Commissaire Ramel
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The Commissaire Ramel was a 1921 passenger ship of the French shipping company Messageries Maritimes , which was used for the transport of passengers and cargo from France to the Far East and Australia . On September 20, 1940, the Commissaire Ramel was sunk in the Indian Ocean by the German auxiliary cruiser Atlantis . She was the largest ship that the Atlantis sank in World War II .
The ship
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The Commissaire Ramel was built in the early 1920s at the Société Provençale de Constructions Navales shipyard in La Ciotat and was initially an 8,814 GRT cargo ship . She was originally christened General Duchesne , but was renamed Commissaire Ramel shortly afterwards . This was intended to honor a long-time employee of the shipping company, Paul Henri Ramel (1878–1917), the paymaster of the steamer Athos , who died in the First World War when it was sunk by a German submarine . Ramel was considered the hero of the catastrophe and was posthumously awarded the Legion of Honor.
The Commissaire Ramel was 152.50 meters long, 18.06 meters wide and had a chimney, two masts and a propeller . She was equipped with two triple expansion steam engines that developed 4,450 hp and allowed a top speed of 12 knots. The ship was built for freight transport to the Far East and was launched on March 20, 1920. The maiden voyage took place on April 24, 1921.
In 1926, the Commissaire Ramel was converted into a passenger ship with a capacity of 58 first class passengers, 78 second class passengers and 416 third class passengers. The previous machines were replaced by two steam turbines with an output of 5,000 hp, which increased the top speed to 14 knots. The volume also changed to 10,061 GRT as a result of the modifications. In 1933 the machines were modernized again. The power remained at 6,250 hp. From January 27, 1927, the Commissaire Ramel was used in passenger and freight traffic from Dunkirk to Australia via the Suez Canal and from 1935 it operated on the route Marseille - Panama - New Caledonia .
Sinking
During the Second World War, the Commissaire Ramel initially remained in the regular passenger and freight service to Australia. On July 23, 1940, however, she was commandeered by the British Governor of Fiji as a troop transport and placed under the management of the British shipping company Shaw, Savill & Albion Steamship Company .
On September 1, 1940, the Commissaire Ramel ran under the command of Captain Roderick McKenzie with 66 people on board in Sydney to return to England via Fremantle and Cape Town . On September 20, 1940, she met the German auxiliary cruiser Atlantis in the Indian Ocean . When the steamer wanted to communicate its position by radio, the crew of the Atlantis opened fire. Three crew members of Commissaire Ramel were killed in the fire. The rest of the crew was able to leave the ship before it was sunk by further fire (position 28.30S / 74.13E).
The survivors were taken prisoner of war and taken to Mogadishu (Somalia) and later to a camp in Merka , where they were liberated by British troops on February 25, 1941.