Elbe (ship, 1934)
 The Elbe
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The second Elbe of North German Lloyd (NDL) was a purchased motor cargo ship. She and her sister ship Weser were built in 1929 by Deutsche Werke in Kiel for Norwegian accounts as Sud Expreso and Sud Americano , but were not approved. In 1934, the NDL bought the laid-up ships and had them rebuilt and equipped with new machinery. On November 15, 1934, the Elbe was the second of the two ships to sail for the NDL.
After the outbreak of World War II the ship in Japan was launched . From the end of April 1941, the Elbe was a blockade breaker on its way from Japan to western France. On June 6, 1941, planes belonging to the British aircraft carrier Eagle discovered the Elbe northwest of Cape Verde and sank it at 23 ° 30 ′ 0 ″ N , 36 ° 9 ′ 0 ″ W .
History of the ship
The Elbe and its sister ship Weser were built at the Deutsche Werke in Kiel on behalf of the Norwegian shipping company Ivar Anton Christensen (1868–1934) for the "A / S Linea Sud Americano" and its line from Brooklyn / New York to Rio de Janeiro, Montevideo and Buenos Aires, which he operated together with the US shipping company Garcia & Diaz.
The Sud Expreso and Sud Americano were motor ships of 6,600 GRT (10,350 tdw) with two chimneys, had large cooling rooms and space for 30 passengers. The maximum speed required was 16 kn , which was also achieved on test drives. The ships were delivered in June / July 1929. The line was not satisfied with the new ships and criticized the maximum and service speed and the reliability of the built-in 6-cylinder diesel engines of the shipyard with a total output of 7500 hp . In 1930 it was agreed to return the ships to the shipyard. However, in the course of the global economic crisis, Christensen's American partner also got into trouble.
In June 1931, both ships were chartered to the Blue Star Line , which they used as Wenatchee Star and Yakima Star to the US Pacific coast. On November 3 and September 24, 1931, the ships came back to Kiel and were laid up. Deutsche Revisions- und Treuhandbank AG had been the owner of the ships since January 1931, which were called Holstein and Schleswig in Kiel .
As Elbe at the NDL
In December 1933, the NDL acquired the laid-up ships and had them converted. They received a new forecastle, which they extended by over 10 m. For this purpose, a new MAN engine system was installed and they only had one relatively wide chimney. They came into service with the NDL as the Weser and Elbe in autumn 1934 and, as planned, both carried out their maiden voyages to Vancouver .
Like its sister ship, the Elbe, which was put into service on November 15, 1934, was 155.54 m long and 18.47 m wide. It was driven by two 7-cyl MAN - diesel engines with a total capacity of 11,000 PSe for 17 node (kn) speed. The ships designated as the largest German cargo ships with 9,179 GRT were measured and they had a carrying capacity of 10,350 dwt . Normally, the ships should offer space for up to 17 passengers.
Calls
On November 22, 1934, the Elbe ran with three passengers on its maiden voyage from Bremen to Vancouver. Further departures took place on February 25 with eleven passengers via Antwerp, Cristobal and San Francisco to Vancouver and on June 1, 1935. The ship remained in service on this route until 1938. At least on April 5 and July 24, 1939, the Elbe left for East Asia. The emigrants were recorded not only with their (German) citizenship, but also with their ethnicity and religion.
On September 3, 1939, the ship was launched in Yokohama because of the war that had broken out in Europe .
The end of the Elbe
In 1941 the ship was equipped as a blockade breaker for a trip from Japan to western France, which was occupied by Germany. It was the third German blockade breaker to leave Dairen on April 20, 1941, after the Warmia and the prize tanker Ole Jacob in December 1940, which were doing supply tasks for German surface forces on the way.
On June 6, 1941, planes of the British aircraft carrier HMS Eagle , searching for supplies to the battleship Bismarck and the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen, discovered the Elbe with their rubber cargo northwest of Cape Verde. Fairey Swordfish of the 824 Squadron, Fleet Air Arm, sank the Elbe at 23 ° 30′N 36 ° 09′W. On June 21, 1941, the British aid ship HMS Hilary accidentally picked up 19 castaways from the blockade breaker.
