Goldenfels (ship, 1911)
 The America ex Goldenfels
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The second Goldenfels of the German Steamship Company "Hansa" (DDG "Hansa"), put into service in 1911, was one of the largest ships of the shipping company.
During the First World War , the Goldenfels used in the East Asian service was briefly used as an auxiliary ship for the small cruiser SMS Königsberg in the Indian Ocean . She then ran to Sabang and survived the war there.
Delivered in 1919, it ran under the British flag , most recently as Brocktown , until it was bought back in 1923 by the DDG "Hansa". In 1936 the Goldenfels was sold. Under the name Amerika , the ship was used by the shipping company Schulte & Bruns until it sank off Terschelling on February 21, 1942 after a mine hit.
History of the ship
When DDG "Hansa" changed and expanded its agreement with Hapag in 1910 and it was now also involved in Hapag's liner services to East Asia and back, "Hansa" ordered two new buildings from Swan, Hunter & Wigham Richardson Ltd. for this service . in Newcastle-on-Tyne and at AG Weser in Bremen with a load-bearing capacity of over 11,000 dwt, which were completed in 1911 as Goldenfels and OJD Ahlers .
The one in Newcastle with building no. 860 ordered Goldenfels was launched on September 22, 1911 and was given the name of the first ship of this name sold to Hamburg on July 31, 1911 , which was completed in 1895 as the first new building ordered by DDG "Hansa" at the Low Walker shipyard , after the shipping company had bought a ship already under construction as the Ehrenfels when it was founded in 1882 . The newbuilding was the last ship ordered by DDG "Hansa" at a British shipyard, of which Swan, Hunter & Wigham Richardson alone delivered 26 ships between the two Goldenfels and only four were delivered by other British shipyards. In the same period from 1895 to 1911, five German shipyards delivered 33 newbuildings to the Bremen freight shipping company compared to the 32 newbuildings from Great Britain.
The new building built by Swan Hunter was 142.78 m long, 17.83 m wide and had a draft of 8.27 m, like the sister ship OJD Ahlers built in Bremen . The Goldenfels was measured with 7,463 GRT and could carry up to 11,460 tdw. The new building was powered by a 4-cylinder quadruple expansion steam engine from the shipyard, which delivered 3000 PSi to one screw and enabled a speed of 11.3 knots . The loading gear consisted of a 30 t and 20 t boom and 16 5 t booms. The crew consisted of 16 Europeans and 61 Indians.
The Goldenfels was delivered to DDG "Hansa" on November 23, 1911 and added to the shipping company's joint liner service with Hapag to East Asia.
Fate of war
Shortly before the start of the First World War , the Goldenfels was on the way home shortly before entering the Red Sea . The front of the outbreak of war in German East Africa leaked Konigsberg tried the freighter Reichenfels to pull the DDG "Hansa" in itself, of a coal cargo of 6000 t located on the way from Aden was to India. The Reichenfels did not receive the radio messages from Königsberg and ran on to Colombo without knowing the outbreak of war , where it arrived on August 5th and was confiscated. While the cruiser met the Reichspostdampfer Zieten in the sea area off Aden on August 6, 1914, as agreed by radio , a second steamer was sighted, which only stopped after a warning shot. It was the Goldenfels that the Königsberg had mistaken for a British cruiser. Both German ships were taken over by the Navy as auxiliary ships. The German ships, however, had a problem with coal, as the small cruiser had already used up a large part of its small amount of coal when shaking off the British guards outside the colony. The Zieten had a small amount of coal because it was supposed to replenish its stocks in Aden for the journey home. The Goldenfels population was larger, but its coal seemed unsuitable for the cruiser's more sensitive propulsion system. The Goldenfels was therefore released to the Kuria Muria Islands off the coast of Oman . A new meeting point was also agreed with Zieten . Even a meeting with the Ostmark of Hapag did not improve the supply situation of the cruiser.
On the 10th, the cruiser met again with the Goldenfels on the island of Sauda and yet took over most of her coal, as the cargo ship was also able to burn part of its coproload . The Goldenfels stayed at anchor on the island of Hallanij and was only supposed to seek a port of refuge after the arrival of the Somali supplier from East Africa . She also carried part of the crew of the cruiser's only prize, the City of Winchester on the Ellerman Lines . The other part had already been taken over by Zieten , who had been released to Mozambique .
On August 14th, after the arrival of the Somali , the cruiser released the Goldenfels , which could not hold the desired course on Dar es Salaam against the monsoon with the few remaining coal and then ran to the Dutch East Indies . There she arrived in Sabang on August 28, 1914 and stayed there throughout the war. She had used up all of her coals and burned part of the coprocharge.
On September 30, 1919, the Goldenfels was delivered to Great Britain by the Dutch government.
Service under the British flag
The British government operated the ship under the command of the Union-Castle Line without changing its name. In 1921 Brock Steamship Co. Ltd. bought in London the Goldenfels and called it Brocktown . After a time charter assignment with the DDG "Hansa", the shipping company bought back its previous ship on July 12, 1923.
It was, after the aforementioned Reichenfels , the Ockenfels renamed in Argenfels from 1910 and the former Florence von Sloman renamed Rolandseck , the fourth repurchase of a former German ship by the DDG "Hansa". By 1926, the shipping company bought five more such ships, two of which were in service with the "Hansa" before the World War and two were built for them during the war but never used.
