Mayor Pauli
 Outpost boat stranded on Borkumriff in 1918
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The Mayor Pauli was a fish steamer that served as an outpost boat for the Imperial Navy during the First World War . The ship ran aground on January 8, 1918 together with four other boats on Borkumriff, with 14 crew members of the mayor Pauli perishing.
history
The mayor Pauli belonged to the so-called Blücher type, of which 48 vehicles were built at the Unterweser shipyard between 1913 and 1920. A sister ship was the Admiral von Knorr . Since the building number is not known, it is unclear whether the boat was built as an outpost boat from the start or was later converted from a fish steamer to a VP boat. It is only certain that the construction numbers 144 to 147, 153 and 154 were used for outpost boats , the numbers 127, 148, 152, 156 and 157 for auxiliary minesweepers .
According to Gröner, the boat was assigned to the Ems outpost flotilla on December 12, 1916 . Also according to Gröner, the mayor Pauli is said to have been stranded on the Hohen Riff (Borkumriff) around ten days later, on December 23, 1916, but was rescued again.
On January 5, 1918, 10:30 p.m., five boats from the outpost flotilla, Lister Tief , Senator Schäfer , Mayor Pauli , Ella Ober and Johs ran. Thoede , under the leadership of Leutnant zur See der Reserve Stein from Borkumreede to pick up the returning submarine UC 58 . At this point there was already a strong westerly wind and poor visibility due to rain. UC 58 was captured on January 6 at around 9:00 a.m. and accompanied with deployed mine detector. Before Norderney , the submarine was handed over to the outpost boat Roon and the five boats of the Ems flotilla started their way back.
As there were no buoys , beacons or pilots due to the war, all five boats stranded on January 7 at around 1 a.m. due to bad weather and poor visibility of Borkumriff (buoy W 6). While Ella Ober and Johs. When they were released after a short time, the three other boats stayed on the reef for the time being. At around 5 a.m. the weather had calmed down enough that it was possible to leave the boats when a counter-order was received by radiotelegraph not to leave them, as an attempt was made to tow them away.
But the increasingly bad weather made towing attempts impossible. Several attempts to get to Mayor Pauli with the Borkum lifeboat Otto Hass of the German Society for the Rescue of Shipwrecked People under the leadership of foreman Herman Akkerman failed. The Borkum team finally refused to make any further attempts because they considered the enterprise to be impossible. Subsequently, naval teams took over the boat, but they also failed.
Finally, Senator Schäfer was also released and could be towed away. The Lister Tief was released for a short time, but was stranded again shortly afterwards. Therefore, the German side asked the Dutch rescue station Rottum on Rottumeroog for help. The Dutch government promised help and dispatched the motor lifeboat C. N. de Tex , which was only put into service in 1917, under the leadership of the island bailiff Hendrik Toxopeus. The Dutch managed to hide a man from Mayor Pauli . To thank them, they were treated to soup and cognac on Borkum .
According to Gröner, the wreck of the Lister Tief was later demolished on site. Such a process has not been handed down by the Mayor Pauli , so it must be assumed that her wreck is still near the beach location (position 53 ° 36 'N / 06 ° 28' E), even if it is possibly completely silted up.
Illustration
A sketch of the Blücher type by Franz Mrva is shown in Gröner, p. 232.
literature
- Fritz Otto Busch : War on seven oceans , Berlin (Brunnen-Verlag) 1935, pp. 137–142.
- Erich Gröner , Dieter Jung, Martin Maass: The German warships 1815-1945 . Volume 8/1: River vehicles, Ujäger, outpost boats, auxiliary minesweepers, coastal protection associations (part 1), Bernard & Graefe Verlag, Bonn 1993, pp. 226f., 230, 232. ISBN 3-7637-4807-5 .
- Jens Bald: accidents, hopes, helpers. Ship accidents in the mouth of the Ems and off Borkum , Borkum (Burchana-Verlag) 2011.