Meteor I – V
Meteor was the name of five imperial sailing yachts that were acquired or built for regattas. With them Wilhelm II wanted tostand up to the then leading nations in sea sailing (Great Britain, USA) on national and international regattas and underpin German sea sailing with sporting achievements. It was only with the Meteor IV that he was able to meet his claim “German from the keel to the flag button”.
Meteor yachts data
| dimension | Meteor I. | Meteor II | Meteor III | Meteor IV | Meteor v |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Constructor: | George Lennox Watson | George Lennox Watson | Archibald Cary Smith | Max Oertz | Max Oertz |
| Shipyard: | D. & W. Henderson & Company , Scotland | D. & W. Henderson & Company, Scotland | Townsend & Downey Shipbuilding Co., New York City | Germania shipyard , Kiel | Germania shipyard, Kiel |
| Construction year: | 1886/1887 | 1896 | 1902 | 1909 | 1914 |
| Rigging: | 1-mast racing cutter | Britannia-type racing cutter | More beautiful | More beautiful | More beautiful |
| Length over all ( Lüa ): | 33.05 m | 37.06 m | 49.10 m | 47.14 m | 47.60 m |
| Length ( waterline ): | 26.35 m | 27.02 m | 36.60 m | 33.05 m | 32.13 m |
| Width over all ( Büa ): | 6.20 m | 7.27 m | 8.23 m | 8.27 m | 7.68 m |
| Draft : | 4.16 m | 5.50 m | 4.57 m | 5.49 m | 5.48 m |
| Sail area: | 1,245 m² | 1,045 m² | 1,079 m² | 1,371 m² | 1,410 m² |
Meteor I.
The Meteor I , designed by George Lennox Watson and built at the D. & W. Henderson & Company shipyard in Partick ( incorporated in Glasgow in 1912 ) on the River Clyde in Scotland, was launched in 1887 under the name Thistle ("Diestel"). After a few years of successful regatta sailing in the Royal Clyde Yacht Club and a crossing of the Atlantic as a challenger in the America's Cup , the Thistle was sold in 1891 for 90,000 gold marks to the German Kaiser, who renamed the boat Meteor . The yacht was solemnly transferred to Kiel to the Imperial Yacht Club , which was named after Kaiser Wilhelm II and in which he was entitled " Commodore " , and was available there for regattas.
With the Meteor I , the Kaiser took part in the international regatta of Cowes , the Cowes Week , for the first time with his own boat . When the Meteor II began its service in 1896 , the Meteor I was handed over to the Imperial Navy in Wilhelmshaven as a training ship and renamed the Comet .
Meteor II
In 1896, William II commissioned the renowned Scottish yacht designer George Lennox Watson, who had already designed the Meteor I , to design a new, faster imperial racing yacht, which in turn would be delivered by the D. & W. Henderson shipyard on the Clyde in Scotland was built and equipped. Until 1902 it served the ambitious emperor for sailing regattas .
Meteor III
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In 1902 this schooner yacht , designed by Archibald Cary Smith, was completed on Shooters Island near New York City . The construction in the USA was a break with the British sailing tradition of the emperor. The Emperor's brother, Prince Heinrich , had traveled to New York for the christening of the ship on February 25, 1902 .
Meteor IV
As much as the Kaiser liked the Meteor III , the defeats against Germania von Krupp prompted him to buy the fourth Meteor. This was designed by Max Oertz and built at the Germania shipyard in Kiel, where the Krupps yacht was built. The Meteor IV was the first to be designed and built entirely by German designers and equipped with German crew. The Meteor IV was larger than the Meteor III with an overall length of 47.14 m, a width of 8.27 m and a sail area of 1371 m².
Meteor v
In 1914, the last imperial yacht Meteor V , also designed by Max Oertz, was launched in Kiel. As the largest Kaiser yacht with a length of 47.6 m and a sail area of 1410 m², it won the Elbe regatta in 1914 shortly after the ship was christened. On June 21, 1914, the Meteor began its voyage to the annual Cowes sailing regatta. However, bad weather made her progress only slowly, so that she had to spend several days in Dutch waters. When the weather finally improved, the trip was canceled due to the threat of war and the yacht was relocated back to Kiel. After the war ended, she was sold to Egypt in 1919 and in the 1920s she sailed under the Hungarian flag as Minnekoi . In 1929 it came into English hands. She was converted into a motor yacht in Marseille and burned out in January 1930.
literature
- Matthias Kripp: The facilities of the imperial yachts, Master's thesis of the University of Bonn, Prof. Dr. Tilmann Buddensieg, 1989, published in: Deutsches Schifffahrtsarchiv, Vol. 16 (Part 1) + Vol. 17 (Part 2), Deutsches Schifffahrtsmuseum Bremerhaven, Ernst Kabel Verlag GmbH, Hamburg 1993, ISBN 3-8225-0274-X
- Detlef Jens: The “Meteors” of the emperor , in: ders .: The classic yachts , Vol. 3: Racing ships in the course of time , pp. 42–61. Koehlers Verlagsgesellschaft, Hamburg 2007, ISBN 978-3-7822-0958-8 .
- Klaus Kramer: Max Oertz - genius, yacht designer, aeronaut and inventor . Klaus Kramer Verlag 2001. ISBN 3-9805874-3-6 .
- Klaus Kramer: From the gondola parade to the ocean race . Klaus Kramer Verlag, ISBN 3-9805874-4-4 .
- Kristin Lammerting: Meteor - the imperial sailing yachts . DuMont Reiseverlag 1999, ISBN 978-3-7701-4783-0
Web links
- Pictures of the Meteor III.
- Yacht sport archive: Meteor II, 1896 (painting by Hans Bohrdt)
- Gentlemen and Highnesses
- Wilhelm II and the German-American sailing friendship
- The Meteor in the magazine "DIE YACHT" from 1909
Individual evidence
- ↑ Klaus Kramer: Max Oertz - genius, yacht designer, aeronaut and inventor , p. 38 ff.
- ↑ Website: yachtemoceans.com Meteor - The German Royal Yachts , English, accessed on September 20, 2016
- ↑ Klaus Kramer (GoogleBooks)
- ↑ Erich Gröner : The German warships 1815-1945 , Vol. 6: Port operations vehicles (II: excavators, recovery and diving vehicles, icebreakers, tugs, transport vehicles), yachts and Avisos, Landungsverbände (I), Koblenz 1989, ISBN 3-7637- 4805-9 , pp. 204f.