Manhattan (ship, 1932)
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The Manhattan was an American liner, a luxury liner and turbine ship owned by the New York City- based shipping company United States Lines , which was named after the Manhattan borough there . The shipping company advertised that the Manhattan was the largest ship ever built in the United States. From 1941, the ship was used by the United States Navy and from then on sailed as the USS Wakefield , (AP-21). After a fire in 1942 it was converted as a troop transport for the US Army and served this on both theaters of war in Europe and Asia.
Keel laying
The New York Shipbuilding Corporation allowed to develop from the end of the 1920s, plans to their shipyard at the Delaware River in Camden in the State of New Jersey to build the two largest former passenger liners that have ever been made in the United States in service. One of them was the Manhattan , her sister ship the Washington . Until then, the shipbuilding company had only built a large number of cargo ships, but not yet a passenger liner. At the time of the Great Depression ( Great Depression ), the project was an enterprising brave and challenging endeavor.
The ship was laid down on December 6, 1930 and launched a year later, on December 5, 1931, baptized by the widow of the former US President Theodore Roosevelt , Edith Roosevelt . On August 10, 1932 the maiden voyage took place, starting from New York City to Queenstown, Plymouth , Le Havre and Hamburg .
The new ship was designed for around 1,100 passengers and 500 crew members, had a tonnage of 24,289 tons, a length of 204 meters and a height of 26 meters. It was powered by twin screw steam turbines and reached a standard speed of 20 knots.
Atlantic liner service
The ship operated from August 1932 on the route between New York City and Hamburg , Le Havre , Southampton and Cobh . At the time, ship passages to Europe cost from USD 127 in the tourist class and from USD 186 in the cabin class.
From July 15, 1936, it promoted IOC President Avery Brundage and the US national team, including the athlete Jesse Owens , who took part in the Summer Olympics in Berlin. In 1938 it was used by members of the Kennedy family to travel to Great Britain when Joseph P. Kennedy , the father of future US President John F. Kennedy , was installed there as the United States Ambassador.
On March 22, 1939, around eighty unaccompanied refugee children of Jewish origin came on board in Hamburg, who came from areas occupied by the German Wehrmacht , from Austria and Czechoslovakia . These were the English Southampton brought and were later part of the so-called children's transport (Refugee Children Movement).
After the beginning of the Second World War , Manhattan promoted US citizens from the now-at-war Great Britain to New York City.
From January 1940, the perverse Manhattan on the route between New York City and Genoa until the Fascist Italy in June of the same year at the side of the German Reich of the Axis powers was and went to war.
On February 4, 1940, the Manhattan was seized by British troops in Gibraltar and after the seizure of 390 mail bags destined for Germany, it was released again.
On January 12, 1941, the Manhattan ran aground around 17 kilometers north of Palm Beach in the US state of Florida . 22 days later she was able to be made afloat again. On March 6, 1941, because of this nautical mistake, the captain was suspended for eight months and the first officer of the liner for one month.
On June 6, 1941, both the Manhattan and her sister ship, the SS Washington , were requested and taken over by the United States Navy . The Manhattan was used from June 15, 1941 under its new name USS Wakefield (AP-21) as a troop transport with a capacity for around 8,000 soldiers each and served in both theaters of war in Europe and Asia, partly with camouflage.
On September 3, 1942, fire broke out on board when the USS Wakefield was as part of the convoy (convoy) T-18 from Clyde to New York City. A spokesman for the US Navy suspected sabotage. She was towed by a Canadian rescue ship and reached the port of Halifax in the eastern Canadian province of Nova Scotia after five days during which the fire could not be controlled . It was badly damaged by the fire, was towed to the Boston Navy Yard in Massachusetts , decommissioned on September 14, 1942 and repaired there according to the specifications applicable to troop carriers.
On February 10, 1943, it was handed over to a US Coast Guard crew , for whom it was the largest ship the US Coast Guard has operated to date.
