Erna Woermann (ship, 1902)
Huntscastle ex Erna Woermann in Iraq in 1918
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The second Erna Woermann of the Woermann Line (WL) was created in 1905 by renaming the cargo ship Louisiana, which was purchased by the Argo Reederei and completed in 1902 . From 1904 the Woermann-Linie bought six cargo ships in order to cover the need for shipping space for the handling of the transports for the construction and supply of the expedition corps against the rebellious Hereros in the protected area German South West Africa , which Woermann wanted to handle primarily with his own ships.
After the end of the hostilities in German South West Africa, the ship, which WL had meanwhile provided with a passenger facility, was used for passenger, freight and mail service to the West African German colonies of Togo and Cameroon .
The Erna Woermann sought refuge in Duala in 1914, like several Woermann ships , where she was captured on September 27, 1914 with ten other ships by the British armored cruiser HMS Cumberland during the conquest of the main town of the colony.
Renamed Huntscastle , the ship was used on the Allied side as a troop transport and cargo ship for supplies.
In 1921 the former Erna Woermann was bought back by Deutsche Afrika Linien and used as a sultan under the colors of the DOAL in the “All-Around Africa” service.
In 1932 the ship was taken out of service and scrapped in 1933.
History of Erna Woermann (II)
The name Erna Woermann was first given to the sixth steamer in the Woermann line in 1884. The 1119 GRT ship was built by the Reiherstieg shipyard in Hamburg, began its maiden voyage to Cameroon at the end of November 1884 and remained in service with the line until April 1896. The ship, which was then sold to Belgium, was lost after a good eight months of service on January 8, 1897 on a voyage home off the French Atlantic coast under its new name Belgique .
On June 3, 1905, the Woermann line again had an Erna Woermann by renaming the Louisiana acquired by Argo Reederei from 5408 GRT.
Takeover of the large Argo cargo ships
In October 1904 the Woermann-Linie bought two almost new freighters from the Argo Reederei and started them up as Professor Woermann and Eduard Woermann . The ships put into service in January 1904 as Florida (5538 GRT) and in November 1903 as Alabama (5643 BRT) had been procured by the Bremen shipping company for their line to the West Indies and New Orleans . In addition to these two sister ships built by the Bremer Vulkan in Vegesack , the Bremen shipping company had already received an almost identical ship to the Louisiana from the Flensburger Schiffbau-Gesellschaft on August 28, 1902 . She was also taken over by the Woermann line on June 3, 1905 as Erna Woermann .
The sister ships were by far the largest ships of the Bremen shipping company; For the first time, the Argo shipping company had ships over 3000 GRT built. However, it gave up the line to New Orleans that had been in operation since its establishment in 1896 and sold the almost new ships to Woermann.
The Louisiana was 127.1 m long, had a triple expansion engine which, supplied with steam by three cylinder boilers, made 2400 hp and enabled the ship to travel at a speed of 12 knots (kn) . A passenger facility for around 100 passengers in three classes was only given to the three ships after they were put into service in Africa. As Erna Woermann , the ship offered space for 40 passengers in first class, 30 in second and 62 in third. Class.
In addition to the three Argo freighters, Woermann-Linie bought the combined ships Pfalz (1893, 3870 BRT) from NDL (then Gertrud Woermann ), and Rosario (1893, 3184 BRT) from Hamburg-Süd (then Erich Woermann ) as well as one im British freighter (1904, 5173 BRT) under construction, which was launched as Lulu Bohlen .
Mission history
The purchased ships were immediately used for transports to German South West Africa, whereby the Gertrud Woermann ex Pfalz was lost on her first voyage. The Woermann company was not only responsible for the transports, but also for handling at the landing sites. In the course of the war, makeshift port facilities were created in Swakopmund and later also Lüderitzbucht . Most of the ships arriving from Germany were at sea, however, and dropped the cargo on land via small vehicles and rafts. This led to considerable waiting times in front of the "ports" and parts of the cargoes were also loaded back and forth between the ships waiting to be unloaded in order to free ships for new voyages. In order to be able to better control the entire process, the Woermann-Linie was interested in largely processing with its own ships.
In addition to soldiers and military equipment, parts for the construction of jetties, cranes and piers as well as railway material had to be transferred. Even as Louisiana was Erna Woermann was first used by South West Africa. On a trip on July 30, 1905, she also had 163 horses on board. The sister ships Professor Woermann and Eduard Woermann had already carried out several such voyages on which horses were also transported; the Eduard Woermann has transferred to six trips between November 1904 and May 1906 2,300 horses to South West Africa.
