Equa (ship, 1929)

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Equa p1
Ship data
flag ItalyKingdom of Italy (trade flag) Italy (1929 / 30–1940) Italy (1940–1944)
ItalyItaly (naval war flag) 
other ship names

F 43 (1940-1940)
AS 105 (1941-1943)

Ship type Passenger ship
home port Naples
Owner Società Partenopea Anonima di Navigazione di Napoli
Shipyard Cantiere Navale del Taranto (Franco Tosi) , Taranto
Launch 1929
Whereabouts Rammed and sunk by UJ 2220 April 18, 1944
Ship dimensions and crew
length
39.46 m ( Lüa )
width 6.80 m
Draft Max. 2.56 m
measurement 243 GRT
Machine system
machine 2 × Tosi six-cylinder four-stroke diesel engine
Machine
performance 		2 × 680 hp
Top
speed 		12.0 kn (22 km / h)
propeller 2
Transport capacities
Others

The Equa was an Italian coastal shipping passenger ship built in 1929 . During the Second World War , the Regia Marina first used it as a guard ship and later as a submarine hunter. The Navy took over the ship in September 1943 and passed it on to the Marina Nazionale Repubblicana in January 1944 . In April or June 1944, UJ 2220 rammed the Equa , which then sank.

Construction and technical data

The ship was built in 1929 on order of the shipping company Società Anonima Partenopea di Navigazione di Napoli along with three sister ships at the shipyard Cantiere Navale del Taranto (Franco Tosi) in Taranto placed on Kiel . When it was launched in 1929, the ship was given the name Equa . The ship was 39.46 meters long, 6.80 meters wide and had a draft of 2.56 meters. The Equa was measured at 243 GRT . Two Tosi six-cylinder four-stroke diesel engines , each with 680 hp , enabled a speed of 12.0 knots with two screws .

history

The Equa and her three sister ships Eponeo , Meta and Sorrento belonged to the shipping company Società Partenopea Anonima di Navigazione di Napoli (SPAN) from Naples, which existed from 1925 to 1975. The shipping company operated passenger lines between the cities on the Gulf of Naples and the islands of the Campania Archipelago . The shipping company put all four newbuildings into service in February and March 1930. The Equa performed its service so inconspicuously over the next ten years that no irregularities with the ship were noticed.

Shortly before the Italian entry into the war on June 10, 1940, the Marina Regia requisitioned the ship on May 13, 1940 and equipped it as a guard ship. Armament is not reported at this time. In addition to its name, the Equa was also given the identifier F 43 . On October 2nd of the year, the Navy returned the ship to the shipping company in Naples. A year later, the Marina Regia requested the Equa again on November 3, 1941; this time she was given the task of a submarine hunter and, in addition to her name, the identification AS 105 . For the new task, she had the ship armed with a 90-mm gun, two 20-mm anti-aircraft guns and depth charges.

With the fall of the axis on September 8, the Navy took over the ship on the same day. She first brought the ship to the shipyard in La Spezia and put it into service on November 3, 1943 as a training ship for the submarine defense school Scuola Antisom in Varignano near La Spezia , without changing or adding a name . There she handed over the ship, which had been sold to the Italian Social Republic and its Navy, the Marina Nazionale Repubblicana , to an Italian crew on January 14, 1944. A quarter of a year later, on April 18, 1944, the German submarine hunter UJ 2220 rammed the Equa on the way to La Spezia, because she had mistakenly mistaken the training ship for an enemy ship. The Equa sank in this collision near La Spezia. According to other sources, this incident did not take place until June 10, 1944.

Today the ship's wreck, which is around 40 meters deep, is a popular destination for divers.

literature

  • Ufficio Storico della Marina Militare: La Marina italiana nella seconde guerra mondiale, Vol. III: Navi perdute. Tomo II - Navi mercantili , Istituto Poligrafico dello Stato, Rome 1952.
  • Don Kindell, Donald A. Bertke, Gordon Smith: World War II Sea War, Volume 13: New Guinea, Normandy and Saipan , Bertke Publications, Dayton / Ohio 2018, ISBN 978-1937470-25-8 .
  • Erich Gröner , Dieter Jung, Martin Maass: The German warships 1815-1945, Volume 8/2: Outpost boats, auxiliary minesweepers, coastal protection associations (part 2), small combat associations, dinghies , Bernard & Graefe Verlag, Bonn 1993, ISBN 3-7637-4807- 5 .
  • Manfred Krellenberg: Submarine hunting in the Mediterranean. The use of the 22nd U-Fighter Flotilla , Verlag ES Mittler & Sohn GmbH, Hamburg et al. 2003, ISBN 3-8132-0801-X .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Gröner, p. 432f.
  2. ↑ a b Navi perdute, p. 202
  3. ^ Giuseppe Peluso: La "Meta": una piccola motonave con un grande passato Copy of a magazine article on a private website
  4. ^ Maurizio Gadda: Società Partenopea Anonima di Navigazione di Napoli at naviearmatori.net
  5. ↑ MV Equa (+1944) at wrecksite.eu
  6. ↑ Krellenberg, p. 115, p. 179
  7. ↑ Kindell, Bertke, Smith, S. 335
  8. ↑ Paolo Ponga: La strana storia di Equa e Lago Zuai (The strange story of "Equa" and "Lago Zuai") at ligurianautica.com