Hansa (ship, 1899)
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The Hansa was a passenger ship put into service in 1899 by the Swedish shipping company Ångfartygs AB Gotland, which carried passengers and cargo on a regular service between Stockholm and Visby on the Swedish island of Gotland in the Baltic Sea for 45 years . On November 24, 1944, the unarmed Hansa was torpedoed by the Soviet submarine L 21 off Gotland and sank within a few minutes. Only two of the 86 people on board survived the accident.
The ship
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The steamship Hansa was built in 1899 by the William Lindbergs shipyard in Stockholm for the shipping company Ångfartygs AB Gotland based in Visby on Gotland. Its design was based on that of a luxury yacht . There was space for 40 guests in the dining room. The cabins and lounges were paneled with mahogany and walnut , with brass work and round skylights.
During her entire service life, the Hansa was used in passenger traffic on the Stockholm - Nynäshamn - Visby route. In the 1930s she also called at the ports of Gdansk , Reval and Riga .
As a result of reconstruction measures in 1904, the hull of the Hansa was lengthened from 41.9 to 47.9 m, which increased the volume from the original 475 GRT to 563 GRT.
Sinking
At the time of the sinking, in autumn 1944, merchant shipping between Sweden and Germany had ceased, so there were no more targets for Soviet submarines in this regard .
On the evening of November 23, 1944, a Thursday, the Hansa left the port of Nynäshamn for another crossing to Visby, where she was supposed to arrive at 7.30 a.m. the following morning. There were 23 crew members and 63 passengers on board , with Captain Martin Klinberg in command. She was fully booked on this trip. Strong winds crossed the course of the Hansa from the south-east and there were also high waves.
At 00:55 am on November 24, which passed Hansa the Lighthouse of country location . At 1:55 am, the Hansa met the "s / s Gute", a ship from the same shipping company, halfway there. Light signals were exchanged. The ship was brightly lit and the Swedish flag was clearly visible. Because of the heavy seas, the Hansa drove at a speed of only eight knots.
At 05:57, the ship was northwest of the Stenkirkahuk on the Gotland coast when a violent explosion rocked the ship. The Hansa then stopped. Glass shattered everywhere, some passengers started screaming and the Hansa got a clear list . When the passengers came on deck, they could see that the entire bow had been severed by the explosion and the navigating bridge completely destroyed. High waves lashed against the lifeboat stations and spray lapped the deck. Many passengers jumped overboard in their panic.
The Hansa sank within a few minutes. Only two people, the third officer Arne Thuresson and the passenger Arne Mohlin , who later became Chief of Staff of the Swedish Army , survived the sinking. They climbed onto a life raft and waited for hours in the freezing water. An hour after dawn, the two men heard the noise of the engine and finally discovered a Douglas DC-3 , which they drew attention to with an emergency missile. The plane directed the two Swedish minesweepers Landsort and Arholma to the castaways, who finally picked them up and brought them to Visby. The two men later testified that the submarine had searched the site of the accident with searchlights some time after the sinking.
After the sinking of the Hansa , all ships of the line destined for Gotland were provided with escort protection in the form of destroyers and mine clearers.
The submarine
Later investigations revealed that the Soviet submarine L 21 of the Leninets class under the command of Captain Sergei Sergejewitsch Mogilevskij had been the attacker. At this point in time, the submarine had already been at sea for almost two weeks.
Mogilevskij sighted the ship at 4 a.m. on the morning of November 24th and, although it was marked as a Swedish ship and sailed in Swedish waters, considered it a legitimate target. In the logbook, he noted that the ship was steaming on the usual route used by merchant ships that brought raw materials to Germany. He then put his sub on alert and had it positioned for a surface attack. The first three torpedoes went nowhere, only the fourth hit the steamer at the bow below the first mast. Then L 21 set course for Turku (Finland).
The wreck
The wreck of the Hansa was found in 1988 by the ships Belos and Altair of the Swedish Navy Diving Center. It is about 100 m deep. The bow is 30 m behind the main part of the hull. The wreck could by means of a Remotely Operated Vehicle (remotely operated vehicle to be examined).
Individual evidence
Web links
Coordinates: 57 ° 54 ′ 0 ″ N , 18 ° 12 ′ 0 ″ E