The United States made its maiden voyage in 1848 from New York to Liverpool . Then it was in regular service New York - Le Havre related. On February 17, 1849, the ship was purchased for the Imperial Fleet and converted into a warship in New York. The further conversion took place in Liverpool, where the ship was also renamed Hansa . It was named after the three federal members and Hanseatic cities of Hamburg , Bremen and Lübeck .
On August 18, 1849, the Hansa arrived in Geestemünde , today part of Bremerhaven . Remaining work was carried out in the arsenal of the Seezeugmeisterei there. On March 18, 1850, she was put into service by Rear Admiral Karl Rudolf Brommy as the flagship of the Reichsflotte and kept this function until its dissolution. According to a comment by the marine painter and corvette captain, she was a. D. Lüder Arenhold : … made of the best material, with three decks; the ship was very well equipped, was beautifully baroque and was a beautiful ship in every respect. On March 16, 1853, the Hansa was sold to WA Fritze and Karl Lehmkuhl in Bremen , who used it from August 1853 to November 1854 in the transport service from Bremerhaven to New York (see Archduke Johann of the same ship owner). It was hung up after four trips . During the Crimean War , it was used as Transporter No. 206 chartered to the British government and launched again in Bremerhaven in July 1856. Ludwig Geerken was the captain from 1853 to October 1857.
sale
In 1857 she made a round trip from Bremerhaven to New York. In the same year she was chartered to the East India Company on the occasion of the Sepoy uprising in India . In 1858 the Hansa was sold to the " Atlantic Steam Navigation Company " (Galway Line) in Galway / Ireland and renamed the Indian Empire . Until 1861 she was used in various sailing areas.
On July 23, 1862, the Indian Empire caught fire on the Thames near Deptford near London and was launched there. In 1866 it leaked and sank.
literature
Arenhold, Lüder: The German Reichsflotte 1848-1852 . Berlin 1906.
Gröner, Erich / Dieter Jung / Martin Maass: The German warships 1815-1945 . tape1 : Armored ships, ships of the line, battleships, aircraft carriers, cruisers, gunboats . Bernard & Graefe Verlag, Munich 1982, ISBN 3-7637-4800-8 , p.108 .
Arnold Kludas : The ships of the German Reichsflotte . in: Walther Hubatsch (Ed.): The first German fleet 1848–1854 . Herford 1981, pp. 51-60.