Phenicia (ship, 1894)
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The Phenicia was a passenger ship of Hapag and belonged to the first series of the so-called P-steamer. She was the largest ship built by the Blohm & Voss shipyard up to that point and with hull number 103 it was only the third ship that the Hamburg shipyard built on behalf of Hamburg's largest shipping company.
The Phenicia was built primarily for the transport of emigrants to the United States . In 1905 it was sold to Russia during the Russo-Japanese War . Under the new name of Kronstadt , it was last part of the so-called Wrangel Squadron , which was interned in Bizerta at the end of 1920 . In 1921 the ship was bought by the French Navy , which used the former Phenicia as a workshop ship under the name Vulcain until it was demolished in 1937.
Building history
In 1893, the Harland & Wolff shipyard in Belfast offered Hapag the opportunity to develop new, needs-based ship types. Together, they developed the P-Class combi-ships, which promised optimum economy. On the way out they should be able to transport a large number of emigrants and on the return journey they should be able to pick up a large number of goods in addition to passengers. The original plan provided for the transport of live animals and frozen meat. At the same time it was agreed that Harland & Wolff should provide plans for replicating the ships in Germany. Orders for two ships were placed with the development shipyard, which were delivered in 1894 as Prussia and Persia . According to modified plans, three more ships were to be built in Germany, of which the Stettiner Vulcan delivered the Patria and the Palatia . The up-and-coming shipyard Blohm & Voss received the order for the fourth ship in the series, which subsequently built other ships according to the plans of the Belfast shipyard. Until then, Blohm & Voss had only built the 2,052 GRT Croatia in 1889 and the 2,884 GRT Virginia in 1891 on behalf of Hapag.
Use of Phenicia at Hapag
Hapag took over the Phenicia on December 29, 1894 as the fourth ship of the class. On January 15, 1895, she began her maiden voyage from Hamburg to New York. The Phenicia remained in service on this route until 1900 and usually made eight round trips a year. From 1899 onwards, Boulogne-sur-Mer was also called on as a rule . Your passenger capacity was hardly used. There were changes in the freight sector, as the importation of live animals and frozen meat into the German Reich was prevented by the German meat inspection laws . In addition, with the large P-steamers of the Pennsylvania type and the steamers of the A-class and the larger B-class steamers like the Bulgaria , Hapag has many modern ships on the North Atlantic route in addition to the older express steamers posed. Because of this large stock, the shipping company therefore sold two of the small P-steamers to Great Britain in 1898; in addition, the Patria was lost in November 1899 in a major fire in the canal .
In June 1900 the Phenicia witnessed a major fire on the quayside of the NDL in Hoboken (New Jersey) , to which the express steamer Saale and the steamers Bremen and Main fell victim. Lifeboats of Phenicia succeeded in many of the cracked overboard passengers and crew of the burning floating in the Hudson Saale save.
On August 4, 1900, the Phenicia left Wilhelmshaven as a troop transport for China, when the German Reich sent a large contingent to put down the Boxer Rebellion in cooperation with other states in China .
In 1901 the ship returned to the North Atlantic route. On April 11, 1902, the Phenicia was used for the first time on the route from Genoa via Naples to New York, which she then served together with her sister ship Palatia and the Scotia (1890, 2558 GRT, ex Grimm Hansa Line). The success of the line prompted Hapag to use the more modern Prince Oskar and Prince Adalbert , who were primarily built for passenger service, on the line, and the Phenicia returned to its main line after one last voyage on May 31, 1903.
When the Norwegian city of Ålesund burned down in January 1904 and 800 wooden houses fell victim to the fire, the German Emperor Wilhelm II called for quick help to take care of the homeless residents. After the armored cruiser Prinz Heinrich and other naval units arrived the following day , merchant ships such as the Phenicia with relief supplies also arrived and were used on site at times as barges .
On October 29, 1904, the Phenicia left the port of Hamburg for the last time on a voyage via Dover to New York. After returning from this tour, the ship, which has meanwhile been sold to Russia, went to the shipyard to be converted.
