President (Schiff, 1901)

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president
The President
The President
Ship data
flag German EmpireThe German Imperium German Empire
Ship type Passenger ship
Reichspostdampfer
home port Hamburg
Owner German East Africa Line
Shipyard Blohm & Voss , Hamburg
Build number 145
Launch December 19, 1900
Commissioning April 16, 1901
Whereabouts Sunk September 29, 1915
Ship dimensions and crew
length
97.8 m ( Lpp )
width 12.2 m
Draft Max. 7.6 m
measurement 3310 GRT
 
crew 69 men
Machine system
machine Triple expansion machine
Machine
performance 		1,500 PS (1,103 kW)
Top
speed 		11.5 kn (21 km / h)
propeller 1
Transport capacities
Load capacity 3760 dw
Permitted number of passengers 32 I. Class
36 II. Class
32 III. class

The President of the German East Africa Line (DOAL) was a smaller imperial mail steamer of the shipping company of 3310 GRT, which Blohm & Voss completed ten months after the Crown Prince of 5645 GRT. The Reiherstieg shipyard built a sister ship with the governor of 3381 GRT. After being used on the main line, the smaller ships were used on the Durban - Bombay branch line in 1907 . The President was confiscated by the Royal Navy in October 1914 and later sunk.

History of the president

The President , completed in 1901, was the twelfth new building of the DOAL, founded in 1890 for the Reichspostdampferdienst , after the 3,000 GRT mail steamers Kanzler (1) (stranded in 1891), Kaiser , Kanzler (2) , the safari of 1433 GRT delivered in 1892 , the first two- Screw mail steamers Herzog und König of 4900 GRT, the Crown Prince of 5645 GRT, the sister ship Gouverneur and three coastal steamers. The President was the eighth new building to be delivered by Blohm & Voss to the shipping company, which, in addition to the newbuildings, had also bought seven ships between 618 and 2884 GRT in the first ten years.

In view of the Reichspostdampfer contract, which expired in 1900, the DOAL with the governor and president procured smaller steamers in addition to the larger ship pair Crown Prince / Elector , in order to show that larger and more representative ships could not be used economically under the old contractual conditions. The smaller new buildings were intended for a new intermediate line, which ran from Hamburg via Naples and the Suez Canal to Beira and back and placed the focus on freight traffic.

The President was 97.8 m long and 12.2 m wide and was powered by a triple expansion engine that developed 1500 hp and allowed a speed of 11.5 knots (kn). The ship, measured with 3310 GRT, offered space for 32 passengers in the first class, 36 in the second and 32 in the third. Class and had a deadweight of 3760 dwt. The ship was launched on December 19, 1900 and was delivered on April 16, 1901.

The sister ship Gouverneur , built by the Reiherstieg shipyard and completed at the end of 1900, was not accepted by the shipping company because the stability appeared to be insufficient. It was only used together with the sister ship after the superstructure had been converted and additional iron ballast had been installed. Added to this was 1902 or of the North German Lloyd purchased steamer Mark , who in Markgraf has been renamed.

The sister ship Gouverneur was not a lucky ship: On April 30, 1903, the ship ran aground south of Ibo . The Reichstag installed on the branch line to Bombay was able to take over the mail and passengers and bring them to Beira, but could not help the damaged ship. Together with the tug Kadett , the president was only able to get the crashed sister ship free again on May 10th and to tow it to Zanzibar, from where it started its journey home to Hamburg on May 25th after a temporary repair. The new version of the Reichspostdampfer contract then called for use on the main Reichspostdampfer line of over 5000 GRT, which were ordered immediately, so that the nine new mail steamers delivered by 1914 were all larger. The five new cargo ships delivered by 1914 were also over 5000 GRT in size.

In 1907 the two small mail steamers were taken out of the Europe-East Africa service and the President was first used on August 27, 1907 from Durban to Bombay. The sister ship Gouverneur was added on November 9, 1907, but was lost on October 31, 1909 due to stranding off Zavara Point between Lourenco Marques and Inhambane . The president remained in this service, which had been in operation since 1892, until 1914. Most recently, the old mail steamer König , the purchased freighter Somali , the Margrave and the two Commodore and Usambara bought by the DDG Kosmos were used.

End the president

The President left Beira for Dar es Salaam at the beginning of August 1914 , but then, knowing the British activities in front of the capital of German East Africa , called Lindi, in the south of the German protected area, as an alternative port, where she arrived on August 8, 1914.

HMS Chatham

On October 18, 1914, she was discovered there by the British cruiser Chatham during its fourth inspection. The British boarded the ship, which posed as a hospital ship, but was not marked accordingly. They found evidence of a coal delivery to SMS Königsberg and maps of the Rufiji estuary showing the possibility of hiding a seagoing ship in the delta. They declared the ship confiscated and left it disabled.

