Bohlen (ship)
 |
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
.svg){kind=small}
The motor tanker Böhlen was an oil tanker of the Deutsche Seereederei Rostock (DSR) , which operated the high seas fleet of the GDR . In 1976, the ship's sinking made international headlines.
The ship until 1976
The ship was on June 3, 1961 as Leuna IV from the stack . On October 16 of that year, however, the Leningrad Admiralty Shipyard delivered it under the name Böhlen . The tanker was officially put into service in 1962 by the German shipping company Rostock. In April 1969 it was launched in Rostock and was to be sold to France; but in the end there was no contract, whereupon the ship went to VEB Deutfracht Internationale Befrachtung und Reederei on January 1, 1970 and then to VEB Deutfracht / Seereederei Rostock (both subsidiaries of DSR) on January 1, 1974 .
The shipwreck
On the voyage from Venezuela to Rostock on October 14, 1976, due to a navigation error at around 3:55 a.m. (all times in UTC) , the ship got into the Chaussée de Sein - an area rich in cliffs in the west of the French island of Île de Sein (in the west of the Breton headland Pointe du Raz ) - and hit a leak. The ship's officers misjudged the situation after the grounding and set course for the high seas, although a storm was developing.
It was not until eleven hours after the grounding, at 3:25 p.m., when the front part of the ship was already deep in the water and damaged by overflowing lakes, did the radio operator send an emergency report at the captain's command ; Another hour passed before he sent an SOS at 4:25 pm ; it said about deck under water - stop - help urgently . Even now, the captain of the Böhlen had reservations about accepting the common no cure - no pay clause when the West German ocean tug Pacific offered its services. At 4:33 p.m., radio contact with the Böhlen broke off as the lakes overflowing smashed the windows of the radio room. Around 5 p.m. the tanker sank off the coast of Crozon (near Brest ) and finally came to the position 48 ° 10 ′ 30 ″ N , 5 ° 10 ′ 48 ″ W to lie.
A large-scale rescue operation was started, but it was made more difficult by bad weather, a lack of sea rescue equipment and the spreading oil spill. The Pacific could save five survivors finally, two more sailors of Bohlen came in the rescue operation killed when they in heavy seas from the bilge keel of the Pacific were slain. The French Fort Pontchartrain was able to save two, a helicopter one survivor. Breton fishermen from the Île de Sein, who, like their colleagues on the coast, had not been notified of the rescue operation and only heard of it by chance, were able to rescue two other men from a raft.
When the Böhlen sank , 24 crew members and two accompanying wives died. Captain Siegbert Rennecke and almost all officers did not survive the sinking. 16 people were recovered dead. The eleven survivors included the radio operator, the cook and the baker.
Since none of the nautical officers survived the sinking, one can only speculate about the reasons for their behavior. Above all, it was discussed why the Böhlen set course for the open sea instead of calling at a nearby port. In fact, she could have entered the sheltered Douarnenez Bay in just five hours after the bottoming , where help could have been more easily obtained. Generally, the Bohlen asked for help late. When she finally did and the deep-sea tug Pacific offered to tow the Böhlen , the captain demanded special conditions about the assumption of financial risk - unusual conditions, which the Pacific refused, whereupon the Böhlen was not towed. A wrong assessment of the situation by the ship's officers is to be assumed with this behavior. It is unclear whether there were also political and financial reasons. A possible oil pollution of western waters by a GDR ship was also politically explosive. Even if the officers suspected a leak, they could have made a conscious attempt to get away from the scene of the accident as quickly as possible, provided they did not fear loss of the ship; The survivors, however, did not report any measures to combat the leak or even to check it.
In the GDR, the facts about the sinking of the Böhlen were examined by the Sea Chamber of the GDR and published in the corresponding accident claim. However, the documentary filmmaker Michael Erler argues in his films that some of the causes of the misfortune, namely the role of alcohol on board, were not sufficiently appreciated and published by the Sea Chamber.
The sinking of the Böhlen had serious consequences for the environment. The tanker had loaded about 10,000 tons of crude oil, of which up to 2,000 tons leaked before the rest of the oil could be pumped out of the wreck . The oil pollution of the waters resulted in a nineteen year fishing ban, which hit many fishermen in the area hard.
Movie
- Michael Erler: The last trip of the Böhlen. Documentary , Germany 2005.
- Michael Erler: The mysterious sinking of the GDR tanker Böhlen . A film from the ARD series: Minutes of a disaster . Documentary, Germany, MDR 2007.
See also
Web links
literature
- Nikos Natsidis: Böhlen, Colditz and Espenhain - giants of the seas. Three municipalities in what is now the district of Leipzig were namesakes for GDR ocean-going ships. In addition to the “Colditz”, the MS Böhlen and the MS Espenhain were also on the oceans - like 342 other ships of the Deutsche Seereederei (DSR) between 1952 and 1990. The “Böhlen” sank in October 1976 off the French coast. In: Leipziger Volkszeitung , Muldental edition, September 11, 2015, p. 31
- Nikos Natsidis: sinking of a tanker - worst ship accident in the GDR. On the way back from Venezuela to Rostock with 9796 tons of oil on board, the 35-man Bohlen sank in October 1976. In: Leipziger Volkszeitung, Muldental edition, September 11, 2015, p. 31
Footnotes
- ↑ deck under water stop urgent help - Friedrich Elchlepp: The sinking of the motor tanker "Böhlen". P. 4 from: "Dietrich Elchlepp, AKSM - Rostock - DGSM", Panorama maritim 27 (PDF; accessed October 14; 21 kB)
- ^ Steven F. Friedell: Compensation and Reward for Saving Life at Sea. In: Michigan Law Review. Ann Arbor 77.1979, No. 5 (May), pp. 1218-1289. ISSN 0026-2234
- ↑ Friedrich Elchlepp: The sinking of the motor tanker "Böhlen". P. 4 from: "Dietrich Elchlepp, AKSM - Rostock - DGSM", Panorama maritim 27 (PDF; accessed October 14; 21 kB)
- ↑ Friedrich Elchlepp: The sinking of the motor tanker "Böhlen" (PDF; accessed October 14, 2007; 21 kB)
- ↑ Stadtanzeiger Leuna Nov. 2011: The procurement of oil for the chemical companies in Leuna (...): The sinking of the motor tanker Böhlen (Part 1). ( Memento of the original from December 26, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; accessed May 26, 2013; 21 kB)
- ↑ Stadtanzeiger Leuna December 2011: The procurement of crude oil for the chemical companies in Leuna (...): The sinking of the motor tanker Böhlen (Part 2). ( Memento of the original from June 17, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; accessed May 26, 2013; 21 kB)
- ↑ Guest book. Retrieved September 17, 2019 .
- ↑ Meeting_31. Retrieved September 17, 2019 .
- ^ TV week, July 9th to 15th: Daniel Brühl practices the evil eye . ISSN 0174-4909 ( faz.net [accessed September 17, 2019]).
- ↑ PHOENIX broadcast schedule , Wednesday, June 10, 2009. Accessed on September 17, 2019 .
- ↑ The mysterious sinking of the GDR tanker Böhlen. Retrieved September 17, 2019 .