Fate of the sister ships
| Launched in service |
Surname | tonnage | shipyard | fate |
| November 15, 1893 May 31, 1894 |
Prussia | 5,795 GRT | Harland & Wolff building no. 281 |
June 28, 1894 Maiden voyage to New York, sold to Dominion Line in 1898 and renamed Dominion , demolished in 1922 |
| May 8, 1894 June 21, 1894 |
Persia | 5,796 GRT | Harland & Wolff building no. 282 |
July 15, 1894 Maiden voyage to New York, 1898 sold to the Atlantic Transport Line , which had almost identical ships in the Massachusetts class, and renamed Minnewaska , in 1898 sold to the United States Army after three voyages and renamed Thomas , 1928 demolished |
| August 25, 1894 November 8, 1894 |
Patria | 6,664 GRT | Vulcan Stettin building no. 216 |
28 November 1894 burned maiden voyage to New York, November 15, 1899 at the channel 17 before Deal dropped |
| December 8, 1894 April 17, 1895 |
Palatia | 6,687 GRT | Vulcan Stettin building no. 217 |
April 28, 1895 maiden voyage to New York, on June 5, 1895 she was the first large ship to test the Kaiser Wilhelm Canal, on August 31, 1900 as a troop transport from Bremerhaven to East Asia, return on August 9, 1901, on August 10, 1900. May 1902 first voyage from Genoa to New York, in 1904 was the first German ship to be given an elevator for a troop and horse transport to Swakopmund , in order to move horses that were in stables in the hold on deck every day, where they were on special during the sea voyage Wooden railways were taken for a walk, sold to Russia in 1905 as an auxiliary cruiser and mine training ship Nikolaiev , renamed Norodovoletz in 1917 , capsized in Petrograd on June 6, 1920 , scrapped |
Russian workshop ship Kronstadt
In autumn 1904 the Phenicia was sold to the Russian government and then converted into a workshop ship called Kronstadt (Russian Кронштадт ) at the Blohm & Voss shipyard . Shortly after the handover to the Imperial Russian Navy on May 1, 1905, it was defeated at Tsushima . The Kronstadt was the Russian Black Sea Fleet allocated.
When German troops occupied Sevastopol in the turmoil of the Russian civil war on May 1, 1918 , and a Turkish squadron arrived there the following day, they checked what of the Russian ships that were still there could still be used. The Kronstadt was taken into service by the German Navy as a stationary workshop ship under the name Fleiss . In April 1919 the ship was taken over by the White Guards and was given its Russian name Kronstadt again . With the so-called Wrangel Squadron , Kronstadt left the Crimea in November 1920 and ran through the Black Sea to Constantinople and then further into the Mediterranean . At the end of 1920 the Russian squadron was interned at the French naval base in Bizerta (Tunisia).
Whereabouts
The 26-year-old ship, interned in Bizerta, was bought by the French Navy in 1921 and used as a workshop and training ship under the name Vulcain . In 1937 the now 43-year-old ship was scrapped.
literature
- Erich Gröner : The German warships 1815-1945. Volume 4: Auxiliary Ships I: Workshop Ships , Tenders and Support Ships , Tankers and Suppliers , Bernard & Graefe, Bonn, 1986, ISBN 3-7637-4803-2 .
- Arnold Kludas : The History of German Passenger Shipping. Vol. I: The pioneering years from 1850 to 1890. Writings of the German Maritime Museum, Volume 18
- Arnold Kludas: The History of German Passenger Shipping. Vol. II: Expansion on all seas 1890 to 1900. Writings of the German Maritime Museum, Volume 19
- Arnold Kludas: The History of German Passenger Shipping. Vol. III: Rapid growth 1900 to 1914. Writings of the German Maritime Museum, Volume 20
- Hans Georg Prager: Blohm & Voss. Koehler Verlagsgesellschaft, Herford 1977, ISBN 3-78220-127-2 .
- Eberhard Urban: Steamships. Komet Verlag, Cologne, ISBN 978-3-89836-812-4
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g Kludas, Volume II, p. 76.
- ↑ Prager, p. 233.
- ↑ Kludas, Vol. II, p. 73.
- ↑ Prager, p. 231ff.
- ^ Kludas, Volume I, p. 146.
- ^ Kludas, Volume II, p. 110.
- ^ Kludas, Volume III, p. 137.
- ↑ Jonathan Kinghorn: The Atlantic Transport Line, 1881-1931: A History with Details on All Ships , p. 213.
- ↑ The life of Persia . ( Memento of the original from February 24, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Palatia as a troop transport to China with the East Asian Infantry Regiment No. 5 without the 9th Company, the field hospital No. 5 as well as half a light field howitzer column and nine horses
- ↑ Prager, p. 68.
