Niobe (ship, 1913)

Niobe

Ship data flag  Denmark Norway German Empire     other ship names Morten Jensen (1913) Tyholm (1916) Aldebaran (1917) Swallow (1922) Ship type Auxiliary sailors home port Kiel Owner Imperial Navy Shipyard Frederikshavn Værft og Flydedok, Frederikshavn, Denmark Launch January 31, 1913 Whereabouts Sunk on July 26, 1932

Ship dimensions and crew length 53.76 m, after renovation 46.10 m ( Lüa ) width 9.17 m Draft Max. 3.00 m, after renovation 5.60 m displacement 675  t measurement 373 GRT   crew 13, after reconstruction 34 trunk, 65–80 cadets

Rigging and rigging Rigging Four-masted gaff schooner, after conversion Jackass-Bark Number of masts 4, after modification 3 Number of sails 12, after renovation 16 Sail area 943 + 40 m², after renovation 953 m²

Machine system machine 1 Bolinder diesel Machine performance 160 hp, after conversion 240 Top speed 7 kn (13 km / h) propeller 1

The sailing training ship Niobe was a training ship of the Imperial Navy . In 1932 it sank in the Baltic Sea off the island of Fehmarn in an unpredictable thunderstorm gust, with 69 men of the crew drowning.

history

The four-masted gaff schooner launched in 1913 at the Danish shipyard "Frederikshavn's Værft og Flydedok" ( Frederikshavner shipyard and floating dock) under hull number 143 was originally called Morten Jensen and was initially in service with the "Rederiet ( shipping company ) FL Knakkegaard" in Nykøbing . In 1916 the ship was sold to Norway and renamed Tyholm . During transport of mine timber after England was saver in the First World War on November 21, 1916 by the German submarine UB 41 applied and then prize court retracted. Subsequently the ship was called Aldebaran , Niobe (after the Greek legendary figure Niobe ) and Schwalbe .

Initially, the ship was used as the Aldebaran auxiliary lightship . 1921 went to the Navy and was in Niobe renamed. The first in command from March 1921 to September 1921 was Lieutenant Captain Felix Graf von Luckner . After a stopover as a charter ship called Schwalbe of a film company , it was taken over again by the German Reichsmarine in 1922 and converted into a three-masted Jackass barque by December 19, 1923 . Baptized again under the name Niobe , the ship was then used as a sailing training ship. An auxiliary engine also made it possible to visit ports with unfavorable fairway conditions. In addition to the captain, the crew included four training officers and officers on watch, a naval staff doctor, a naval chief paymaster and 25 non-commissioned officers and older crews. Every year around 350 participants took part in the two and a half to three and a half month long non - commissioned officer and officer candidate courses on the ship. The travels of the Niobe usually led to the North and Baltic Seas, later also to Spain and Scandinavian ports.

The first commander of the converted Niobe was the lieutenant captain, then corvette captain Ernst Krafft (1885–1954), who had served as a submarine commander in World War I, from March 1922 to May 1924. Erwin Waßner (April 1925 to May 1924) was one of the following commanders January 1927) and his successor Raul Mewis (until June 1929).

Downfall

On July 26, 1932, the Niobe capsized in the Fehmarnbelt at position 54 ° 35 '42 "  N , 11 ° 11' 12"  E, coordinates: 54 ° 35 '42 "  N , 11 ° 11' 12"  E in an unpredictable thunderstorm gust (see white gust ) and sank in a few minutes. 69 people were killed, 40 were rescued by a lightship and the steamship Therese Ruß . The commandant Kapitänleutnant Heinrich Ruhfus was among those rescued . He was later acquitted of negligence on November 10, 1932 after a court martial. One of the reasons for the rapid sinking was the fact that all hatches and portholes were open at this time due to the good weather.

