Flying Enterprise (ship)
.jpg) The wrecked Flying Enterprise
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The Flying Enterprise was an American general cargo ship that sank on January 10, 1952 after several weeks of rescue attempts in the English Channel .
prehistory
The unit cargo ship of the US series type C1-B was on 7 January 1944 as hull number 360 shipyard Consolidated Steel in California Wilmington launched in and in March of the same year by the US government as Cape Kumukaki put into service. After the war, the ship was in 1947 to the shipping company Isbrandtsen Company sold and Flying Enterprise renamed.
The downfall
The Flying Enterprise was under the command of the 37-year-old Danish captain Hendrik Kurt Carlsen on a journey from Hamburg to New York in December 1951 when she came under the influence of a severe hurricane about 400 nautical miles off the British coast . After a fraction of the rudder stock , the slipped charge of pig iron and the ship developed a strong impact side of about 50 degrees. The crew tried to use an emergency rudder , but this did not lead to the desired success due to the strong list of the ship. Eventually the machine had to be stopped.
On December 28th, an emergency call was made and asked for help. The first ships of the Flying Enterprise came to help were the cargo ships Shervorne , Southland and Noordam , as well as the troop transport USNS General A. W. Greely (T-AP 141) and the US Navy - freighter Golden Eagle . The exceptionally bad weather persisted in the following four days, so that no attempts could be made to hide the passengers and the crew . When the storm then subsided somewhat, the ship's captain gave the 48 crew members and ten passengers the order to leave the ship. Volunteers from the steamer Southland brought a lifeboat to the water and picked up the castaways. Carlsen himself stayed on his ship because he did not want to give it up. Except for the Golden Eagle , the ships that had come to the rescue left the Flying Enterprise . The Golden Eagle was replaced by the destroyer Weeks on New Year's Day 1952 .
On January 3, 1952, the British ocean tug Turmoil of the shipping company Overseas Towage and Salvage Company also reached the Flying Enterprise . Despite bad weather of wind force 9 and continued high waves, an attempt was now made to establish a tow connection with the damaged vessel. After several unsuccessful attempts, Captain Parker of the Turmoil asked Carlsen to leave his ship, but he did not respond, as he continued to assume that his ship could still be saved despite the now about sixty degrees list. Finally, the first officer of the Turmoil , Kenneth Dancy, managed to jump onto the stern of the damaged vessel during a maneuver . Together with Dancy, the captain established a towing connection. The help of the French tug Abeille , who had also arrived in the meantime , was refused.
On January 9th, after five days of towing and about sixty miles from the destination port of Falmouth , the tow rope broke. Their restoration on the following day appeared hopeless due to the deteriorating weather, whereupon Dancy and, as the last, Captain Carlsen, left the ship, which was now listing 65 degrees. On the same day the Flying Enterprise sank at the position 49 ° 38 ′ N , 4 ° 23 ′ W , i.e. at the entrance to the English Channel about halfway between Falmouth and Saint-Pol-de-Léon .
The insurance company Lloyd's of London decided on January 11, 1952 that Carlsen should be honored with the silver medal for commendable service “ in recognition of his courage and his devoted fulfillment of duties ”. The silver medal was awarded on January 16, 1952. During the accident and especially after the sinking, Captain Carlsen was stylized as a hero by the media, which, however, did not suit him.
On June 22, 2001, the wreck was rediscovered and examined at a depth of about 85 meters.
Literary processing
In the book The Downfall of Mary White by the German writer Heinz Mildner , the entire scenario was modeled like a novel . The author worked on the story , which with some changed names such as that of the captain Carstens, who came from Norway , and those of the helping ships are relatively close to the original, still information about an additional secret cargo (declared as a collection of a geology professor ) and the causes of the skipper's hesitant instructions. The corresponding ideas come from simultaneous developments and later partial publications. In addition to the pig iron, there were eleven boxes of zirconium in a separate hold, which is of particular importance for the development of rockets. It should come from the V2 development in Germany . The material was recovered from the sunken ship in a secret dive and taken to the USA on the military ship .
literature
- Peter H. Bock: Thirteen days in a hurricane - The fight for the Flying Enterprise . In: Schiff Classic, magazine for shipping and marine history eV of the DGSM, issue: 4/2020, pp. 28–35.
- Helmut Nootbaar: Captain Carlsen's fight for the FLYING ENTERPRISE . In: Köhler's fleet calendar . Koehler, Herford 1992, p. 36-39 .
- Paul Smiling, Hans Wirz: The ships of the peoples - dream-story-technology . Walter, Olten and Freiburg 1962, p. 545-548 .
- The sinking of the Flying Enterprise was also the subject of the children's book Hein But: Orkan vor Bishop Rock . Altberliner Verlag Groszer, 1959.
- Otto Mielke, Gerhard Pallasch (Illustrator): Man on a sinking ship [youth book]. Ensslin and Laiblin, 1954 (sinking of the Flying Enterprise in winter 1951/52, Danish captain Kurt Carlsen struggled with the storms for 13 days).
- Klaus Becker: The last man on the 'Enterprise' . Lentz Verlag, 1953.
- A real captain . In: Die Zeit , No. 2/1952
- Kurt Carlsen . In: Der Spiegel . No. 4 , 1952 ( online - captain of the “Flying Enterprise” is tired of partying).
- Kurt Carlsen . In: Der Spiegel . No. 52 , 1953 ( online - The ship's captain, who became famous in January of last year, does not let his fear of publicity get rid of).
Web links
- The FLYING ENTERPRISE Saga, pictures and information on the sinking (English)
- Picture by Captain Carlsen in the Hulton Archives
Footnotes
- ↑ Flying Enterprise in the Miramar Ship Index ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (only for registered users)
- ↑ The “Flying Enterprise” in Lloyd's Calendar 1955 , pp. 303/304.
- ↑ DeepImage Underwater Shipwreck Explorers ( Memento of the original from October 24, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English)
- ^ Heinz Mildner: The sinking of the ›Mary White‹ , German Military Publishing House Berlin 1962
