Olimpia (ship)

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Olimpia p1
Ship data
flag PolandPoland Poland
other ship names

ORP Miner (planned from 1939)
Rahmel (planned 1939–1945)

Ship type Torpedo and mine transporter / passenger ship
class Single ship
home port Gdansk
Owner * Polish Navy (planned from 1939)
* Kriegsmarine (1939–1945)
* Żegluga Gdańska (1949–1970)
Shipyard * Stocznia Marynarki Wojennej , Gdynia (1939)
* Stocznia Gdańska , Gdańsk (1949)
Keel laying 1938
Launch between 1939 and 1945
Whereabouts In 1970 Elbing scrapped
Ship dimensions and crew
length
33.90 m ( Lüa )
width 5.70 m
Draft Max. 1.70 m
displacement approx. 200 tons
measurement 155 GRT , 80 NRT
 
crew 9 (as a transporter)
Machine system
machine Deutz four-cylinder four- stroke diesel engine
Machine
performance 		270 hp
Top
speed 		11.0 kn (20 km / h)
propeller 1
Transport capacities
Permitted number of passengers 200

The Olimpia was a passenger ship of the “White Fleet” of Poland , which was laid down in 1938 as a mine and torpedo transporter ORP Miner , but - also as a German spoil Rahmel - was not completed. Converted to an excursion ship, she was in service from 1949 to 1970.

Planning and technical data

For the mine- layer ORP Gryf, which was put into service in February 1938, as well as for other ships or torpedo-carrying units intended as mine-layers, the Polish Navy needed an additional auxiliary ship that could pick up and transport mines and torpedoes . The planning for this began in the spring of 1938, and depending on the version, it was intended to transport mines or torpedoes. After multiple over-planning, which finally provided for an arrangement of the deckhouse at the stern and thus enabled a second cargo hold, torpedo and mine transport could be combined. In addition, the ship should be able to be used as a net-laying device.

After completion, the ship should be 33.90 meters long, 5.70 meters wide and have a draft of 1.70 meters. Approx. 200 tons at 155 GRT or 80 NRT were intended as construction displacement. For driving one was Nohab - diesel engine with 270 hp planned. This acted on a screw , the transporter should reach a speed of 11.0 knots . Nine people were planned for the crew. The ship should be able to hold 52 mines or 10 torpedoes and 10 mines; no further armament was planned.

history

Start of construction for the Polish Navy

For the naval shipyard Stocznia Marynarki Wojennej in Gdynia , the order was one of the few newbuildings before the Second World War, after several minesweepers of the Jaskółka class and the diving ship ORP Nurek . The future name of the ship was already determined in 1938: On December 19, 1938, the War Ministry had decreed the name "Miner"; however, an official baptism did not take place. The keel was probably laid in 1938, some data speak of 1939. The contract between the Ministry and the shipyard provided for delivery to the Navy on April 1, 1940. When the war started on September 1, 1939, the ship was unfinished on the slipway .

Further construction for the Navy

After the German invasion of Poland , the Navy took over the ship lying in the shipyard on September 14, 1939. They intended to complete it as a mine and torpedo transporter for the Marine Equipment Center (MARS) in Gotenhafen - this is how Gdynia was called by the Germans . The transporter was to be named Rahmel after the town of the same name, Rahmel , which until 1920 belonged to the province of West Prussia . It would have been the first ship in the Navy with that name. The already installed Nohab engine was exchanged for a Deutz four-cylinder four- stroke diesel engine , which also had an output of 270 hp. After the hull was launched , the equipment work was stopped. The ship was in this condition at the shipyard quay until 1945.

Passenger ship in Poland's White Fleet

After the war it was decided to complete the ship as a ferry and excursion ship. The unfinished construction was brought from the naval shipyard to the Stocznia Gdynia shipyard and completed by 1949. Like several of the excursion ships of the early post-war period, it was also referred to as a warship conversion as a "warrior" and could now carry 200 passengers. The ship was named Olimpia and began its service on May 1, 1949 with the predecessors of the 1957 shipping company merged to Żegluga Gdańska . For more than 20 years, Olimpia has been organizing excursions in the Bay of Gdańsk and the waters close to the coast. The extent to which it served fixed routes as a ferry between the mainland and the Hela peninsula and / or was used exclusively for excursions remains to be clarified. In 1970 the ship was decommissioned and then scrapped in Elblag .

literature

  • Jan Piwowoński: Flota spod biało-czerwonej [Fleet under white and red] , Nasza Księgarnia Publishing House, Warsaw 1989, ISBN 83-10-08902-3 .
  • Maciej Neumann: Flota II Rzeczypospolitej i jej okręty [The fleet of the Second Republic and its ships] , Wydawnictwo LTW, Łomianki 2013, ISBN 978-83-7565-309-0 .
  • Stanisław M. Piaskowski: Okręty Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej 1920–1946 [The Ships of the Republic of Poland 1920–1946] , Planów album, Warsaw 1996, ISBN 83-900217-2-2 .
  • Erich Gröner , Dieter Jung, Martin Maass: The German warships 1815-1945, Volume 8/2: Outpost boats, auxiliary minesweepers, coastal protection associations (part 2), small combat associations, dinghies , Bernard & Graefe Verlag, Bonn 1993, ISBN 3-7637-4807- 5 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Neumann, p. 251
  2. ↑ a b c "Miner" spóźniona jednostka MW (technika) at army1914-1945.org.pl
  3. ↑ Piwowonski, p 202
  4. ^ Piaskowski, p. 59
  5. ↑ Gröner, p. 400
  6. ↑ cf. About the shipping company: Żegluga Gdańska entry in the Gdańsk encyclopedia "Gedanopedia"
  7. ↑ Piwowonski, p 202