The Friesenland was a German coaster ("Kümo") of 279 GRT, which ran aground on November 1, 1965 in the North Sea off the Dutch coast near Den Helder and sank.
The Friesenland was laid down in 1937 as a motor sailor at the C. Lühring shipyard in Kirchhammelwarden on behalf of Meinert Hülsen from Brake , launched in November 1937 and completed in January 1938. The cargo hold with two cargo booms, which were designed for setting the auxiliary sails, was in the fore, the deckhouse and the propulsion system in the aft.
In August 1940 the ship was requisitioned by the Navy to serve as a transporter for diving tanks in the Seelöwe company under the abbreviation LAT 14 . On May 6, 1941, the vehicle was assigned to the auxiliary fleet as H 646/6 and renamed DB 46 in September 1942 . After the end of the war, the ship was returned to the owner.
In September 1949 the ship was extended at the shipyard, whereby the auxiliary sails were omitted, and increased in January 1954 in Brake. Until the early 1960s, the Friesenland remained in the possession of Meinert Hülsen, who sold it to the captain owner Gottfried Serafin on March 15, 1961.
Downfall
Noorderhaaks (center left); in the north the island of Texel, in the south Den Helder
The Friesland was the end of October on a trip with fertilizers from Zandvoorde by Brake . In Zandvoorde, 26-year-old Rolf Meiners came on board as the new captain. On the night of October 31st to November 1st, 1965, the ship was surprised by the first severe winter storm of the year and tried to call at the port of Den Helder. It ran aground on the north-west end of the Noorderhaak off Den Helder and after a short time found itself in severe distress . It was soon listing and heavy crushers were filling it up. The rescue cruiser Prins Hendrik could not get closer than 80 meters because the Friesenland was too high on the sandbank . A Dutch naval helicopter arrived at dawn but could not find any signs of life on the ship.
The six men of the crew had left the ship during the night, but in their panic damaged the lifeboat so badly that it broke apart. Two men were able to cling to the wreckage of the boat and were rescued after four hours by the naval tug IJssel . Three others were later taken dead from the sea. The sixth was rescued from the water near Texel by the ferry ship Marsdiep .
Gert Uwe Detlefsen, Jürgen Abert: The Chronicle of the German Coasters 1945-1995 , Volume 1, Verlag Gert Uwe Detlefsen, Bad Segeberg, 1995, ISBN 3-928473-24-7 , p. 232
