Otto Flohr (ship)
,_Modell_im_Wrack-_und_Fischreimuseum_Cuxhaven.jpg) Model of the Otto Flohr in the wreck and fishing museum in Cuxhaven
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
.svg){kind=small}
The Otto Flohr was a German side trawler built in 1939 for the fishing shipping company "Nordsee" Deutsche Hochseefischerei AG in Wesermünde . During the Second World War, the ship served in the Navy as an auxiliary minesweeper M 1801 and M 4450 . In 1945 it went to France as war booty and was fishing again - until 1951 as Otarie , then in Germany first as Saarland and from 1954 as Prussia , which was scrapped in 1962. The ship was named after the Bremen businessman and politician Otto Flohr .
Construction and technical data
The increasing expansion of the fishing areas of the German fishery in the 1930s, forced by the self-sufficiency policy of the National Socialists , also made new demands on shipbuilding: longer sea endurance with increased range, more storage space and higher speed required ever larger ships. At the same time, improvements in seaworthiness had to flow into the constructions. With these characteristics, the "Nordsee" Deutsche Hochseefischerei AG ordered the Otto Flohr and three sister ships from Deschimag , Seebeck plant in Wesermünde . Under the hull number 629 which occurred launch of Otto Flohr in June 1939 the delivery a month later.
The ship was measured at 638 GRT . It was 57.01 meters long, 8.58 meters wide and had a draft of 4.43 meters . A triple expansion engine developed 750 hp and brought the ship to 12.5 knots . The range was 8400 nautical miles at 12 knots and a consumption of 350 tons of coal. The storage capacity was 5000 "fish baskets" ( hundredweight ).
history
Fishing trips as Otto Flohr in 1939
In July and August 1939 Otto Flohr ( fishing license number PC 317) undertook two fishing trips to Bear Island . After leaving for the third voyage, the order for all German ships to return to their home ports reached them on August 25. As part of the mobilization , she was captured and taken over by the Navy on September 5th .
Auxiliary minesweeper in the German Navy 1939–1945
The Otto Flohr was assigned to the 18th minesweeping flotilla with seven other fish steamers and was given the identification M 1801 as a guide boat . The remodeling of the Bremer Vulkan began on September 6th, including the assembly of a 75 mm gun and a heavy machine gun . In the course of the war, the armament was further strengthened. The commissioning took place on September 21, 1939.
Initially, the Otto Flohr was used with the 18th minesweeping flotilla in security service in the North Sea, after the occupation of Norway then from the end of June 1940 on the Norwegian coast. She moved to Boulogne-sur-Mer in France for the Seelöwe company , the planned invasion of Great Britain, returned to the North Sea after the landing was canceled and also served as escort between Skagerrak and Belgium. For Operation Barbarossa , the attack on the Soviet Union, she moved to the Baltic Sea, where she remained until January 1942. Before the canal breakthrough by the battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau and the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen , she was involved in the removal of German mine barriers in the North Sea from February 7, 1942 . There were two explosions on February 10, which severely damaged them. The repairs at the Deschimag, Seebeck works in Wesermünde, lasted until August 1942. They drove again to Reval in the Baltic Sea before the flotilla was to be relocated to the canal and Atlantic coast.
The 18th minesweeping flotilla was disbanded in November 1942, and its teams formed the newly established 28th minesweeping flotilla. The boats were transferred to the 44th minesweeping flotilla on January 15, 1943 and the Otto Flohr was now given the identification M 4450 . The march to the new operational area of the Biscay Coast began on February 1, 1943. She then performed minesweeping and escorting there, the latter mainly for incoming and outgoing submarines. After the Allies landed in Normandy, Otto Flohr was trapped in La Rochelle ; it was handed over to France with the surrender on May 8, 1945.
French Otarie 1946–1951
The French government had the ship rebuilt as a fish steamer and chartered it out in 1946 as Otarie (fishing license number F 1031) to the shipping company Armateurs de la Grande Peche de Fécamp et du Havre in Fécamp , which used it again in fishing.
As Saarland and Prussia in Germany 1951–1962
In 1951 the Bremerhaven shipping company Siebert & Co. acquired the ship from the French government and renamed it Saarland (fishing license number BX 608). The first fishing trip started on December 18, 1952 and led to the Norwegian coast.
Due to financial difficulties of the shipping company in 1953, the Cuxhavener Hochseefischerei GmbH chartered the ship, which continued to sail under the name Saarland . A year later it acquired the Saarland and renamed it Prussia ; the fishing license plate remained the same. Only now did the modifications from the time of the navy have been dismantled and the ship was given its original appearance. Further trips mainly led to Iceland and Greenland in the North Atlantic. She finished her last fishing trip on February 18, 1962, and on April 30, she started the last trip to Hamburg for scrapping.
literature
- Hans-Jürgen Heise, Rüdiger Hülper, Dieter Kokot: The fish steamer Otto Flohr , in: Men from Morgenstern, Heimatbund an Elbe and Weser estuary, yearbook 87, 2008, Bremerhaven 2009, ISBN 978-3-931771-87-4 , p. 257-272.
- Dieter Kokot: Cuxhavener Hochseefischerei GmbH (1949–1972) formerly Danziger Heringsfischerei GmbH (1938–1949) , in: Nik Schumann: Cuxhaven, the big deep sea fishery and the sea fish market , Verlag August Rauschenplat, Cuxhaven 2008, ISBN 3-935519-29-X , Pp. 171-183.
- Erich Gröner , Dieter Jung, Martin Maass: The German warships 1815-1945, Vol. 8/1: river vehicles, Ujäger, outpost boats, auxiliary minesweepers, coastal protection associations (part 1) , Bernard & Graefe Verlag, Bonn 1993, ISBN 3-7637-4807 -5 .
- Heinrich wing, The fishing port in Bremerhaven and its further development , in: Yearbook of the port construction company, 38th volume 1981, ed. v. by Rudolf Schwab, Wolfgang Becker, pp. 81–98, Springer Verlag Berlin / Heidelberg 1982, ISBN 978-3-662-11014-0 .
Web links
- http://www.trawlerphotos.co.uk/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=117664 , accessed July 26, 2016
- http://www.wlb-stuttgart.de/seekrieg/km/mboote/m11-19.htm , accessed on July 26, 2016
- http://www.wlb-stuttgart.de/seekrieg/km/mboote/m31-46.htm , accessed on July 26, 2016
- http://www.forum-marinearchiv.de/smf/index.php?topic=20832.0 (additional information without references), accessed on July 26, 2016
Individual evidence
- ↑ on the development of the size of fishing vessels in Germany: Flügel, p. 90; for improved seaworthiness is on vivid display in the wreck and Fishing Cuxhaven to point
- ↑ all information - unless otherwise or additionally documented - from: Heise, Hülper, Kokot
- ↑ Flügel, p. 90, Gröner, p. 205
- ↑ http://www.wlb-stuttgart.de/seekrieg/km/mboote/m11-19.htm
- ↑ cf. http://www.wlb-stuttgart.de/seekrieg/43-04.htm
- ↑ cf. also Kokot, p. 176f.