Gruessgott (ship)
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The Gruessgott was ordered as a tender for the passenger ships of the Columbus class of the North German Lloyd (NDL) and should also serve as a seaside resort ship on the route to Helgoland . It was not completed until World War I and was taken over by the Imperial Navy as an auxiliary ship in 1916 . In 1918 the ship was used in the conquest of Helsinki by the German Baltic Division .
In 1919, due to the deliveries to the victorious powers, the ship was at times the largest ship of the North German Lloyd. It was used as a seaside resort ship and in the East Prussian sea service. In 1930 the Gruessgott was relocated to Southampton as a tender for the new express steamers of the NDL and renamed Greetings . In 1933 it was sold to a local shipping company. The ship belonged to a French salvage company from 1947 under the name La Bretonniere and was finally scrapped in Le Havre in 1969 .
history
Before the First World War, North German Lloyd primarily used paddle steamers in its pool service. The largest were the Najade of 724 GRT, completed in 1894, and the Nixe (1899, 844 GRT). As the last paddle steamer, the NDL procured the Delphin of 400 GRT for the Wangerooge service in 1905 . In addition, a number of small screw steamers were also procured, which in addition to the pool service also had other tasks. The steamer Retter (1885, 360 BRT), Seeadler (1897, 532 BRT), Glückauf (1901, 736 BRT), Vorwärts (1906, 758 BRT) and finally the Gruessgott were procured. The steamers built by different shipyards all had two chimneys and a twin screw drive. In addition to tasks as tenders for the large passenger ships, some of them were also used as tugs and were also used in the swimming pool service to Helgoland.
The Gruessgott was ordered as a tender for the two Columbus class ships under construction , which, however, were only completed after the First World War as Homeric for the White Star Line and as Columbus (II) for the NDL.
Operations in World War
The Gruessgott , which was completed during the war on April 17, 1915, was taken over by the Imperial Navy on March 14, 1916 as an auxiliary ship. In 1917, the meanwhile armed Gruessgott came into combat during the conquest of the Baltic Islands . She was also one of the security guards deployed in Finland . On April 12, 1918, she ran into the port of Helsinki and used artillery and machine gun fire to intervene very effectively in the street fighting against the Red Guards. On December 3, 1918, the navy put the auxiliary ship Gruessgott out of service and returned it to the NDL.
Seebäderschiff
At the end of 1918, the NDL received its ship back, which had been prepared for the seaside resort service. It now had a raised forecastle and an enclosed middle deck. On May 29, 1919 (Ascension Day), the Gruessgott made the first voyage of a seaside resort ship from Bremen to Helgoland . In June 1920, the NDL sent the Gruessgott - its largest ship at the time - to the Baltic Sea to reinforce the East Prussian sea service between Swinoujscie and Pillau because of the "voting trips" in July 1920, when well over 100,000 people traveled to their place of birth in East and West Prussia to vote on whether their home country belongs to Germany. 28 small passenger steamers were used for this action.
The Gruessgott resumed her trips to Heligoland in the summer . In addition to her, the forward tender was also used, which had previously also been used in the Imperial Navy and then in the East Prussian sea service. For this purpose, the NDL had two minesweepers (1921 Nymphe ex M 42 type 1915, 1922 Grille ex M 158 type 1916 ) converted into bath ships and used them for one season each to Heligoland before they were resold.
In the 1920s, the Gruessgott was not only overhauled, but also modified during the winter months. The large boat davits on the foredeck were dismantled and more lifeboats installed at the height of the aft mast. The two narrow chimneys were replaced by a thicker chimney. From 1927, the modern turbine ship Roland from the NDL to Helgoland started up and the Gruessgott was prepared for a new task.
Tender for the fast steamer and whereabouts
The ship was prepared as a tender for the new express steamers Bremen and Europa as well as the Columbus . It was supposed to support the North Atlantic liners in Southampton . From 1930 this operation took place under the British flag and under the new name Greetings . Two British companies operated the service one after the other and also looked after the North Atlantic ships of Hapag and the French express steamer Normandie .
The Greetings served as a mother ship for smaller units in the Royal Navy during World War II . In 1942 she was assigned to the “32nd Anti-submarine Group” in Oban (Scotland) .
In 1949 the old ship was sold to the French salvage company “Soc. Cherbourg de Remorque & Sauvatage ”, which La Bretonniére probably used as a ferry until it was demolished in 1969.
literature
- Carl Herbert: War voyages of German merchant ships . Broschek & Co, Hamburg 1934.
- Arnold Kludas: The ships of the North German Lloyd 1857 to 1919 . Koehlers Verlagsgesellschaft, 1991, ISBN 3-7822-0524-3 .
- Herbert Kuke: Course Helgoland , Verlag Gerhard Stalling, Oldenburg, 1974, ISBN 3-7979-1839-9
- Reinhardt Schmelzkopf: German merchant shipping 1919–1939 . Verlag Gerhard Stalling, Oldenburg, ISBN 3-7979-1847-X .
Web links
- engl. Article on Greetings with two pictures (PDF; 1.4 MB)