Again under the German flag
The ship was used under its original name Goldenfels from 1923 to 1936 by the DDG "Hansa" on their main lines in the Middle East. On October 26, 1936, the DDG "Hansa" sold its now oldest ship to Atlas Reederei AG in Emden, which was operated by Schulte & Bruns. The new owners renamed the ship in America and used it primarily for transporting ore. The ship remained in this service during the Second World War until it sank on February 21, 1942 after a mine hit off Terschelling.
Purchased former German ships of the DDG "Hansa"
| purchase | Surname | Shipyard | GRT tdw |
Launched in service |
further fate |
| December 6, 1921 | Reichenfels (1) | Swan Hunter construction no. 406 |
4743 7023 |
September 7, 1903 September 7, 1903 |
Confiscated in Colombo in 1914, 1915: Polglass Castle , bought back in 1921, launched in 1930, demolished from December 1933 |
| 12/13/1921 | Rolandseck (3) |
Flensburg building no. 250 |
1826 2070 |
August 26, 1905 October 7, 1905 |
ex Florence / Rob. M. Sloman , delivered June 1920: Brooklane , December 1921 purchase, December 1932 sale to DG Neptun : renamed Saturn , 1937 Lucy Borchardt , flagged out to Great Britain in 1938, ammunition storage ship in 1939, demolished in 1951 |
| 06/28/1923 | Argenfels (2) |
Tecklenborg building no. 235 |
5684 8976 |
April 9, 1910 May 28, 1910 |
ex Ockenfels , 1914 to 1917 in Boston , confiscated and used as USS Pequot , chartered in 1923, then bought back and renamed, sold for demolition at the end of 1932, |
| 07/12/1923 | Goldenfels (2) | Swan Hunter construction no. 860 |
7463 11,460 |
22.09.1911 11.23.1911 |
Laid up in Sabang from 1914 to 1919, renamed Brocktown in 1921 , chartered, bought back in 1923, sold to Schulte & Bruns in 1936, renamed America , sunk February 21, 1942 |
| 09/15/1923 | Crostafels (1) | Swan Hunter construction no. 714 |
5010 7460 |
05.1904 08.08.1904 |
Delivered March 1919, 1921 Brookfield , chartered, 1923 buyback, launched April 1930, sold for demolition in December 1932 |
| 10/25/1923 | Axenfels (2) | AG Weser Building No. 178 |
5325 8188 |
August 5, 1911 September 15, 1911 |
ex Steinturm , 1914 Hunnie , 1923 repurchase and renaming, launched in July 1932, sold for demolition in December 1932 |
| 10.1924 | Wolfsburg (2) | Tecklenborg building no. 268 |
6201 10,020 |
12.06.1915 06.28.1916 |
Delivered March 1919, 1920 Baron Lovat , buy back in 1924, coming from Brazil on March 2, 1940 , sunk in the Denmark Strait in front of the British heavy cruiser Berwick |
| 03.1926 | Ehrenfels (4) | AG Weser Building No. 199 |
5910 8920 |
28.06.1914 07.30.1914 |
ex Neumark / Hapag, delivered in June 1919, 1920 Baron Cawdor , 1926 purchase and renaming, January 1933 sale to Schuchmann : renamed Westsee , on November 30th 1942 after a mine hit near Petsamo total loss |
| 06/25/1926 | Stolzenfels (4) | Tecklenborg building no. 269 |
7509 11.104 |
11/25/1915 11/11/1916 |
ex Altenfels , delivered in March 1919, 1920 Eastern Prince , 1926 repurchase and renaming, 1928 exhaust steam turbine, September 1939 Sperrbrecher XII, sp. 12 , for air torpedo hits before the March 20, 1941 Schiermonnikoog dropped |
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d Herbert: Kriegsfahrten Deutscher Handelsschiffe, p. 84
- ↑ Lochner: Kampf im Rufiji Delta , p. 95
- ↑ Lochner, p. 104
- ↑ Lochner, p. 107
- ^ Fall of America ex Goldenfels
- ^ Rohwer: Seekrieg , p. 33
- ^ Rohwer, p. 305
- ↑ Fall of the barrier breaker 12
Web links
- Goldenfels (2)
- Goldenfels (1911)
- Fall of America
- The wreck of the City of Westminster
- The Westsee transporter
literature
- Carl Herbert: War voyages of German merchant ships . Broschek & Co, Hamburg 1934.
- Reinhard Karl Lochner: Battle in the Rufiji Delta , 1987, Wilhelm Heyne Verlag, Munich, ISBN 3-453-02420-6
- Hans Georg Prager: DDG Hansa: From liner service to special shipping. Koehlers Verlagsgesellschaft, Herford, 1976, ISBN 3-7822-0105-1
- Jürgen Rohwer , Gerhard Hümmelchen : Chronicle of the Naval War 1939-1945 , Manfred Pawlak VerlagsGmbH (Herrsching 1968), ISBN 3-88199-0097
- Reinhardt Schmelzkopf: German merchant shipping 1919–1939 . Verlag Gerhard Stalling, Oldenburg, ISBN 3 7979 1847 X .
- Reinhold Thiel: The history of the DDG Hansa. Volume 1: 1881-1918. HM Hauschild, Bremen, 2010, ISBN 3-8975-7477-2