On September 29, 1915, the cruisers HMS Hyacinth and Challenger appeared in front of Lindi and shot the German ship, which caught fire and burned out. In 1919 the badly damaged ship was towed to Cape Town to be converted into a whaling ship. This failed and the wreck was finally filled with cement as part of the pier in Saldanha Bay .

DOAL ships in Durban-Bombay service, 1914

Surname Shipyard GRT Length
[m]		 Launched
i.D. WL		 further fate
king Reiherstieg shipyard
No. 397 		4820 122.3 08/15/1896
10/30/1896		 1911 Durban-Bombay service, 1914 to Dar es Salaam , 17 August 1915 sunk by HMS Hyacinth
Somali Blohm & Voss
No. 68 		2532 97.9 23.10.1889
22.08.1901		 ex Osiris / DDG Kosmos, bought in 1901 for Durban-Bombay-Dienst, 1914 supplier for SMS Koenigsberg , 3rd November 1914 in Rufiji when HMS Chatham hit artillery on fire
Margrave Armstrong Mitchell
# 610 		3680 110.7 28.09.1893
07.15.1902		 ex Mark / NDL, bought in 1902, used as a pilgrim ship from India to Arabia in 1908, Durban-Bombay service in 1909, to Tanga in 1914 , sunk by HMS Hyacinth , Mersey and Severn in 1914 , 1915
Commodore Blohm & Voss
No. 171 		6013 125.3 07/12/1904
09/23/1910		 ex Esne / DDG Kosmos, bought in 1910, Durban-Bombay service in 1913, sought refuge in Goa in 1914 , confiscated by Portugal on February 26, 1916: Mormugoa , October 24, 1929 as Zaire stranded in front of São Tomé
Usambara Blohm & Voss
No. 168 		5999 125.2 19.09.1903
10.1910		 ex Edfu / DDG Kosmos, bought in 1910, Durban-Bombay service in 1913, sought protection in Tenerife in 1914 , extradited to France in 1919: Montana , March 22, 1928 stranded in front of La Désirade

After Bombay, the DOAL first started a service from Zanzibar in April 1892 with the new Safari (1433 GRT), which followed with the Setos , the Sultan and the Somali , before older mail steamers (first the Bundesrath and the Reichstag) followed from 1902 ) followed.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c after Kludas: History of the German Passenger Shipping, Vol. III, p. 24; Reinke-Kunze: Reichspostdampfer , p. 170
    differently Kludas: Ships of the Africa lines , p. 40; Prager: Blohm & Voss , p. 236;
    specify the two machines and screws, possibly. Confusion with the President of Hapag , sister ship Gouverneur never referred to as a twin screw ship.
  2. ↑ Reinke-Kunze: History of the Reichspostdampfer , p. 66 ff.
  3. ↑ Reinke-Kunze, p. 69
  4. ↑ RPD 1901-14: elector , Mayor , Prince Regent , Field Marshal ; Admiral , princess ; General , Tabora , Kigoma
  5. ^ Khalif , Khedive ; Emir , Muansa , Rufidji
  6. ^ Kludas, Africa Lines, p.42
  7. ↑ Lochner: Kampf im Rufiji Delta , p. 136
  8. ^ Herbert, p. 108
  9. ↑ Kludas: Ships of the Africa Lines , p. 48.
  10. Jump up ↑ sinking the king
  11. ↑ Kludas: Ships of the Africa Lines , p. 42.
  12. ↑ Sinking of the Somali
  13. ↑ Kludas: Ships of the Africa Lines , p. 48.
  14. ↑ sinking of the margrave
  15. ↑ a b Kludas: Afrika-Linien , p. 64.
  16. ^ Fall of the Zaire
  17. ^ Fall of the Montana
  18. ^ Kludas, Passenger Shipping, Vol. II, p. 221

Web links

literature

  • Carl Herbert: War voyages of German merchant ships . Broschek & Co, Hamburg 1934.
  • Hans H. Hildebrand / Albert Röhr / Hans-Otto Steinmetz: The German warships: Biographies - a mirror of naval history from 1815 to the present , Koehlers Verlagsgesellschaft, Herford,
  • Arnold Kludas : The ships of the German Africa Lines 1880 to 1945 . Verlag Gerhard Stalling, 1975, ISBN 3-7979-1867-4 .
  • Arnold Kludas: The History of German Passenger Shipping Volume II Expansion on All Seas 1890 to 1900 , Writings of the German Shipping Museum, Volume 19
  • Arnold Kludas: The History of the German Passenger Shipping Volume III Leap growth 1900 to 1914 , Writings of the German Shipping Museum, Volume 20
  • Reinhard Karl Lochner: Fight in the Rufiji Delta , Wilhelm Heyne Verlag, Munich 1987, ISBN 3-453-02420-6
  • Christine Reinke-Kunze: The history of the Reichspostdampfer , Köhlers Verlagsgesellschaft, Herford 1994, ISBN 3-7822-0618-5