Bulgaria (ship, 1898)
 The Bulgaria as a troop carrier USS Philippines
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The Bulgaria of the Hamburg-American Packetfahrt-Actien-Gesellschaft (HAPAG), put into service in 1898, was the first ship of the B-steamers of the Hamburg shipping company built in Germany. It was created at Blohm & Voss in Hamburg according to the plans of Harland & Wolff and was used immediately after the type ship Brasilia on the line from Hamburg to New York.
The Bulgaria caused a stir when she went missing for 14 days in the North Atlantic in February 1899. The B-steamers were used for a variety of tasks, so that the Bulgaria also called Baltimore and Boston and in 1907 was also briefly used on the Mediterranean route to New York. In competition against British shipping lines, she and her sister ship Batavia were launched under the Austrian flag as Canada and Polonia from Trieste on the south route across the North Atlantic.
When the war began, which was Bulgaria in Baltimore launched , seized in 1917 by the US and as a transporter Hercules used. After the end of the war, the ship was assigned to the USA as spoils of war and was temporarily serving as the Philippines in the United States Navy . In 1924, the former Bulgaria was canceled in New York.
In the service of HAPAG
Bulgaria , launched at Blohm & Voss on February 5, 1898, was handed over to HAPAG on April 4, 1898 as the second B steamers. Like the previous small and large P-steamers by Harland & Wolff, the ships were built in Germany. The construction yard in Belfast built two ships of this type with the type ship Brasilia and the Belgia , the latter of which was sold on before completion in 1899 and the Brasilia was also returned to the shipyard for resale after 20 months of service. Only the three replicas of Blohm & Voss ( Bulgaria , Batavia and until May 1905 Belgravia ) that came into service in 1899 remained in service with the Hamburg shipping company.
The Bulgaria started her maiden voyage from Hamburg via Halifax to New York on April 10, 1898 . The B steamers were a shortened and reduced version of the previous large P steamers with only two masts. They only had 2nd class cabin seats and a large tween deck facility. The use as large cargo ships was emphasized more on them.
The storm voyage of Bulgaria
On the 7th return voyage from New York on January 28, 1899, the Bulgaria got caught in a hurricane that damaged her hatches and broke the steering gear. The ship had 5000 tons of grain, 109 horses in boxes on the upper deck and 28 between deck passengers on board. From February 2nd, the Bulgaria drifted in an uncontrollable storm. The horses on the upper deck fell in their boxes, injured themselves and broke the boxes and all had to be killed. The technically correct stowed grain load slipped and caused an increasing list with water entering through fans and slammed hatches. In addition, most of the lifeboats on the port side were destroyed by the violence of the sea. On February 5, the captain fired emergency rockets, to which three ships responded. The British Vittoria , Koordistan and the tanker Weehawken launched boats to take over people from the helpless Bulgaria , which launched two boats of its own, one of which drifted off immediately. Three women, eight children and seven men and a boat crew were taken over by the Weehawken , and four sailors from the Bulgaria's aborted boat were able to save the Vittoria . At nightfall, the rescuers broke off their measures, who had lost boats, but no sailors. A tow attempt was planned the following morning, but the Bulgaria had disappeared. The British ships assumed that she had sunk during the night and continued their voyages. The Weehawken landed their castaways on February 12th in Ponta Delgada , the four men on the Vittoria reached Baltimore on the 23rd and led to the conviction that the Bulgaria had sunk.
The Bulgaria was only aborted. When the storm subsided on February 9, it was possible to get rid of the animal carcasses on deck and give the ship a different course without being able to steer properly. The machinery and pumps were still intact. On February 14th, they met the British freighter Antillian , which they asked for towing assistance, but repeatedly failed. In the hope of being able to attach an emergency rudder, the British ship was released and the remaining passengers were also kept on board. It was not until February 21 that the emergency rudder was attached and the ship could be steered again. On February 24th, the Bulgaria entered Ponta Delgada, Azores . After repairing the oar gear, she was able to continue her voyage on her own and was celebrated when the ship entered Plymouth and Hamburg, where the Kaiser greeted the ship , Admiral Koester , the commanding admiral of the Imperial Navy . Afterwards a bronze coin with the inscription “The brave crew of Bulgaria” was minted 84 times, which was presented to every passenger. A small child died during the storm voyage and a sailor went overboard unnoticed. The Hamburg Maritime Administration decided that the cause was the inadequate strength of the rudder, as the designers first had to gain experience with the skyrocketing ship sizes. So it had already decided on February 3rd in the same hurricane with regard to a rudder damage in Pretoria . A lack of stability did not only occur when the structures from the Harland & Wolff shipyard were taken over, as Blohm & Voss had to experience at great expense when the Potsdam was delivered to Holland-America Line in May 1900 and had to be extensively improved after its maiden voyage. The Hamburg shipyard also repaired the express steamers Kaiser Wilhelm der Große and Deutschland built by the Szczecin Vulcan , both of which had their stern broken and had to be replaced.
Until 1901, New York was the main port of destination in the USA, then the ship also ran frequently to Boston or Baltimore. In 1904/1905 the Bulgaria was used as a freighter to supply coal to the 2nd Pacific Squadron of the Russian fleet on the way to East Asia and called at Tanjung Priok , the port of Batavia .
