Habsburg (ship, 1906)
The sister ship Rugia
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The Habsburg was the fourth steamer built by Bremer Vulkan for the East Asia service of the Hamburg-American Packetfahrt-Actien-Gesellschaft (Hapag). She belonged to the Rhenania class , the five ships of which were all built at the Bremen- Vegesack shipyard.
After giving up the passenger service to East Asia, Hapag used the ships on various lines. From 1909 the ship was usually used to Brazil.
In 1914 the ship was in Hamburg and was only used briefly as a troop transport in 1918 . Formally handed over to the Allies, the ship remained in Germany and could be acquired again by Hapag. As Teutonia , it opened Hapag's passenger service to Brazil and La Plata in 1921 . After being used on the West India route from 1924, the ship was scrapped in Hamburg in 1933.
Construction and use of the Habsburg until 1914
The Habsburg was part of the second order for Rhenania- class ships from Bremer Vulkan for Hapag's East Asia service. By procuring these ships, the Hamburg shipping company wanted to put pressure on Norddeutscher Lloyd (NDL) in order to change the agreements between the two major German shipping companies. The ships were supposed to run to East Asia in 70 days, while the NDL on the Reichspostdampfer line had to process the voyages in 52 days. The ships received twenty spacious two-bed cabins for the agreed maximum passenger limit of 40 passengers, which offered considerably more space than the ships of the Feldherren class and at 900 marks were also considerably cheaper than the 2000 marks that the NDL charged for a passage .
The Habsburg , launched in Vegesack on May 25, 1906 , was taken over by Hapag on July 30, 1906 and began its maiden voyage to East Asia on August 20, 1906 , where the three ships of the first order ( Rhenania , Rhaetia and Rugia ) as well as the similar Borussia trips delivered by Germania shipyard . These ships had already been used on other routes because of the Russo-Japanese War . When Hapag abandoned the freight route with passenger traffic in 1908 in order to obtain a higher emigration quota on the North Atlantic, the five ships of the Rhenania class were freed for other tasks.
The Habsburg was rebuilt in 1908 for the new uses and received a passenger capacity for 63 cabin passengers in the first class and the possibility of transporting up to 900 passengers in the tween deck. The plan to use the ships of the class in the "Kosmos" service to the American west coast was abandoned after trial missions by Rhaetia and Rhenania in 1908, as the passenger facilities turned out to be too large for this route and therefore underutilized. On August 24, 1909, the Habsburg was the last ship of the class to be used in Brazil for the first time. The ship remained on this route together with her sister ship Hohenstaufen until the start of the war.
War effort
The Habsburg was in Hamburg when the First World War broke out and was launched. It was not until the winter of 1918 that it was used as a troop transport for the Finland company of the German army and for this purpose it was moved to Gdansk in the Baltic Sea . At the beginning of April 1918, German army units were relocated to Finland to intervene in the civil war there. On October 15, 1918, the Habsburg ran into a mine in the Gulf of Finland and was dragged into Reval with severe damage . After an emergency repair, the repair work was continued in Hamburg from December 24th.
In January 1919 the Habsburg under repair was formally handed over to the shipping controller and, after the repair, used as a transporter for prisoners between Petrograd and Swinoujscie . In 1920 the Habsburg was to be delivered to Italy and given the name Reno there, but the ship remained in Germany.
Post-war deployment as Teutonia
In July 1921, Hapag succeeded in acquiring the Habsburg again. At Blohm & Voss , the ship was thoroughly overhauled and prepared for the transport of 58 passengers in first class and 714 passengers in the tween deck. After the conversion, the ship was measured at 6522 GRT. It was renamed Teutonia , making it the fourth Hapag ship with this name. On September 14, 1921, the ship opened Hapag's passenger service to Rio de Janeiro and La Plata. Before newbuildings were used on this route for Hapag, the Teutonia was supported in this service by the sister ship Rugia, which was also bought back, and the former Thessalia (6146 GRT, 1905, Flensburg) sailing under the new name Galicia . In 1924, the three old ships were withdrawn from the Brazil / Argentina service and used in a newly opened passenger service to Venezuela , Colombia , Guatemala and Costa Rica . On this route, too, the Teutonia carried out the first passenger voyage after the war from Hamburg on May 17, 1924.
Whereabouts
During the global economic crisis , Teutonia (formerly Habsburg ) , which was over 20 years old, was shut down and then scrapped in Hamburg in 1933.
literature
- Carl Herbert: War voyages of German merchant ships . Broschek & Co, Hamburg 1934.
- Arnold Kludas : The History of German Passenger Shipping. Vol. III: Rapid growth 1900 to 1914. Writings of the German Maritime Museum, Volume 20.
- Arnold Kludas: The History of German Passenger Shipping. Vol. IV: Destruction and rebirth 1914 to 1930. Writings of the German Maritime Museum, Volume 21.
- Claus Rothe: German ocean passenger ships 1896 to 1918 . Steiger Verlag, 1986, ISBN 3-921564-80-8 .
Web links
- The Hapag Habsburg with postcard as Teutonia
- auctionID = 225147 & sid = 628551501175253123 Postcard from Reliance and Teutonia after 1926
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e Kludas, Vol. III, p. 177 f.
- ↑ Kludas, Vol. III, p. 108
- ^ Herbert, p. 148
- ↑ Fourth name bearer after the first Teutonia (freighter, 2266 BRT, 1859-1877), the second (freighter, 1762 BRT, 1878-1901) and the third (freighter, 3066 BRT, bought in 1899 as Helene Rickmers and sold to Russia in 1905) .
- ↑ Kludas, Vol. IV, pp. 136f.
- ↑ Kludas, Vol. IV, pp. 150f.