Falcon (ship, 1903)

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Falcon p1
Ship data
flag German EmpireThe German Imperium German Empire
other ship names
  • Triton (1914)
  • Selby Abbey (1909)
  • Swift (1903)
Ship type Cargo ship
Callsign RDPK
home port Altona (last)
Shipyard Earle's Co., Hull / England
Launch December 1902
Whereabouts probably sunk off Havana in October 1944
Ship dimensions and crew
length
77.6 m ( Lüa )
width 10.2 m
Draft Max. 4.6 m
 
crew 32
Machine system
machine steam
Machine
performance 		2,200 PS (1,618 kW)
Top
speed 		14 kn (26 km / h)
propeller 1

The Falke was a German cargo steamer. It was used in 1929 to support a revolution in Venezuela and, under the name Ilse Vormauer, took part in an attempted coup in Cuba in 1931 .

The ship was built in England as a Swift for Hull & Netherland SS.Co. Ltd. built in Hull and commissioned in 1903. In 1909 it was renamed Selby Abbey and was active in the passenger service between the Humber and Rotterdam . In January 1911 she ran aground in a hurricane off Hoek van Holland ; their passengers were taken away. It is not known when the steamer was made afloat again. In 1914 it was sold to Gerhard & Hay in Riga and renamed Triton . At the beginning of August 1914, the Triton was sunk by the Russian authorities as a block ship in the port of Windau (today Ventspils ). In September 1918 she was lifted by the German authorities, converted into a survey ship in Danzig and used in this function until 1921. She was then removed from the list of warships and was chartered out from 1921 onwards.

In 1927 the ship went to Kauffahrtei AG in Hamburg, which renamed it Falke . In 1928 the company F. Prenzlau & Co. in Hamburg took over the ship. The company owners Felix Prenzlau and Felix Kramarsky had been involved in the international arms trade and smuggling for years. After the failed coup attempt in Venezuela (see below), they sold the steamer to the shipowner Vormauer in Bargteheide at the end of 1929 .

The ship was propelled by a steam engine with an output of 2200  hp , which acted on a screw. As a cargo ship there were 32 crew members on board, as a survey ship it was operated by 48 men.

History of the "falcon incident"

The falcon , home port Altona, took part in an attempt at revolution in Venezuela at the beginning of August 1929. The aim was to overthrow President Juan Vicente Gómez, who had ruled since 1908 .

From Germany and Poland, the ship transported a load of arms for both the revolutionaries and the revolutionary junta under General Román Delgado Chalbaud (1882–1929). At the end of the trip, a group of Venezuelans boarded and picked up off the coast of the state of Sucre. At this point the falcon was renamed General Anzoategui and carried a Venezuelan revolutionary flag .

On August 11, 1929, the falcon entered the port of Cumaná , the capital of the state of Sucre . A landing corps was deployed there that consisted of Venezuelans and some German ship officers and sailors recruited as mercenaries for the revolutionary junta. The local authorities had already been warned two days beforehand by the government in Caracas and the company failed in the early stages.

Since there was a risk of being bombed by the Venezuelan air force , the falcon fled the harbor. The first officer of the falcon , Martin Esser, was cut off in the skirmish with the government troops and went into hiding with other revolutionaries for a few months in Venezuela. He managed to return to Germany at the end of the year.

The crew asked the ship's command to call at a port with a German consul and the falcon then called at Port of Spain on the island of Trinidad . There the English authorities chained the steamer because of allegations of piracy raised by the Gómez government .

The falcon incident was one of the greatest scandals in German maritime history. It led to several trials in Germany against the shipowners Prenzlau and Kramarsky as well as the ship's command, which was charged with kidnapping and kidnapping. In Venezuelan history, the falcon company was the culmination of the so-called filibuster companies against the Gómez government. H. the attempt to overthrow the government from the sea.

Final fate

The falcon was sold to the shipowner Ernst Vormauer in Bargteheide at the end of 1929 and renamed Ilse Vormauer after his daughter . In August 1931 she was involved in a filibuster company against the Cuban President Gerardo Machado . The expeditionary corps consisted of 37 rebels and an extensive weapon load. She left the port of New York on August 12 and arrived on August 17, 1931 in front of the port of Gibara / Province of Holguín . Apparently it was found by a Cuban gunboat and confiscated.