Even after the end of the Second World War, the ship did not return to commercial passenger liner service. 1954 it became part of the US Atlantic - Reserve Fleet declared. On June 7, 1957 it was handed over to the Maritime Administration (MARAD) and was available to the Hudson River Group of the National Defense Reserve Fleet , the reserve fleet of the National Defense.
It was decommissioned on December 1, 1959, sold for scrapping on May 25, 1964 for $ 263,000 , and scrapped in 1965.
Known passengers
- Avery Brundage , President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC)
- Marlene Dietrich , actress and singer
- Jesse Owens , US athlete
Passenger lists (excerpt)
- Cabin Passenger List , departing August 1, 1934 from Hamburg to New York City via Le Havre, Southampton, and Cobh
- Third Class Passenger List , departing October 21, 1936 from Hamburg to New York City via Le Havre, Southampton, and Cobh
literature
- Clarence Winchester, AC Hardy, Frank C. Bowen (Eds.): Shipping Wonders of the World , Vol. 1 + 2. Amalgamated Press, London 1935. OCLC 5695662
- Marcus Gabriel: The Ocean Liner . Lake Union Publishing, Seattle, WA, USA, 2018, ISBN 978-1-4778-0514-5 .
- Lotte Povar: My Amazing Journey: From Germany to Holland to America . Xlibris Corporation, Bloomington, IN, USA, 2012, ISBN 978-1-4797-2176-4 .
Videos
- SS Manhattan aground (0:41 min.), On: youtube.com
- SS Manhattan Interior (3:26 min.), On: youtube.com
- SS MANHATTAN (1932–1964) (5:53 min.), On: youtube.com
- Story of a Transport (22:12 min.), On: youtube.com
Web links
- SS Manhattan , Hoboken Historical Museum, at: hoboken.pastperfectonline.com (English)
- Hoag Levins: New York Shipbuilding Corp. In: HistoricCamdenCounty.com. Accessed August 20, 2019 .
Individual evidence
- ^ SS Manhattan . In: New York Shipbuilding Corporation, at: newyorkships.org
- ^ "Uncle Sam Enters The Atlantic Race," February 1931, Popular Mechanics article on the new construction in the 1930s
- ↑ a b c d S.S. Manhattan , on: greatships.net
- ↑ a b c d The role of the SS Manhattan in Olympic history , on: app.com
- ^ SS Manhattan Sails on Maiden Voyage . In: Marine Journal , Vol. 59, 1932, p. 16.
- ↑ Marc von Lüpke: Rosemarie Kennedy - What did we do to you : Der Spiegel , EINESTAGES series , October 21, 2015, on: spiegel.de
- ↑ Anja Salewsky: The old Hitler should die! - Memories of the Jewish Kindertransport to England . Claassen Verlag, Munich 2001, ISBN 978-3-546-00271-4 , pp. 25ff., 38, 225ff.
- ↑ Kindertransport (PDF file; 849 kB), on: ajr.org.uk
- ^ German Jewish Refugee Children who arrived in Southampton from Germany on the SS Manhattan (ID: 40227) . In: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, at: ushmm.org
- ↑ Stephen Moss: The Kindertransport children 80 years on: 'I'm grateful my parents sent me away to carry on living . In: The Guardian , November 7, 2018, at: theguardian.com
- ↑ Associated Press: "2 are suspended in grounding of SS Manhattan". In: Chicago Daily Tribune , Volume C, Number 57, March 7, 1941, p. 3.
- ↑ James C. Rill: A Narrative History of the 1st Battalion, 11th Marines During the Early History and Deployment of the 1st Marine Division, 1940-43 . Merriam Press, Bennington, Vermont, USA, 2003, ISBN 978-1-5763-8317-9 , p. 39.
- ↑ a b c d USS Wakefield AP 21 , on: historycentral.com
- ↑ USS Wakefield Records , on: fold3.com
- ^ Gregory William Mank: A Hollywood Tragedy - Laird Cregar . McFarland, Jefferson, NC, USA, 2018, ISBN 978-1-4766-2844-8 , p. 140.
- ↑ Coast Guard Seaman Sailed on USS Wakefield , on kayleenreusser.com