Babitonga (ship)
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The Babitonga of the Hamburg-South American Steamship Company was a motor freighter that was purchased in 1938. It was built in 1922 as Osiris by the Deutsche Werft in Hamburg for the German steamship company Kosmos . In November 1926 it came into the possession of the Hamburg-American Packetfahrt-Actien-Gesellschaft (Hapag) through a merger .
In April 1941, the Babitonga , which had been in Santos , Brazil , since the outbreak of war , ran out to support the German auxiliary cruiser Atlantis . On the way to a renewed meeting with the auxiliary cruiser was provided by the British cruiser London discovered and the hijacking eluded by scuttling on June 21, 1941 the position 2 ° 5 '0 " S , 27 ° 42' 0" W .
History of the ship
The ship was built as Osiris in 1922 for DDG Kosmos under hull number 55 at the Deutsche Werft in Hamburg. The Osiris was launched on June 2, 1922 and entered service on October 14, 1922. She was the company's third ship named after the Egyptian god Osiris . The first Osiris was a steamer delivered by Blohm & Voss in 1889 , which was sold to the German East Africa Line in 1901 and became known under its new name Somali during the First World War as the supplier of the cruiser Königsberg . The second Osiris (5,962 GRT), also supplied by Blohm & Voss in 1902, spent the First World War in Pisagua and was finally delivered to Belgium, but was canceled in 1926.
The sister ship Isis , which was commissioned on August 23, 1922, was the first new building of the DDG Kosmos to be completed after the end of the war. She and the Osiris were the first motor ships of the Hamburg shipping company, which specializes in serving the American west coast. At this point in time, only Hapag had current experience with motor vessels used in overseas service with the four ships of the Havelland class built by Blohm & Voss . The two cargo ships of the DDG Kosmos were also among the few German motor ships that were powered by newly developed diesel engines and that did not have engines developed or built for warships, like the majority of new motor ships up until then.
The new buildings were 114.7 m long and 15.8 m wide. A very noticeable feature of the ships was the bridge and machine structure, which was set far back and only began in the rear quarter of the ships. The ships were propelled by two AEG diesel engines of 1,200 hp each on two screws, which enabled a speed of 12 knots (kn). The ships measured at 4454 GRT had a carrying capacity of 7,150 tdw.
Mission history of the Osiris
When the two motor ships came into service in 1922, the DDG Kosmos had merged with the DADG to form the Austral-Kosmos-Linie. The two new motor ships Isis and Osiris came into service in the cosmos service for the west coast of South America. At the end of 1922, DDG Kosmos had five newbuildings and had bought back six former ships from the Allies. In the well-developing west coast service to South America, ships of the DADG were occasionally used, while the reverse was not done. The reason for the unilateral joint use was the Australian traffic and cargo restrictions against German transport companies and German goods. The two original companies continued to procure their ships separately. Before the transfer to Hapag at the end of 1926, two more buybacks and six other newbuildings, including the larger motor ship Ramses , were in the service of DDG Kosmos. It was not until 1925/26 that the Austral-Kosmos-Linie received motor ships with Duisburg , Magdeburg and Rendsburg .
When the Austral-Kosmos-Linie merged with Hapag in November 1928, the freight lines remained with their nominally continuing shipping companies. The two motor ships remained on their regular route, but were also used on other Hapag lines.
Fall of Isis
The sister ship Isis was lost on November 8, 1936 while traveling to North America in a hurricane off Land's End . In a final SOS call, she reported water ingress through the foremost hatch. None of the ships hurrying to help found the Isis , only a cabin boy of the 40-strong crew was rescued by the Westernland .
The Babitonga
Hapag sold the remaining single ship Osiris on January 31, 1938 to Hamburg-Süd, which renamed the ship in Babitonga after the Baía da Babitonga , a bay in southern Brazil, and used it for South America.
On April 24, 1941, Babitonga , which had been in Santos , Brazil, since the outbreak of war , ran out to support the German auxiliary cruiser Atlantis with 1,120 t of diesel, food and water. After Königsberg , Rio Grande and Dresden, she was the fourth and last merchant ship that was dispatched from the stage in Brazil to supply the German auxiliary cruisers. After supplying the auxiliary cruiser, the Babitonga remained at the disposal of the auxiliary cruiser at sea from mid-May. On the way to a renewed meeting with the Atlantis , she was discovered and shot at by the British cruiser London . The Babitonga (ex Osiris ) of the Kaperung eluded on June 21, 1941, self-absorption in position 2 ° 5 '0 " S , 27 ° 42' 0" W .
literature
- Ambrose Greenway: Cargo Liners: An Illustrated History. reprint Seaforth publishing, 2012, ISBN 978-1-84832-129-8 .
- Arnold Kludas : The ships of Hamburg-Süd 1871 to 1951 . Gerhard Stalling Verlag, Oldenburg 1976, ISBN 3-7979-1875-5 .
- Reinhardt Schmelzkopf: The German Merchant Shipping 1919–1939 . Verlag Gerhard Stalling, Oldenburg, ISBN 3-7979-1847-X .
Web links
- blockade runner Babitonga, accessed on August 21, 2013
- Sinking of the Babitonga (English) accessed on August 21, 2013
- Sinking of the Isis, accessed on August 21, 2013
- Steamship "Osiris" (2) during her internment in Pisagua (Chile) from 1914–1920