Mediterranean service under two flags
After being used as a coal freighter, the ship was converted at the shipyard. The facility for cabin passengers was removed and it was only possible to carry up to 2741 passengers in the tween deck. A new measurement now resulted in 11,494 GRT.
The renovated ship was first used in March and May 1906 on the route from Naples to New York, where the Bulgaria landed 2,651 and 2,729 passengers respectively. In 1907, the Bulgaria followed four more journeys on the Mediterranean route to the States, of which the first two had a similarly good occupancy rate. In April and May 1909 the ship was then used again on the route from the Mediterranean to New York.
In the course of the battle with British shipping companies for market shares in passenger transport, the Bulgaria and her sister ship Batavia were sold to the Union Austriaca di Navigazione in Trieste in 1913 . The sale was probably only in the books, since Hapag and NDL were involved in the Austrian company. The Austriaca launched the two B-steamers under the Austrian flag in April 1913 as Canada and Polonia from Trieste on the south route across the North Atlantic to New York and Canada, in order to compete with the subsidiary CP Ships of the Canadian Pacific Railway . The shipping company, which specializes in emigrants, tried to attract a higher proportion of eastern and central European emigrants by departing from Trieste. The Canadian company used the 7,550 GRT Lake Erie and Lake Champlain under the new names Tyrolia and Ruthenia from March 1913. After the sixth departure in January and February 1914, the Canadians withdrew again. The Bulgaria and Batavia had made trips to New York and two trips each to Quebec, but had already resumed service at Hapag under their old names before the end of 1913.
When the First World War broke out , the Bulgaria was in Baltimore, while her sister ship the Batavia was in Hamburg. It was used as a troop transport for the German landing company against the Baltic Islands in 1917.
American troop carrier
Bulgaria , located in Baltimore, was confiscated by the US authorities on April 6, 1917. Under the name Hercules , it was used by the US Army to transport goods and animals. After the end of the war, the US Navy took over the ship, renamed the Philippines (ID: ID 1677), on May 1, 1919 in Hoboken (New Jersey) in order to use it to transport American soldiers back home. In total, the Philippines made two repatriation trips and brought 4,165 soldiers back to the States, only to be decommissioned on October 23, 1919 and returned to the US Shipping Board .
fate
On October 23, 1919, the ship was released from the service of the US Navy and laid up in the Hudson River , like many other ships that belonged to the US Shipping Board. The inadequate guarding of the ships led to the theft of many valuable parts. In 1924 the former Bulgaria was scrapped in Perth Amboy , New Jersey .
The sister ships of the Bulgaria
| Launched in service |
Surname | tonnage | shipyard | fate |
| 27.11.1897 20.03.1898 |
Brasilia | 10,336 GRT | Harland & Wolff building no. 318 |
February 1899 back to the shipyard, April 1899 to Dominion Line as Norseman (II), 22 January 1916 torpedoed off the Greek coast by U 39 and stranded, scrapped in 1920 |
| 03/11/1899 05/25/1899 |
Batavia | 10178 GRT | Blohm & Voss building no. 132 |
July 27, 1900 as a troop transport with 2307 men and material to China (when they said goodbye, Kaiser Wilhelm II gave the so-called Huns speech ), then similar services as Bulgaria , 1913 as Polonia in the Trieste-Canada service, 1914 in Hamburg, 1917 as Largest transporter in use during the landing on Oesel , after the end of the war prisoner transport ship, sent to France in February 1919, broken off in 1924 |
| 05/11/1899 07/25/1899 |
Belgravia | 10 155 GRT | Blohm & Voss building no. 133 |
Similar services to Bulgaria , 31 May 1905 sold to Russia as Riga , from 1906 home port Odessa , renamed Transbalt (hospital ship) in 1920 , from 1924 freighter with Vladivostok as home port, on a journey from Seattle to Vladivostok with passengers and 9,800 ts of cargo on Erroneously sunk on June 13, 1945 by the American submarine USS Spadefish in La Pérouse Street , the largest Russian / Soviet merchant ship from 1906 until it was sunk |
| 5.10.1899 .12.1899 |
Belgia | 11585 GRT |
Harland & Wolff building no. 327 |
Sold before completion, in service as freighter Michigan for Atlantic Transport Line , 1900 to Dominion Line as Irishman (II), 1921 to Leyland Line , scrapped in the Netherlands in 1925 |
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literature
- Arnold Kludas : The History of German Passenger Shipping Volume II Expansion on All Seas 1890 to 1900 , Writings of the German Shipping Museum, Volume 19
- Arnold Kludas: The History of the German Passenger Shipping Volume III Leap growth 1900 to 1914 , Writings of the German Shipping Museum, Volume 20
- Arnold Kludas: The History of German Passenger Shipping Volume IV Destruction and Rebirth 1914 to 1930 , Writings of the German Shipping Museum, Volume 21
- Hans Georg Prager: Blohm & Voss Koehler Verlagsgesellschaft, Herford 1977, ISBN 3-78220-127-2 .
- Claus Rothe: German ocean passenger ships 1896 to 1918 . Steiger Verlag, 1986, ISBN 3-921564-80-8 .
Web links
- Johannes Gerhardt: Albert Ballin , Hamburg University Press, Hamburg 2009, as an online edition
- Expeditionary Force China 1900
- Example of an emigrant trip to Canada
- Philippines
- Philippines pictures