Tunnel steamer
Hunnendampfer was the name for eight German merchant steamers that were expropriated by the United Kingdom at the beginning of the First World War and then sailed under the British flag. After the expropriation, the ships were renamed with names beginning with the syllable “Hun” (English for Hunne ), which gave rise to the collective name “Hunnendampfer”. This naming alludes to the derogatory designation of the Germans as "Huns" by the British and US-Americans, especially during the First World War and later again in the Second World War . The name is based on the so-called " Hun speech " of Kaiser Wilhelm II.
The tunnel steamers were:
- Steamer Lautenfels (5811 t) renamed Hungerford
- Steamer Werdenfels (4504 t) renamed Hunstanton
- Steamer Ophelia (1153 t) renamed Hundley
- Steamship Arnfried (2899 t) renamed Hunsdon
- Steamship Frisia (4997 t) renamed Huntress
- Steamer Altair (3220 t) renamed Hunsgate
- Lützow steamer (8818 BRT ) renamed Huntsend , confiscated in Suez Canal on August 3rd
- Steamer Derfflinger (9060 GRT) renamed Huntsgreen , applied off Port Said on August 3rd
According to a report in the Frankfurter Zeitung on November 21, 1914, the Lautenfels , Lützow and Werdenfels , which were in Suez and Port Said when the war broke out, were forced to leave the Suez Canal together with twelve other German and Austrian ships and captured in Alexandria .
literature
- Ulrich Steindorff (Hrsg.): War pocket book - A reference dictionary about the world war . Leipzig and Berlin 1916.