After the end of the acts of war in German South West Africa, the former Argo ships, which the Woermann Line had now equipped with a passenger facility, were used for passenger, freight and postal services to the West African German protected areas of Togo and Cameroon . However, the sister ship Professor Woermann (ex Florida ) was handed over to the new partner in 1907 as part of the joint operation with Hapag , who continued to use it as Swakopmund to West Africa, but also on other lines, until the beginning of the First World War .
The Erna Woermann searched in 1914 as some other Woermann ships refuge in Duala , trusting in the Congo Act , which ruled out the inclusion of the colonies into a European war. However, the Entente powers soon tried to occupy the German colonies and the Germans also saw the opportunity to tie up armed forces here and prevent their use in European theaters of war.
On September 27, 1914, the British armored cruiser HMS Cumberland captured the ship when it captured Duala, along with ten other ships. The Erna Woermann was the largest of the ships remaining in Duala; she was used as the Huntscastle , managed by the Union-Castle Line , for the British government and served as a troop transport and cargo ship.
In 1921 the former Erna Woermann was bought back by the Germans and used as sultan under the colors of the German East-Africa Line (DOAL) in the “All-around Africa” service.
In 1932 the ship was taken out of service and scrapped in 1933.
| Fate of the sister ships | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Surname | Shipyard | GRT | Launched in service |
further fate | |
|
Professor Woermann to 1904: Florida |
Bremer Vulkan BauNr. 453 |
5638 | 28.11.1903 16.01.1904 |
October 15, 1904 Takeover by Woermann-Linie, May 17, 1907 to Hapag as Swakopmund , also used on Atlantic branch lines, 1914 Rotterdam, 1916 Hamburg, 1914 Rotterdam, 1916 Hamburg, 1919 delivered, 1920 Arafura of the Eastern & Australian SS, 1929 cancellation | |
|
Eduard Woermann to 1904: Alabama |
Bremer Vulkan BauNr. 452 |
5643 | 24.09.1903 10.11.1903 |
October 22, 1904 Takeover by Woermann-Linie, delivered in 1919, service under the British flag with the Union-Castle Line, sold to Norway in 1921 as Hanna Skogland , 1930 Modesta , demolished in 1933 | |
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 Vol. I The Pioneering Years from 1850 to 1890 , Writings of the German Maritime Museum, Volume 18
- Arnold Kludas: The History of German Passenger Shipping Vol. II Expansion on All Seas 1890 to 1900 , Writings of the German Shipping Museum, Volume 19
- Arnold Kludas: The History of German Passenger Shipping Vol. III Leap growth 1900 to 1914 , Writings of the German Shipping Museum, Volume 20
- Arnold Kludas: The History of German Passenger Shipping Vol. IV Destruction and Rebirth 1914 to 1930 , Writings of the German Maritime Museum, Volume 21
Web links
- Arafura ex Professor Woermann (accessed February 19, 2014)
- Page on the history of the shipping companies Deutsche Afrika-Linien, John T. Essberger, u. a. as well as the trading house C. Woermann under construction
Individual evidence
- ↑ Kludas: Ships of the Africa Lines , p. 16
- ↑ a b c Kludas: Afrika , p. 56
- ↑ Kludas: Afrika , p. 54 f.
- ↑ a b Kludas: Afrika , p. 53
- ↑ Kludas: Africa , p. 55
- ↑ a b Kludas: History of Passenger Shipping , Vol. III, p. 144.
- ↑ Kludas: Passenger Shipping , Vol. III pp. 145, 151.
- ^ Next to Erna Woermann : Max Brock 4579 BRT (1907), Hans Woermann 4059 BRT (1900), Renata Amsinck 3824 BRT (1912), Aline Woermann 3133 BRT (1910), Henriette Woermann 2426 BRT (1903), Jeanette Woermann 2286 BRT ( 1893), Paul Woermann 2238 BRT (1898), Haussa 387 BRT (1913), Fullah 367 BRT (1913) of the WL, as well as Arnfried 2899 BRT (1911) of the HBAL , two larger and five coastal steamers the Germans had previously to close the port sunk, only one ship left the colony in the first days of the war to supply German warships: the Eleonore Woermann 4624 BRT, 12.5 kn (1902), which supplied the SMS Dresden off Brazil , then was supposed to support the auxiliary cruiser SMS Cap Trafalgar Rescued 303 men after its sinking and brought them to Argentina, intended to supply the Spees squadron , then the Dresden , she was discovered and sunk in the South Atlantic by HMAS Australia on January 6, 1915 .
- ↑ Kludas, Afrika-Linien, p. 54
- ↑ Union-Castle Mail Steamship Company SHIPS ( Memento of the original from January 5, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
