for the route Marseille - Port Said - Suez - Colombo - Saigon - Da Nang - Haiphong .
The Athos was 156.48 meters long, 18.84 meters wide and had a side height of 12.74 meters. It was equipped with nine steam boilers . The two triple expansion steam engines, which powered a single screw, developed 9,000 hp and allowed a speed of 17.5 knots (32.4 km / h). The ship had a deadweight capacity of 9,400 tons and a displacement of 18,570 tons. The First World War prevented the use of the Athos as a passenger ship. It was declared a troop transport right after its completion. On November 28, 1915, she left for China for the first time . On October 29, 1916, she ran again from Marseille to Yokohama and, after making stops in Hong Kong and Djibouti, arrived back in Marseille on December 26th.
Downfall
On her next voyage to Yokohama she was escorted by the torpedo boats Enseigne Henry and Mameluck . On Saturday, February 17, 1917 at 12:27 p.m., she was 180 nautical miles southeast of Malta at position 35 ° 22 ′ N , 18 ° 32 ′ E by the German U-boat U 65 under the command of Lieutenant Hermann von Fischel from 1,000 torpedoed up to a distance of 1,200 m. The Athos had crew members and troops on board and was under the command of Captain Eugène Dorise. A total of 1,950 people were on board, including Chinese workers and a large contingent of Senegalese soldiers, but also civilian passengers, including women and children. The ship sank almost vertically within 14 minutes. 112 crew members and 642 soldiers or workers and passengers (a total of 754 people) were killed, including the captain. The survivors were picked up by the Enseigne Henry and the Mameluck, as well as the gunboat Moqueuse and the torpedo boat Baliste .
The Athos was the largest ship sunk by U 65 .