Hanseatic (ship, 1930)
Hanseatic (around 1963)
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The Hanseatic was a turbine ship and the first ship of that name. It was founded in 1929 by Fairfield Shipbuilding & Engineering Co. Ltd. built in Govan as Empress of Japan and originally had a tonnage of 26,032 GRT . The ship has been renamed several times throughout its history.
Empress of Japan
Since in the 1920s and 30s the fastest route from Europe to the Far East was via Canada , CP Ships offered an all-round service consisting of sea and rail travel with coordinated timetables. The Canadian Pacific Railway took over the transport from one Canadian coast to another . In order to secure advantages over its competitors by reducing the total travel time by two days, the shipping company acquired two new ships around 1930. On the Atlantic Ocean that was Empress of Britain used in the Pacific , the Empress of Japan . Although they were not considered to be sister ships , both ships had some things in common. In addition to the paint, this was the similar profile due to the three chimneys . In addition, both enjoyed a reputation for being the fastest and most luxurious ship on their respective routes.
When the Second World War broke out , the Empress of Japan was in Shanghai . As the Japanese were mistrusted, it was ordered that they should not continue to Yokohama , but return to Victoria via Honolulu . There it was requisitioned on November 25, 1939 and then given a gray paint job and guns to serve as a troop transport . For the next nine years it transported Australian and New Zealand soldiers to the Middle East . In October 1940, along with six other luxury liners, it was part of a “multi-million dollar convoy” called a convoy that drove from Australia to South Africa . On November 9, 1940, it was caught in a German air raid off the west coast of Ireland near the spot where the Empress of Britain had been torpedoed by a German submarine two weeks earlier . Two aerial bombs , a Focke-Wulf Fw 200 of the I. Group of Kampfgeschwader 40 , slipped off the stern rail and the lifeboats and did only minor damage. During the attack, Captain JW Thomas and his Chinese quartermaster Ho Kan held the wheelhouse and made evasive maneuvers . Ho Kan carried out Thomas' orders lying down. Both received the Order of the British Empire , Thomas the third highest and Ho Kan the lowest class. In 1941 and 1942 the ship made several trips to Singapore . With 1,200 evacuated women and children on board, it survived another bomb attack.
Empress of Scotland
It was not until October 1942, ten months after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor , that the ship was renamed the Empress of Scotland , thereby removing the reference to the name of an enemy state. The delay was due to a ban on renaming ships during wartime. It is believed that Winston Churchill personally campaigned for this exception. In 1943 and 1944, the ship transported troops from New York and other North American ports to Great Britain on twelve Atlantic crossings as part of the preparations for the Allied landing in Normandy . In 1948, it was released from service as a troop transport after carrying over 250,000 people and 30,000 tons of war cargo, covering 600,000 miles and cruising all war-affected regions of the world. Apart from Captain Thomas, only the chief baker Tom Patten was part of the crew during the entire war effort. The passenger ship was one of only five of his shipping company to survive the war.
In May 1948 she returned to Liverpool and from October of the same year she underwent an extensive overhaul at the Fairfield shipyard in Glasgow. Among other things, the promenade deck was glazed to protect against the harsh weather on the North Atlantic . Since the CP Ships had discontinued the Pacific route, she was now used on the Atlantic and filled the void left by the loss of the Empress of Britain as the company's flagship . On May 9, 1950, she set sail for her first commercial voyage from Liverpool to Québec . On this trip she set a new speed record. When she reached in December 1950 New York, it was in recognition of their services during the war of a destroyer of the US Navy routed to its anchorage. It was the first time the US Navy paid this honor to a Merchant Navy ship . She was also received in a festive manner by the population. Then she went on her first cruise , which was also the first of a ship of her shipping company after the war.
