Marie (ship, 1906)
| Marie (barrier breaker 15) | ||
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 Auxiliary ship Marie of the Imperial Navy (Sperrbrecher 15 ex British Dacre Hill ) |
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| Ship data | ||
| Ship name | SMH Marie ( SpB 15), ex Dacre Hill | |
| Ship type | Auxiliary ship / blockade breaker | |
| Ship class | General cargo ship | |
| Keel laying : | 1905 | |
| Launching ( ship christening ): | December 23, 1905 | |
| Commissioning as an auxiliary ship: | 1915 | |
| Builder: | Joseph L. Thompson and Sons , Sunderland Yard, Hull No. 440 | |
| Shipping company: | W. Price & Co., Liverpool | |
| Home port: | Liverpool | |
| Distinguishing signal : | ||
| Crew: | 30 men (as an auxiliary ship) | |
| Whereabouts: | May 14, 1916 interned in Batavia ; Wrecked in Latvia in 1934 | |
| Technical specifications | ||
| Displacement : | approx. 5,000 t | |
| Length: | 95.7 m | |
| Width: | 14.2 m | |
| Volume: | 2674 GRT | |
| Draft : | 6.15 m | |
| Machinery: | A triple expansion steam engine , John Dickinson & Sons, Monkwearmouth | |
| Number of screws: | 1 | |
| Power: | x PS | |
| Speed: | 8 kn | |
| commander | ||
| Lieutenant at sea in the reserve | Conrad Soersen | |
The Marie ( Sperrbrecher 15 ) was a blockade runner of the Imperial Navy , which until March 1916 supply charge for the period from January Schutztruppe the Supreme Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck by the British blockades in the North Sea and in German East Africa transported. In contrast to Rubens , who supplied Lettow-Vorbeck about a year earlier, Marie was able to leave German East Africa again.
History and equipment
The ship was stacked in 1905 on behalf of the Chart Shipping Company at the Joseph L. Thompson and Sons shipyard in North Sands, Sunderland. The launch of the general cargo steamer Dacre Hill took place on December 23, 1905 and in February 1906 the ship with the hull number 440 was handed over to its new owner. The completed ship was managed by the Liverpool shipping company W. Price & Co.
After the news of the arrival of the Rubens off Tanga Germany was incomplete, the Reich Colonial Office initially believed that they could do without sending a second auxiliary ship. If at all, this should be done by one of the German ships that had been in South American ports since the beginning of the war . But this project became more and more difficult due to the loss of the SMS Dresden - the last German cruiser in these waters - and the increasing diplomatic pressure from Great Britain on neutral states. It gradually became known that part of the Rubens cargo had become unusable in April 1915 due to the fires and self-sinking in the shallow coastal waters. In addition, an urgent request for help had arrived from the governor of German East Africa, Heinrich Schnee , who requested an extensive supply of supplies.
Thereupon the Dacre Hill , which had been confiscated at the beginning of the war in Hamburg , was equipped as an auxiliary ship. Conrad Sörensen from Flensburg was appointed as captain, and he was raised to the rank of lieutenant in the reserve sea for this purpose . Similar to the Rubens , the command was entrusted to a Danish-speaking merchant ship captain. Captain von Kaltenborn-Stachau, who was supposed to join the protection force in East Africa, acted as military advisor to train them in the use of the new weapons. Captain Schapp, who was a member of the German East-Africa Line , was also familiar with the coast of the colony.
Clothing, medication, ammunition, provisions and weapons were invited for the protection force. As a precaution, the goods were portioned in manageable carrier loads and packed as watertight as possible. For the 10.5 cm guns of the abandoned cruiser SMS Königsberg four carriages were carried, which were equipped with special wheels by the Krupp company . Postage stamps were brought to the post in the German sphere of influence as the postage stamp inventory ran out due to the war. Finally, a load of wood was taken over for camouflage reasons.