The Ilse Vormauer was then placed in Cuban services as Yunque ( Spanish : anvil ) and was registered in Baracoa . In 1935 it was taken over by the Cuban government and renamed Colombia . From 1937 she carried out transports for the Cuban Navy . She was stranded in a hurricane off Havana on October 18, 1944 and became a wreck .

Literary processing

In 1935 the German writer Albert Daudistel published his novel Der Bananenkreuzer in the Deutsche Verlags-Aktiengesellschaft , Berlin . In the work, the Venezuela expedition of the falcon was fictionalized; the falcon bears the name Hector .

See also

Individual evidence

  • Cord Eberspächer / Gerhard Wiechmann: pirates, mercenaries, filibusters? The "pirate trip" of the steamer FALKE to Venezuela. In: Schiff & Zeit / Panorama maritim . No. 70, autumn 2009, pp. 15-27.
  • Steamer "Falke" from Altona. Violation of the duties of a seafarer: confiscation. Seeamt Hamburg, June 4, 1930; Reichsoberseeamt October 10, 1930 . In: Decisions of the Reichsoberseeamt and the sea offices of the German Reich. Volume XXV, Issue 9 and 10, Berlin 1931, pp. 726-754
  • Samuel Pyeatt Menefee: Piracy, Terrorism and Insurgent Passengers. A Historical and Legal Perspective. In: Natalino Ronzitti (ed.): Maritime Terrorism and International Law. Dordrecht 1990, pp. 43-68
  • Brian S. McBeth: Dictatorship & Politics. Intrigue, Betrayal, and Survival in Venezuela, 1908-1935. University of Notre Dame Press, Notre Dame, IND 2008
  • Jorge Olavárria: Gómez: un enigma histórico. Fundación Olavárria, Caracas 2007
  • The robbers from the steamer "Falke" in court. German coolies, the best cannon fodder for reactionaries around the world. The greed of the shipping company capital goes over corpses. In: Die Rote Fahne from April 10, 1930
  • The masked "falcon". The stovepipe as a cannon. The hearing of witnesses. In: Berliner Tageblatt of April 10, 1930
  • Revelations in the "falcon" process. The international arms smugglers network. German shipping company capital, German customs authorities, Berlin banks, the Polish War Ministry, Afghan warmongers and the hangman Tschangkaischek work together. In: The Red Flag of April 11, 1930
  • The sale of the "Falke". "Warship" or movie ship. Captain Ziplitt burdened by the stoker. In: Berliner Tageblatt of April 11, 1930
  • The robbery with the "falcon". Further incriminating testimony. In: Berliner Tageblatt of April 12, 1930
  • The "falcon" in the Cumana coup. Descriptions by ship officers. The missing boat fleet. In: Berliner Tageblatt of April 15, 1930
  • The simulated film expedition. The "operational area" of the "Falke". A statement by the shipowner. In: Berliner Tageblatt of April 16, 1930
  • Federico Vega: falcon . Random House Mondadori. Caracas, 2005
  • Rafael Osío Cabrices: La nave de los locos ("The ship of the madmen"). In: El Nacional (Caracas) of January 21, 2006
  • Francisco de Paula Aristeguieta: El diario de la montana. La revolucion del Falke ("The diary of the mountains. The revolution of the falcon"). Cumaná 1988.
  • Otto Mielke : Freight steamer "Falke". A great piece. SOS - Fate of German Ships . Volume 58, Munich 1955 (cover picture and illustrations by Walter Zeeden ).
  • Keyword Triton , in: Hans H. Hildebrand / Albert Röhr / Hans-Otto Steinmetz: The German warships. Biographies - a mirror of naval history from 1815 to the present , Ratingen o. J. [1984], vol. 7, p. 111.
  • Erich Gröner / Dieter Jung / Martin Maass: The German warships 1815-1945 . Volume 1: Armored ships, ships of the line, battleships, aircraft carriers, cruisers, gunboats . Bernard & Graefe Verlag, Munich 1982, ISBN 3-7637-4800-8 , pp. 198f.

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