From November 12 to 17, 1951, the Empress of Scotland carried Princess Elizabeth and her husband Philip, Duke of Edinburgh , from Newfoundland to Liverpool after a visit to Canada, with keen media sympathy . Due to a change in the travel plan at short notice, it was used instead of the Empress of France originally intended for this purpose . For the princess' first sea voyage on a passenger ship, a three-room royal suite was set up on the starboard side of the A-deck. Despite bad weather during the crossing, the princess clearly enjoyed the trip and paid a visit to the on-board cinema, among other things. However, she graciously declined an invitation from Captain CE Duggan to dine at his table. At the end of the trip, however, she expressed her appreciation for him by gifting him with cufflinks and a signed photograph. On behalf of the crew, the senior bellboy presented her with two dolls for Prince Charles and Princess Anne .
In the following year, the shipping company made Montreal the end point of the voyages during the summer months, which required an adjustment of the port of Montreal to the draft of the ship and a shortening of the masts of the ship by 45 feet, which would otherwise be too high for a passage under the Québec -Bridge would have been. On the way from Québec to Montreal, it had to cover a 140-mile long, twisting stretch on the Saint Lawrence River . Watched by thousands of onlookers on the banks of the river, it took ten hours to complete it on May 13, 1952. When the boatswain George Britton signaled the successful crossing of the bridge from the foremast , the passengers burst into jubilation. The ship reached its berth safely around eight o'clock in the evening. It was the largest ship to date to have reached the port of Montreal. Many, including George Britton, had not considered this feat of strength possible. To celebrate the event, the city gave a reception at which the captain was allowed to sign in the city's golden book .
The ship's command performed a remarkable maneuver in March 1954 when, due to a strike by dockers in New York , they had to moor without the help of tugs , although the ship was not actually designed for this.
After the end of the war, CP Ships had planned to gradually replace its passenger ship fleet. From 1956 the plans were implemented. Surprisingly, instead of the Empress of France , the Empress of Scotland was advertised for sale in September 1957 . During her seven years on the Atlantic route, she completed 90 tours around Canada, 26 Caribbean cruises from New York and three cruises from Southampton .
Hanseatic
Sold to the Hamburg-Atlantic-Linie in January 1958, the company was renamed to Scotland specifically for the transfer trip to Hamburg . In the same year the ship got its final name Hanseatic after extensive renovations in Hamburg . The conversion increased the measurement to 30,300 GRT and the passenger capacity almost doubled to 1,350, of which 1,165 were in the tourist class . Instead of the saved third chimney, a swimming pool was installed. On July 2, 1958, the ship went on its first voyage under its last name and sailed from Cuxhaven to New York. On this route it was then mainly used in regular service. It was the first passenger ship to return to liner service on this route after the war and the only one flying the Hamburg flag at the time. It was also used for cruises to the Caribbean and the Mediterranean . In 1959, part of the on-board scenes for triplets on board with Heinz Erhardt was filmed on the ship , and in 1961 the exterior shots for beloved impostor .
On September 7, 1966, a fire broke out in the engine room of New York Harbor and found plenty of food in the wooden interior. It took the harbor fire brigade ten hours to get the fire under control. In the end the ship was hardly externally damaged, but technically so badly damaged that it was decided to scrap it. For this purpose, the Hanseatic was towed to Hamburg by the specially traveled tugs Pacific (10,000 HP) and Atlantic (5,000 HP) belonging to the Bugsier shipping company , where the population welcomed the “beautiful woman from Hamburg” with great sympathy. The scrapping was done by "Eisen und Metall" at Altenwerder . Parts of the interior were used to furnish the Hamburger Kaufhof restaurant . Part of the hull still serves as a working pontoon in a shipyard in Cuxhaven .
literature
- Harald Focke : Serious fire ends HANSEATIC's career. A defective fuel line was the undoing of the Cuxhaven liner in New York . In: Men from Morgenstern , Heimatbund an Elbe and Weser estuary e. V. (Ed.): Niederdeutsches Heimatblatt . No. 800 . Nordsee-Zeitung GmbH, Bremerhaven August 2016, p. 1–2 ( digitized version [PDF; 7.2 MB ; accessed on July 23, 2019]).
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Jürgen Rohwer , Gerhard Hümmelchen : Chronik des Maritime War 1939–1945, November 1940. Accessed on January 19, 2017 .