List of military cargo
The following stocks of weapons and ammunition were on board the Marie :
| Post | number |
|---|---|
| Rifle cartridges | 3 million |
| Rifle grenades | 2000 |
| Carabiner | 2000 |
| Egg grenades | 1500 |
| Sea mines | 5 |
| 10.5 cm field howitzers | 4th |
| 8.8 mm machine guns | 4th |
| Landing mounts for machine guns | 4th |
| Wheel mounts f. 10.5 cm guns | 4th |
| 7.5 cm mountain guns | 2 |
Camouflages
The German Navy led the ship as Sperrbrecher 15 , which was only baptized in the course of the voyage with the name Marie and was called by the captain and crew. (According to the factual narration by Peter Eckart, this was the first name of Sörensen's wife.) In addition, several cover identities were developed. Initially, the ship was marked as a Danish steamer North America with her home port of Copenhagen . However, the markings were immediately covered with labeled or painted panels, which identified the ship as a Swedish Ajax with its home port of Gävle . The Danish or Swedish flag could be displayed on the ship's hull as a sign of neutrality that was visible from afar. The chimney was marked in the same way with the corresponding shipping company symbols. In addition, two deckhouses were built as backdrops , which were quickly removed in order to change the silhouette of the ship.
These precautions and measures were taken from October to December 1915 and implemented in the naval port of Wilhelmshaven .
Supply trip to East Africa
On January 9, 1916, Marie was ready to sail. The actual goods to be transported were stowed securely in the lower cargo holds. Wooden boards were layered on top as decking. The roadstead of Wilhelmshaven was left at noon under the Swedish flag for the North Sea. The night was the Eider - Lightship spent before the next day the German waters have been abandoned.
The trip
Before the Horns Rev was passed , accompanied by a German submarine, the camouflage plates were removed in order to assume the Danish identity. On January 12, 1916, while Marie was still in the North Sea , the crew's luggage was inspected. In the event of a search, personal belongings should also provide as little clues as possible to the true identity of the ship. The crew members received forged papers and had to learn fictitious biographies by heart. German labels, including brand names, had to be removed. Allegedly, even conspicuous tattoos on the sailors had to be strictly hidden. From January 16 to 20, 1916, a severe storm prevented the journey to the North Atlantic , which finally took place south of Iceland . After the weather improved, Marie crossed the British Isles - North America trade route on the Kaiser's birthday on January 27th . When the horizon was clear, Sörensen had the war flag set briefly and the garrison in uniform. Only now was everyone informed of the destination German East Africa. On February 1, 1916, it was found that, despite all precautions, some of the military equipment had gotten wet. Captain von Kaltenborn-Stachau began cleaning and repairs while on the high seas. A mountain gun was mounted on the deck in order to use it as makeshift ship artillery in the event of an attack. On February 15, 1916, the equator was baptized and on March 4, 1916, the Cape of Good Hope was rounded off at a distance of 70 nautical miles from the African coast. With the entry into the Mozambique Channel , the risk of being discovered increased. The team was trained even more intensively on possible controls.
Arrival in East Africa
Since no radio message from German East Africa arrived and radio inquiries could have given the ship away, Sörensen himself had to choose the cheapest stretch of coast to break through. Given the choice of either calling at Lindi or Sudi , he decided, due to the lack of a suitable nautical chart, for the smaller Sudi Bay, a little south of Lindi. (If Lindi had been chosen, Marie could have been intercepted by the British cruiser HMS Hyacinth , which was patrolling Lindi and to which the Rubens fell victim in 1915.) After some of the weapons on board had been made ready for use, the East African coast closed at Sudi. The breakthrough was made thanks to the weather obstructing the view. At dawn on March 16, 1916, after 65 days at sea , Marie was finally standing in front of the entrance to Sudi Bay. Despite brief contact with the ground at the shallow entrance to the bay, the treacherous sand banks could be passed with the help of a dinghy. The L-shaped bay was hardly visible from the sea and provided a safe hiding place for the first time. Nevertheless, the fastest signal posts were set up.
Stay in East Africa and continue your journey
First, Sörensen arranged for the bay to be secured by military means. The five sea mines carried along are laid out in the narrow entrance, while the guns were set up in the nearby Sudi village and a machine gun post was placed outside the bay. Then the team set out to explore the area to find out whether the region around Lindi was still under German control. Since the residents initially took the Marie for a British ship and the crew did not speak Swahili , this was not easy to find out. Finally, Askaris and later also members of the European protection forces arrived from Lindi and hurriedly helped unload the freight. For this purpose, a temporary pier was built from the timber cargo, which had originally been used for camouflage, and the supplies were brought ashore by March 27, 1916. The next few days passed with the ship being moved in preparation for the planned departure . For lack of coal, firewood was cut for the ship's boilers.