The fate of the Weser
The sister ship Weser was launched on February 18, 1929 as Sud Americano . Completed on June 24, 1929 as the first ship, she had, as described above, passed through the same stations as the sister ship. As the fourth ship of the NDL with the name Weser , she was accepted on June 24, 1934 and started on September 29, 1934 on her maiden voyage to Vancouver. The ship remained in North America west coast service until the outbreak of war in 1939. In that year she had left Bremen three more times for the American west coast. Her cabin seats were fully booked and a third of her passengers were "emigrants" (mostly of Jewish faith).
After the outbreak of war, the ship, still in the Pacific, first called at Puntarenas in Costa Rica and later moved to Manzanillo in Mexico . The Navy showed an early interest in the fast motor ship and wanted to use it as a supplier. In fact, it was not until September 25, 1940 that the Weser left the port of Manzanillo in the evening hours to meet with the auxiliary cruiser Orion in the South Seas and to supply him with fuel, provisions and the like. On board the German ship were, among other things, 2630 tons of diesel fuel and 600 tons of lubricating oil as well as large provisions including live animals.
For a few days, the Canadian auxiliary cruiser Prince Robert had been watching Manzanillo, unrecognized by the Germans, as the preparations for the departure of the Weser had been recognized by the British . The Canadian ship followed the departing motor ship until it left Mexican territorial waters. After firing a warning shot from one of the 152 mm guns and after the searchlights of the auxiliary cruiser had illuminated the Weser , the German ship turned and was boarded by a prize squad of the Prince Robert . The occupation of the Weser offered no resistance. Although the Weser had previously been prepared for possible self-sinking in the event of an incursion, the Germans failed to do so. Most of the German crew was transferred to the Canadian ship and a 27-strong crew took over the management of the Weser . Both ships then ran to Esquimalt , where the German civilian crew were taken away as prisoners of war.
The Weser , which was not in good condition after a year in the tropics , was overhauled in order to be able to use it as a cargo ship. It was renamed Vancouver Island and served from then on in the Canadian Merchant Navy. On her first transatlantic voyage from Montreal to Cardiff with a cargo of 3,132 t general cargo, 983 t copper, 751 t aluminum, 450 t zinc, 357 t asbestos and 87 t steel, as well as 30 passengers, the ship turned west on the night of October 15, 1941 torpedoed and sunk by Ireland by U 558 under Lieutenant Günter Krech , whereby all 105 people on board lost their lives. Of U 558 was observed, which suspended the crew lifeboats and left the ship. Two weeks after the sinking, a British warship accidentally found a Vancouver Island lifeboat with two dead officers from the ship.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k Kludas: Die Seeschiffe des Norddeutscher Lloyd 1920 to 1970 , p. 68
- ↑ a b Ivar An Christensen in the Norsk biografisk leksikon
- ↑ Ambrose Greenway: Cargo Liners: An Illustrated History , p. 62
- ↑ Greenway: Cargo Liners , p. 80
- ↑ Schmelzkopf: Die deutsche Handelsschiffahrt , p. 166
- ^ Kludas: Passenger Shipping , Vol. V: An era is coming to an end , p. 72
- ↑ melt head, p. 173
- ↑ Bremen passenger lists
- ^ Brown: HMS Eagle , p. 265
- ↑ Rohwer: naval warfare , 26.09.1940 Pacific
- ↑ Rohwer: naval warfare , 7.- 10/18/1941 North Atlantic
- ↑ Vancouver Island
Web links
- Ship list of A / S IVARANS REDERI
- MS SUD EXPRESO
- 1929: Olaf, the Viking Cat Rescued at Sea En Route to Brooklyn
- Blockade breakers 1941-1943
- US Navy: Blockade Runners Summary
literature
- Ambrose Greenway: Cargo Liners: An Illustrated History , reprint Seaforth Publishing, 2012, ISBN 1-84832-129-5
- Arnold Kludas : The History of German Passenger Shipping 1850 to 1990 . Ernst Kabel Verlag, 1986 ff.
- Arnold Kludas: Die Seeschiffe des Norddeutscher Lloyd 1920 to 1970 , Koehlers Verlagsgesellschaft, Herford 1992, ISBN 3-7822-0534-0
- Reinhardt Schmelzkopf: The German Merchant Navy 1919-1939 , publisher Gerhard Stalling, Oldenburg 1974, ISBN 3 7979 1847 X .
- David Brown: Warship Profile 35 HMS Eagle , Profile Publications Ltd., Windsor 1973,