On August 21, 1932, the ship was lifted, towed to Kiel and examined in detail. 50 dead were recovered, buried in Kiel in the north cemetery or taken to their hometowns. 19 sailors remained at sea. The wreck was sunk with a torpedo on September 18, 1933 northeast of the Stolpe Bank by the torpedo boat Jaguar . Most of the fleet was present.

Monuments

 Map with all the coordinates of the Monuments section : OSM

Memorial in Kiel

Niobe monument near Gammendorf on Fehmarn

• The memorial and burial site for the victims of the sinking of the Niobe is located in the entrance area of ​​the Kiel North Cemetery .
• On the north coast ( Gammendorfer Strand) of the island of Fehmarn , within sight of the site of the accident, there is the Niobe monument , which commemorates the sinking of the Niobe . Every year a wreath is laid there on the day of destruction.
• In the main building of the University of Greifswald , a commemorative plaque was put up by Erich Rottig for six of her medical students who drowned as naval medical officer candidates on the Niobe.

The bow and stern of a concrete replica of the Niobe have been preserved at the Kriebstein Dam in Saxony and are now used as a boat shed. The replica was part of the SA lake sports practice camp Lauenhain-Zschopau dam .

Further technical data

• Height of the main mast: 34.8 m
• Height of mast top keel: 30 m; as Niobe : 34.8 m

Known crew members

• Christoph Aschmoneit (1901–1984) was a German shipbuilding engineer . Before and after the Second World War , he was one of the leading German submarine builders .
• Carl-Heinz Birnbacher (1910–1991) was Deputy Commander of the Fleet from 1968 to 1970 as Rear Admiral of the German Navy
• Robert Gysae (1911–1989), was from 1967 to 1970 as Flotilla Admiral in command of the North Sea Marine Division
• Gert Jeschonnek (1912–1999) was Vice Admiral from 1967 to 1971, the third inspector of the Navy
• Werner Georg Kimmerling (1913–1995), was from 1968 to 1971 as flotilla admiral stage manager ship technology in the naval office
• Otto Kretschmer (1912–1998), was from 1965 to 1970 as Flotilla Admiral Chief of Staff at the NATO Commander of the Naval Forces Baltic Sea Accesses
• Günter Kuhnke (1912–1990) was Head of the Naval Office from 1966 to 1972 as Rear Admiral
• Bernhard Rogge (1899–1982), was from 1957 to 1962 as Rear Admiral in command of Defense Area I.
• Max Eckart Wolff (1902-1988), was from 1957 to 1963 as commander Rear Admiral in command of the naval base
• Karl-Adolf Zenker (1907-1998) was, from 1961 to 1967 as the second Vice Admiral Inspector of the Navy

literature

• Gerhard Koop: The German sailing school ships. Bernard & Graefe Verlag, Bonn 1998
• Fritz Otto Busch: Niobe. A German fate. Breitkopf & Härtel, Leipzig 1932
• Walter Bölk, Erich Landschof: Ships in need. Strandings and marine casualties around Fehmarn 1857–1987. Verlag Heinrich Möller Sons, Rendsburg 1988, ISBN 3-87550-090-3
• Karl H. Peter : The sinking of Niobe. What happened in the Fehmarnbelt? Koehlers Verlagsgesellschaft, Herford 1976

Movies

• 1922 Niobe, the first sailing training ship of the new navy (documentary film) - Vera-Filmwerke
• 1932 The school ship Niobe (documentary) - Vera-Filmwerke

Web links

Commons : Niobe  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Michael Tettinger: Sail training ship Niobe. October 16, 2001, accessed September 5, 2016 . 

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Direction Ley: End of a business trip . In: Lübecker Nachrichten . 23/24. July 2017, p. 30.
2. ^ ZEIT-online: The sinking of Niobe , July 24, 1952 , accessed on September 11, 2015
3. ↑ knerger.de: Memorials for the victims of the Niobe disaster
4. ↑ Niobe as a boat shed ( Memento of the original from August 24, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
5. ↑ Pictures of the Niobe as a concrete replica