Shelling by the British
On April 11, 1916, a British cruiser and two smaller auxiliary ships appeared off Sudi Bay. The latter were able to penetrate into the bay, shoot at Marie at close range with small-caliber on-board weapons and direct the cruiser's gunfire. After several hours of bombardment of the ship, the British withdrew, assuming that they had shot Marie incapable of driving. After a detailed examination by Sörensen and the remaining crew members, it turns out that although the ship had suffered numerous shell hits and fire damage, the essential components - boiler, machinery, shaft and ship's bottom - were largely intact. Holes in the ship's hull below the waterline were then temporarily sealed so that Marie remained buoyant with considerable damage to the deck.
Departure and journey to the Dutch East Indies
A return trip to Germany appeared hopeless in view of the damage suffered. Instead, the ship was supposed to go to the neutral Dutch port of Batavia on behalf of the governor of German East Africa in order to return with provisions and medicine if possible. On April 22, 1916, they managed to escape from Sudi Bay into the Indian Ocean. In addition to Captain von Kaltenborn-Stachau, some crew members also stayed behind to support the protection force in German East Africa. The journey to the east was marked by the illness and death of crew members. On May 14, 1916, the port of Tanjung Priok near Batavia was reached. After a few days in the roadstead , the ship was moved to the port and subjected to a strict examination by the Dutch authorities.
Further course
In the proceedings that followed regarding the legal role of the ship and its crew, it quickly emerged that the Dutch would not release the ship. As a result, there were diplomatic entanglements between the Netherlands and the United Kingdom over the return of the originally British ship.
For a short time Sörensen pursued the plan to secretly buy another ship in Southeast Asia along with relief supplies and thus return to East Africa. After the USA entered the war , however, he was taken prisoner by the Americans and did not return to Germany until the end of the war.
In 1919, Marie was finally renamed Dacre Hill again. In 1924, George Nisbet & Company bought Dacre Hill and renamed it Blaircree . In 1925 it went again to Helmsing & Grimm and drove under the name Baltmor . In 1934 it was scrapped in Latvia .
Individual evidence
- ^ Anne Brüggemann: The broken wire. The Deutsche Post in East Africa - historical photographs. Published by the Deutsche Postmuseum Frankfurt am Main , R. v. Decker's Verlag, G. Schenck, Heidelberg 1989, ISBN 3-8114-3889-3 (incorrect), p. 46.
- ↑ Reinhard K. Lochner: Battle in the Rufiji Delta. Munich 1987, p. 339.
- ^ Peter Eckart: Blockadebrecher Marie , Berlin 1937, p. 11.
- ^ RK Lochner: Kampf im Rufiji-Delta , Munich 1987, p. 340.
- ^ P. Eckhart: Blockade breaker Marie . Berlin 1937, p. 24.
- ^ RK Lochner: Kampf im Rufiji-Delta , Munich 1987, p. 343.
- ^ RK Lochner: Battle in the Rufiji Delta. Munich 1987, p. 345.
- ^ P. Eckhart: Blockade breaker Marie . Berlin 1937, p. 50.
- ^ KE Selow-Serman: Blockade breaker. Scherl, Berlin 1917. ( Digital collection of the Berlin State Library )
- ^ RK Lochner: Battle in the Rufiji Delta . Munich 1987, p. 348.
- ^ P. Eckhart: Blockade breaker Marie . Berlin 1937, p. 59ff.
- ^ RK Lochner: Battle in the Rufiji Delta . Munich 1987, p. 350.
- ↑ Dutch Sheltered German Steamer , New York Times article
literature
- Carl Christiansen: THROUGH! - With war material to Lettow-Vorbeck. Folk Art Publishing House Rich. K Beutel, Stuttgart 1918
- Erich Gröner: The German warships, 1815-1945. Vol. 7, Bernard & Graefe Verlag, 1994, ISBN 3-7637-4807-5 , p. 91.
- Peter Eckart: Blockade breaker "Marie". Captain Sörensen's adventure trips during the World War. Ullstein Verlag, Berlin 1937. (Cover and summary)
- Barrier breaker 15: "Marie". In: Reinhard K. Lochner: Battle in the Rufiji Delta - The end of the small cruiser "Königsberg". The German Navy and Schutztruppe in East Africa during World War I. Wilhelm Heyne Verlag, Munich 1987, ISBN 3-453-02420-6 , pp. 337-348.
- Kurt Assmann : The battles of the Imperial Navy in the German colonies. First part: Tsingtau. Second part: German East Africa , Berlin 1935, pp. 197–204.
Web links
- Entry at Wear built Ships (English)
- German Ship Ran 3 Blockades and Took Supplies to Africa. In: The New York Times. September 1, 1916. (pdf)
- Survived British Shells. In: The New York Times. November 5, 1916. (pdf)