Moltke (ship, 1902)

Moltke

The sister ship Blücher

Ship data flag  German Empire Italy   other ship names Pesaro home port Hamburg Owner Hamburg-American Packetfahrt-Actien-Gesellschaft Shipyard Blohm & Voss , Hamburg Launch August 27, 1901 Commissioning February 22, 1902 Whereabouts 1925 demolished

Ship dimensions and crew length 167.5 m ( Lüa ) width 18.9 m measurement 12,335 GRT   crew 252 men

Machine system machine 2 quadruple expansion steam engines Machine performance 9,500 hp (6,987 kW) Top speed 16 kn (30 km / h) propeller 2

Transport capacities Load capacity 10,500 dw Permitted number of passengers 333 I. Class 169 II. Class 1600 between deck

The passenger steamer Moltke came into service as an improved Barbarossa- class ship for HAPAG .

When the order was awarded, it was planned to use the Reichspostdampferlinie to East Asia, which HAPAG still operated jointly with Norddeutscher Lloyd (NDL). The Moltke was actually used on the North Atlantic because HAPAG gave up its stake in the Reichspostdampferlinie at the end of 1903.

From 1919 the Moltke was in service as Pesaro under the Italian flag.

Use at HAPAG

The Moltke , named after the Prussian Field Marshal Helmuth Karl Bernhard von Moltke , left Hamburg on March 2, 1902 on her maiden voyage via Boulogne-sur-Mer and Southampton to New York . On this route she made 34 tours on behalf of HAPAG.

In 1905 it was used for the first time to carry out a cruise.

In 1906 she carried out a major cruise to the Orient from the USA, which was followed by the first scheduled service of the ship from Genoa to New York on April 3, 1906. On the route from the Mediterranean to the USA, she made 77 round trips (the last started on June 23, 1914 in Genoa). Her partner ship on this route was mostly the Hamburg (10,532 GRT), a Barbarossa class steamer that HAPAG had kept when the East Asia postal service was abandoned . On October 26, 1909, the larger Cincinnati , later also its sister ship Cleveland, was used occasionally for the first time.

Sister ship

• Blucher

War and post-war use

In August 1914 the Moltke was launched in Genoa and confiscated there on May 25, 1915 when Italy entered the war.

From April 23, 1919, the Moltke, renamed Pesaro , was the largest Italian merchant ship from Lloyd Sabaudo for the first time on the route from Genoa via Marseilles to New York. By July 1921 she made twelve tours. Later there were also trips from Genoa via Naples to South America.

The former Moltke in Genoa was demolished as early as 1925 .

literature

• Noel RP Bonsor: North Atlantic Seaway . 1975, ISBN 0-905824-00-8 (English).
• Arnold Kludas : The History of German Passenger Shipping 1850 to 1990 . Ernst Kabel Verlag, 1986, ISBN 3-89350-821-X .
• Claus Rothe: German ocean passenger ships 1896 to 1918 . Steiger Verlag, 1986, ISBN 3-921564-80-8 .