Normannia (ship, 1890)
 as Patriota with the Spanish squadron in Port Said in 1898
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The Normannia , put into service in 1890, was the third three-chimney express steamer operated by the Hamburg-American Packetfahrt-Actien-Gesellschaft (HAPAG). In the previous year, the slightly smaller sister ships Augusta Victoria and Columbia had already entered the service of the shipping company. The Normannia , built near Fairfield , remained in HAPAG's North Atlantic service from 1890 to 1898. It was followed by another express steamer, the very similar Fürst Bismarck , in the service of society in 1891.
The Normannia was sold to Spain in 1898, where it was converted to the auxiliary cruiser Patriota . After the American-Spanish War , it was sold to France. The ship, renamed L'Aquitaine , was canceled in 1906.
In the service of HAPAG
Launched at Fairfield in Glasgow on February 9, 1890 , Normannia was handed over to HAPAG on May 3, 1890 and began its maiden voyage to New York on May 25 . She was HAPAG's third twin-screw high-speed steamer on the North Atlantic and exceeded the two previous ships in size and was able to take about 70 cabin and 120 tween deck passengers on board.
The Normannia proved to be a reliable and fast ship. In the years 1893/1894 she was the fastest ship on the London - New York route with an average mail delivery time of 169.7 hours. The fastest British steamer took an average of five hours longer and the German competition of Norddeutscher Lloyd (NDL) and the French competitors took considerably longer. However, there was not enough public interest in crossing the North Atlantic in winter and the Hapag express steamers had to be used on other routes. On January 4, 1895, the Normannia was first deployed on the Mediterranean route from Genoa to New York, which had been operated jointly with the NDL since 1894 . Cruises in the Mediterranean were also carried out by ship. These “pleasure trips” to the Mediterranean, north to Spitsbergen or the West Indies have become an integral part of HAPAG's offer.
In October 1895, the Normannia was the first and only express steamer to be equipped to an auxiliary cruiser of the Imperial Navy and used for maneuvers with the fleet before the First World War . Armed with eight 15 cm guns, four 12 cm cannons and other lighter weapons, she was put into service on October 21 under Corvette Captain Oskar Truppel to make up for the lack of reconnaissance ships in a maneuver. In addition to the many cannons, the express steamer carried two 22-ton torpedo boats , each armed with four torpedoes. Such light torpedo boats on board were often found on larger warships of many nations at the time. After 15 days the Normannia left the fleet again. The experiment was not repeated.
On November 6, 1897, the Normannia started in Hamburg on its last voyage via Southampton to New York. On December 8, 1897, the last departure from Genoa via Naples to New York took place. From the subsequent winter overhaul, she did not return to HAPAG's regular service.
Spanish auxiliary cruiser Patriota
On April 8, 1898, HAPAG sold the Columbia and the Normannia to Spain, where the two express steamers were converted into auxiliary cruisers because of the Spanish-American War . The Normannia came into service with the Spanish Navy on April 20 as the auxiliary cruiser Patriota , armed with four 12 cm / L40 Skoda rapid fire guns and ten 47mm / L44 cannons, and became the relief squadron for the Philippines (ship of the line Pelayo , cruiser Emperador Carlos V , the auxiliary cruisers Patriota and Rapido , three destroyers and two transporters). With this squadron she marched on June 16, 1898 from Cádiz to Port Said (July 5), where coal was refused to the squadron and so it was hardly possible to continue. In the meantime the Americans had also won the naval battle of Santiago de Cuba , which made the Spaniards fearful of activities towards Europe. The squadron was recalled, marched back on July 11, 1898, and was disbanded on July 25.
At the end of the war, the auxiliary cruiser was sent to Cuba to repatriate Spanish troops and ships. On January 1, 1899, the return journey began with troops and ships to be returned. These were all in poor condition and some had to be towed. So the convoy first went to Fort de France . Some of the ships were sold. Only after two months and the arrival of other ships did the march back across the Atlantic begin, during which the two former HAPAG express steamers and auxiliary cruisers Patriota and Rapido often had to take on towing tasks. It was not until April 1899 that the Patriota was back in Cádiz.
In the service of the Compagnie Générale Transatlantique
The French government took the Patriota in payment for the supply of the Spanish ships that had fled to Fort-de-France .
Renamed in L´Aquitaine , the former Normannia came into service with the Compagnie Générale Transatlantique (CGT) on December 9, 1899 on the route from Le Havre to New York, where it served the La Bourgogne (1886, 7089 GRT, 17.5 kn) which had sunk in July after a collision. The L'Aquitaine was the company's first three-chimney ship. Her 33rd and last voyage on the route between Le Havre and New York began on September 9, 1905. The CGT decided to decommission the ship, as the state no longer paid subsidies for the ship built abroad. In April 1906 the L'Aquitaine was scrapped in Bo'ness .
literature
- Arnold Kludas : The History of German Passenger Shipping, Volume I, The Pioneering Years from 1850 to 1890 , Writings of the German Shipping Museum, Volume 18
- Albert Nofi: The Spanish-American War, 1898 . Conshohocken, Pennsylvania: Combined Books, Inc., 1996. ISBN 0938289578 .
Web links
- Report on ship with travel data and a. (English)
- Johannes Gerhardt: Albert Ballin , Hamburg University Press, Hamburg 2009, as an online edition
- Auxiliary cruiser Patriota
- Patriota (Auxiliary Cruiser, 1898)
- L'AQUITAINE, Compagnie Générale Transatlantique, 1899-1906