Gotha (ship, 1907)
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The Gotha of Norddeutscher Lloyd (NDL) was a combined ship for the service to the South American east coast. She was the lead ship of this series of four ships.
In accordance with the Columbus Agreement of August 1921, it did not have to be delivered, but returned to the South American service of the NDL after being overhauled in 1921. At the end of May 1925, she was the first German passenger ship to arrive in Australia after the World War. As part of the reduction of the ship fleet in the early 1930s, the Gotha was scrapped in Geestemünde in 1933.
history
From 1907 onwards, Norddeutsche Lloyd procured new passenger and cargo steamers with few cabin seats of the second class and a large tween deck capacity for emigrants from Bremer Vulkan for its South America service. Above all, they should finally replace the old steamers of the city class that were last used again on the Río de la Plata .
The type ship Gotha was launched on October 21, 1907, was delivered to the NDL on November 27, 1907, and set off for the Río de la Plata just three days later . It had a load capacity of 8,200 dwt, was 135.94 m long and 16.62 m wide. Driven by a quadruple expansion steam engine of 3300 hp , the ship ran at 12 knots and required a crew of 102. The sister ship Giessen (6583 GRT) was delivered in 1908 and immediately put into service in La Plata. Due to the poor demand for passage places, the acceptance of the second pair of ships was delayed.
In 1912, NDL, who had meanwhile also bought the two replicas, decided to modernize and enlarge the cabin facilities on all four ships. The first two then had 50 second class seats, the other two even 65. They were used in addition to the three-class ships of the Sierra class in the South American service of the NDL, which was again better utilized. The influx of these ships made it possible for two ships of the Gotha class to depart for the Brazil service with a slightly different route. The Gotha was called in for such a voyage at the end of 1913, but in 1914 she was back in La Plata service.
Fate of war
Gotha , located in Buenos Aires when the war broke out in 1914 , was equipped to supply the cruiser squadron . On February 20, she ran under Captain Hillmann with 3000 tons of coal and spare machine parts from Montevideo to Dresden, which had escaped the Falklands Battle . It was supposed to hit Dresden in the Pacific on March 5 , but it didn't succeed. (The Dresden was sunk on March 14, 1915.) The Gotha was then interned on March 20, 1915 in Valparaíso .
After the end of the war, the Gotha returned to Germany on July 13, 1920. Formally expropriated by the Reich, there was no extradition, as the ship was included in the Columbus Agreement and remained with the NDL.
Post-war missions
The Gotha was overhauled from 1921 and used again in the South American service with 60 seats, 2nd class. However, the former post steamer Seydlitz carried out the first voyage of a passenger steamer of the NDL after the war . In addition to the Gotha , the combined ships Köln and Crefeld were the first to be built from 1922 onwards. From 1923, the Weser and Werra and the ships of the new Sierra class were followed by new passenger ships.
At the end of May 1925, the Gotha was the first German passenger ship to arrive in Australia after the World War . Instead of the planned 30 passengers, she had only six on board, as there had been difficulties with the entry permit. The outward journey took place via South Africa, the return to Europe via the Suez Canal . The following two trips also made more headlines because of stowaways who were refused entry or because of crew members who were illegally left behind than because of increasing passenger numbers. The admission of emigrants was not regulated until the autumn of 1926, when the Crefeld, now also deployed on the line, first brought the first 50 German emigrants to Australia. In May 1927 the Gotha returned from her last voyage to Australia and was then used again to South America.
Towards the end of her service, she was also deployed to Veracruz and Tampico via Havana and Galveston (Texas) in the fall of 1931 . She was laid up in April 1932 and then demolished in 1933 as the first ship of the class. The Gotha was the only ship of the class that was only in service with the NDL; Her two half-sisters, Eisenach and Coburg , who were confiscated in Brazil in 1917 , remained in service as Santarem and Pocone until well after the Second World War .
literature
- Carl Herbert: War voyages of German merchant ships. Broschek & Co, Hamburg 1934.
- Arnold Kludas : The History of German Passenger Shipping. Volume 3: Rapid growth 1900 to 1914. Ernst Kabel Verlag, Hamburg 1988, ISBN 3-8225-0039-9 ( writings of the German Maritime Museum 20).
- Arnold Kludas: The ships of the North German Lloyd. Volume 1: 1857 to 1919. Koehlers Verlagsgesellschaft, Herford 1991, ISBN 3-7822-0524-3 .
- Maria Teresa Parker de Bassi: Cruiser Dresden. Odyssey of No Return. Koehler Verlagsgesellschaft, Herford 1993, ISBN 3-78220-591-X .
Footnotes
- ↑ a b c d e f Kludas: NDL-Seeschiffe 1857-1919, p. 118
- ↑ Kludas, Passenger Shipping, Vol. III, p. 90
- ↑ Kludas, Passenger Shipping, Vol. III, p. 91
- ↑ Herbert, p. 74
- ↑ Parker de Bassi, p. 399
- ^ German Passenger Liner The West Australian, June 1, 1925.
- ↑ MIGRATION FIFTY GERMANS ARRIVE. First since was The Advertiser, October 20, 1926.
- ↑ Gotha trips