Hela (ship, 1854)
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||
.svg){kind=small}
The Hela was a warship of the Prussian and North German navy. She was the type ship of the Hela class named after her , to which the not quite identical Frauenlob belonged. The Hela was to 1870 primarily as a training vessel in use.
history
After the outbreak of war against Denmark as a result of the Schleswig-Holstein uprising , German coastal trade quickly came to a standstill due to the Danish blockade . There was no German navy that could have faced the Danish ships. This circumstance not only led to the formation of the Reichsflotte by the Frankfurt National Assembly , but also to the creation of various “Comitées” that collected donations for the purchase or construction of warships. The Berlin wholesaler Wollheim suggested that all the primary voters in Prussia donate a silver groschen each for a new ship, which would have resulted in a total of around 117,000 thalers . This would have made it possible to purchase a “war steamer”. Wollheim combined with the prospect of the sum that the new building should be named Der Prussische Urwähler in honor of the donors , which Friedrich Wilhelm IV accepted in a cabinet order on January 12, 1849 . The actual income from the appeal for donations, which began with the election for the National Assembly, fell far short of expectations, and even a repetition for the election of the Erfurt Union Parliament yielded little. Wollheim was able to collect a total of 28,113 thalers, to which the Danzig “Flotten-Comitée” contributed another 4,505 thalers on the condition that the ship was built in Danzig. After the start of construction, the Kolberg “Comitée” finally added the donations it had collected to the construction budget, from which the rowing equipment and ship's bell were paid for. A total of around 36,000 thalers of donations and accrued interest were available for the construction.
Before the financing was finally clarified, the Prussian War Ministry commissioned the naval depot in Danzig to prepare the construction. As a result, the JW Klawitter shipyard in Danzig prepared the technical documents for the new building. When it was clear by 1852 that the hoped-for funds were far below expectations, the construction project was changed in favor of a war schooner, as had been piled up at the Wolgast shipyard in Lübke since the previous year with Frauenlob . The Ministry of War subsidized the missing sum of 10,000 thalers in addition to the total construction costs of around 46,000 thalers after Wollheim waived the original name claim. The schooner was instead named Hela by cabinet order on September 16, 1852 . The construction plans were fundamentally changed by JW Klawitter towards a gaff schooner , as which the Hela was laid down at the Royal Shipyard in Gdansk . During construction, the rigging was changed to a topsail schooner .
The Hela expired on October 18, 1853 from the stack . The further expansion dragged on for about half a year until the ship was put into service for the first time on March 20, 1854. During this first active period, which lasted until October 1854, the Hela was used to measure the jade area acquired by Prussia from the Grand Duchy of Oldenburg . The ship then remained in reserve until the spring of 1858 . On March 20, 1858, the schooner returned to service to bring the crew of the new royal yacht Grille to Le Havre to take over. The Hela then stayed in the waters around England until the beginning of June, so that it could be used as a training ship for cabin boys in the Baltic Sea until autumn . The schooner took on this task from April 1st to October 1st of the following year. In the winter of 1859/1860 the ship was moored at the Royal Shipyard in Danzig, where it was converted into a brig and new armament. In addition, the interior was changed to make it more homely. Nevertheless, the Hela was considered a rather unhospitable ship.
On June 20, 1860, the brig came back into service to train cabin boys by September 30. In the following year, the Hela was again active from June 20, initially with ship boys and midshipmen on board in the Baltic Sea. Then she belonged to a small ship association that visited Hamburg on September 3, 1861 . From there the ship undertook exercises in the North Sea , partly together with the Amazon , and was also used for measurements on the Jade . From September 18, both ships got ready for a training voyage in the Atlantic. The Hela joined them on October 20, from Hamburg to, after following complements their equipment. On November 4th, the brig reached Lisbon , where the meeting with the Amazon was to take place. This first went to Danzig, where minor repairs were carried out and the midshipmen on board were exchanged, and left on October 30th. After calling in Helsingör as an intermediate port , the Amazon was spotted several times in the North Sea, but remained missing after November 14, 1861. The Hela therefore ran alone into the Mediterranean and returned to home waters in June 1862. Until her renewed decommissioning on September 30, 1862, she cruised in the Baltic Sea.
It was not until May 9, 1867 that the Hela came into active use again. She worked as a training ship in the Baltic Sea until the end of August and was finally decommissioned in Kiel . There the brig was designated as the guard's tender and its armament was initially reduced to four smooth- barreled six-pounders. Later two more such guns came back on board. Despite being used as a tender, the Hela was also used as a training ship in the summer of the following years. In 1869, she also took part in the maneuvers of the fleet from August 30 to September 10 , which took place for the first time in the western Baltic Sea. Her last period of service began for the Hela on June 7, 1870, when she was put back into service for cabin boy training. After the war against France began , the crew was withdrawn from the Hela on July 18 . The brig was towed by a steamship to Swinoujscie and lay there .
