Eleonore Woermann
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The Eleonore Woermann of the Woermann Line was built in 1902 by the Blohm & Voss shipyard for passenger, freight and postal services to the West African German protected areas Togo and Cameroon and to German South West Africa .
When war broke out in 1914, Eleonore Woermann had to take over coal and provisions in Duala to supply German warships in the Atlantic. She supported the Dresden and the auxiliary cruiser Cap Trafalgar . After she had been sent to meet the cruiser squadron marching into the Atlantic, the battle cruiser Australia discovered the Eleonore Woermann off the southern coast of Argentina and sank her on January 6, 1915.
history
Since 1898 the Woermann line has operated five lines to West and South West Africa. The latter, however, has also been started by the DOAL affiliated with Woermann since 1900 . Up until 1900, the Woermann Line had not commissioned any passenger ships as newbuildings, but instead bought mostly used ships from Hamburg Süd . The first passenger ship newbuildings were delivered in 1900/1901 by DJ Dunlop & Co in Port Glasgow with the 4,000 GRT sister ships Ernst Woermann and Hans Woermann , which could transport over 100 passengers in three classes and had a service speed of 10.5 kn. This was the shipping company's last construction contract abroad.
The next orders for two more ships went to Blohm & Voss for two twin screw ships of 4,600 GRT and a service speed of 12.5 kn for 83 passengers in Class I, 68 in Class II and 50 in Class III. Class. The sister ships Eleonore Woermann and Lucie Woermann , built by the shipyard under construction numbers 156 and 157, were the largest ships in the Woermann line until 1904.
The type ship Eleonore Woermann was launched on March 23, 1902 and was delivered to the shipping company on June 24. Her sister ship Lucie Woermann followed into service in September. The line's increased need for ships due to the Herero uprising in 1904 led to the purchase of three 5,600 GRT ships from DG Argo from Bremen . In 1905, the shipping company commissioned larger newbuildings with ships of the Gertrud Woermann class of over 6,000 GRT and space for 200 passengers.
When the threat of war threatened, the Eleonore Woermann ran to Duala, since the Woermann Line, trusting the Congo files, held the port as a safe haven. A further nine Woermann liner steamers, the Arnfried of HBAL and the Lome of Hapag, as well as ten coastal steamers had sought refuge there.
War effort
The mail steamer Eleonore Woermann took over coal and provisions in Duala (also using the passenger compartments) and was the only one of the larger German ships to leave the colony on August 7, 1914 to support German warships in the South Atlantic. Only three of the coastal steamers tried to leave Duala later.
The mail steamer met the Dresden and four other German supply ships on the uninhabited Brazilian island of Trindade on August 16 . The cruiser took over provisions and equipment and the coal supplies of Eleonore Woermann were replenished by suppliers who were to be dismissed. The German gunboat Eber from Swakopmund arrived at Trinidade on August 19 and the Hamburg-Süd express steamer Cap Trafalgar from Montevideo on August 23 , which the Eber equipped with their weapons as an auxiliary cruiser. The Eleonore Woermann was to serve the auxiliary cruiser as an accompanying supply ship.
After an unsuccessful search, the Cap Trafalgar ran again to the island of Trindade, 450 nautical miles east of Vitória, where the Imperial Navy had set up a small supply depot. There she was discovered by the British auxiliary cruiser Carmania together with the newly arrived Hapag steamer Pontos (5,703 GRT) and the Eleonore Woermann in the early morning of September 14, 1914 and sunk at ( 20 ° 10 ′ S , 29 ° 51 ′ W ) . Since the Carmania turned off badly damaged, 303 of the 318-strong crew of the auxiliary cruiser could be rescued, which were brought to Buenos Aires by the Eleonore Woermann until September 24, 1914 .
The ship was then equipped as a supply for the Spees squadron and went back to sea on December 2, 1914 in the direction of the South Atlantic. When the bulk of the squadron was lost in the naval battle in the Falkland Islands on December 8th, the Eleonore Woermann stayed in the bays of southern Argentina in order to provide support again on the occasion of the escaped Dresden .
The end of Eleonore Woermann
The loss of the German cruiser squadron freed the battle cruiser Australia , which was intended as the flagship of the North America and West Indies station , from its task. Australia , still in the north on the west coast of South America, was supposed to move through the Panama Canal and via Jamaica to Great Britain, but was forced to run around South America due to problems on the canal. The battle cruiser had left Port Stanley on January 5 with a damaged screw and was heading north when, on January 6, 1915, it spotted Eleonore Woermann , who was off the beaten track and was stopped with a warning shot by the heavy artillery. Since the commander felt that he did not have enough personnel for an independent prize crew and that the ship could not follow the cruising speed of the battle cruiser, the Eleonore Woermann was moved to ( 42 ° 50 ′ 0 ″ S , 52 ° 50 ′ 0 ″ W ) sunk. This was the last enemy contact of the battle cruiser Australia ; Despite participating in numerous operations, there were never any encounters with German ships.
| Fate of the sister ship | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Surname | Shipyard | GRT | Launched in service |
further fate | |
| Lucie Woermann | Blohm & Voss building no. 157 |
4630 | 05.07.1902 13.09.1902 |
1914 in Hamburg, delivered at the end of March 1919, return transport of Australian troops from Europe, on August 15, 1920 in the charter of the German sailing ship owners with 400 men to Chile, who are supposed to sail the German sailing ships there to Europe, January 1921 to France, by the Messageries Maritime and used as aviateur Roland Garros from 1922 in the East Africa service from Marseille to Madagascar , Réunion and Mauritius , sold to Italy for demolition in May 1931. | |
Web links
- Sinking of Eleonore Woermann
- paquebot Aviateur Roland Garros ex Lucie Woermann
- L'AVIATEUR ROLAND GARROS ex Lucie Woermann
literature
- Carl Herbert: War voyages of German merchant ships . Broschek & Co, Hamburg 1934.
- Arnold Kludas : The ships of the German Africa Lines 1880 to 1945 . Verlag Gerhard Stalling, 1975, ISBN 3-7979-1867-4 .
- 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
- Hans Georg Prager : Blohm & Voss Koehler Verlagsgesellschaft, Herford 1977, ISBN 3-78220-127-2 .
Footnotes
- ^ Kludas: The history of German passenger shipping , Vol. II, p. 65f.
- ↑ Kludas: Passenger Shipping , Vol. II, p. 65ff.
- ↑ Kludas: Passenger Shipping , Vol. II, p. 69.
- ↑ a b c d e f Kludas: The ships of the German Africa Lines 1880-1945 , p. 46.
- ↑ Kludas: Passenger Shipping , Vol. III, pp. 144, 148.
- ↑ Kludas: Passenger Shipping , Vol. III, p. 144.
- ↑ The agreements of the Congo Conference as international law provided for the neutrality of the colonial areas in the event of war.
- ↑ a b c Herbert: War voyages of German merchant ships , p. 106.
- ^ Herbert, p. 75.
- ↑ Herbert, p. 62f.