On November 28, 1871, the Hela was removed from the list of warships. It was then demolished in Danzig. The main mast of the brig came to a royal park in Potsdam to serve as a training mast for the children of Crown Prince Friedrich .
technology
The Hela had a wooden, kraweel-clad hull in transverse frame construction , which was covered with copper plates for protection . The ship was up to 7.85 m wide and a total of 32.6 m long, with the waterline measuring 27.43 m with a construction displacement of 271 t. At the maximum displacement of 300 t, the Hela was between 2.44 m (front) and 3.66 m (aft) deep in the water. Upon completion, it had a gaff rigging with 604 m² of sail area, which was reduced to 539 m² when it was converted into a brig. The maximum speed of the Hela was 14 knots.
Initially, the only armament was a short 30-pound gun ( 16 cm caliber ) on board. When it was rebuilt in 1860, it was replaced by three heavy and six light 24-pounder guns (caliber 15 cm).
crew
The crew of the Hela originally had a nominal strength of 45 men and consisted of five officers and 40 men . During its use as a training ship, the crew strength increased significantly to up to seven officers and 75 men, a total of 82 men.
Commanders
| March 2 to May 1854 | Lieutenant first class, Schirmacher |
| May to October 1854 | Lieutenant 1st class Hans Kuhn |
| March 20 to November 1, 1858 | Lieutenant 1st class Franz Kinderling |
| April 1 to October 1, 1859 | Lieutenant 1st class Gustav Klatt |
| May 20 to September 30, 1860 | Lieutenant 1st class Gustav Klatt |
| June 21, 1861 to September 1862 | Lieutenant 1st Class / Corvette Captain Gustav Klatt |
| September 1862 | Lieutenant 2nd class Ulffers (substitute) |
| May 9 to August 29, 1867 | Lieutenant to the sea Schlenther |
| April 1 to July 1868 | Captain Emil von Rabenau |
| July to November 21, 1868 | Captain Eduard Knorr |
| May 3 to November 15, 1869 | Lieutenant Captain Philipp von Kall |
| June 7th to July 18th, 1870 | Lieutenant to the sea Friedrich Albrecht |
literature
- Gröner, Erich / Dieter Jung / Martin Maass: The German warships 1815-1945 . tape 1 : Armored ships, ships of the line, battleships, aircraft carriers, cruisers, gunboats . Bernard & Graefe Verlag, Munich 1982, ISBN 3-7637-4800-8 .
- Hildebrand, Hans H. / Albert Röhr / Hans-Otto Steinmetz: The German warships . Biographies - a mirror of naval history from 1815 to the present . tape 4 : Ship biographies from Greif to Kaiser . Mundus Verlag, Ratingen 1981, ISBN 3-7822-0235-X .
Footnotes
- ↑ a b c d e f Hildebrand / Röhr / Steinmetz, Die deutscher Kriegsschiffe , Vol. 4, p. 106.
- ↑ Hildebrand, Hans H. / Albert Röhr / Hans-Otto Steinmetz: The German warships . Biographies - a mirror of naval history from 1815 to the present . tape 3 : Ship biographies from the Elbe to Graudenz . Mundus Verlag, Ratingen 1981, ISBN 3-7822-0211-2 , pp. 91 (Approved licensed edition by Koehlers Verlagsgesellschaft, Hamburg, approx. 1990).
- ↑ a b c d e Gröner, The German Warships , p. 111.
- ↑ Hildebrand, Hans H. / Albert Röhr / Hans-Otto Steinmetz: The German warships . Biographies - a mirror of naval history from 1815 to the present . tape 1 : Historical overview. Ship biographies from Adler to Augusta . Mundus Verlag, Ratingen 1979, ISBN 3-7822-0209-0 , p. 226 (Licensed edition by Koehler's publishing company, Hamburg, approx. 1990).
- ↑ Hidlebrand / Röhr / Steinmetz, Die deutscher Kriegsschiffe , Vol. 4, p. 107.
- ↑ Hildebrand / Röhr / Steinmetz, Die Deutschen Kriegsschiffe , Vol. 4, p. 105.
- ↑ The designation of the lower officer ranks was set or changed in the years 1849, 1854 and 1864. On January 1, 1900, the names Fähnrich zur See, Leutnant zur See, Oberleutnant zur See and Kapitänleutnant, which are still in use today, were introduced. Cf. Hildebrand, Hans H. / Albert Röhr / Hans-Otto Steinmetz: The German warships . Biographies - a mirror of naval history from 1815 to the present . tape 7 : Ship biographies from Prussian eagle to Ulan . Mundus Verlag, Ratingen 1983, ISBN 3-7822-0267-8 , pp. 101 (Licensed edition by Koehler's Verlagsgesellschaft, Hamburg, approx. 1990).
- ↑ a b c d e f The rank today corresponds to a lieutenant commander.
- ↑ a b c The rank today corresponds to a first lieutenant at sea.