Patricia (ship, 1899)
 The sister ship Pretoria
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The Patricia of the Hamburg-American Packetfahrt-Actien-Gesellschaft (HAPAG) put into service in 1899 was the fourth and last ship of the Hamburg shipping company's large P-steamers. Patricia , built by AG Vulcan in Stettin , was deployed after the sister ships Pennsylvania from Harland & Wolff and Pretoria and Graf Waldersee from Blohm & Voss on the line from Hamburg to New York to bring emigrants to the USA.
From 1910 the Patricia was also used for replacement transports for the garrison in the leased area Kiautschou and the East Asian cruiser squadron to Tsingtau in China and was the largest European merchant ship that sailed the route to East Asia until 1914.
When the war started it was launched in Hamburg and delivered to the Allies in 1919. In service with the United States Navy , she transported American troops back home from Europe in 1919. In 1920 it was used as a troop transport for Great Britain before it was canceled in Blyth at the end of 1921 .
In the service of HAPAG
Patricia , launched on February 20, 1899 at the Stettiner Vulcan , was handed over to HAPAG on May 30, 1899 as the last of the four large P-steamers. At that time, the Szczecin shipyard built the largest merchant ships in Germany, most recently the NDL high-speed steamer Kaiser Wilhelm der Große . Hapag had also already delivered the express steamers Augusta Victoria and Fürst Bismarck as well as two “small P steamers” ( Patria and Palatia ) of 7,300 GRT.
The Patricia started her maiden voyage from Hamburg to New York on June 7, 1899 . With its sister ships, it formed the "2nd class" of the passenger ships used by HAPAG on the North Atlantic. On the way out, the ships usually called at Boulogne from time to time in Plymouth or Dover , on the return journey, if necessary, Plymouth and Cherbourg . Despite the luxurious accommodation of over 300 cabin passengers, the focus was on the use of the ships for emigrant and freight traffic. However, the capacities could not be fully utilized. The passenger numbers for 1903 result in eight trips to the USA only about 15,000 passengers. Only on the voyages in April and May was the ship at full capacity. In Boulogne-sur-Mer, 702 passengers boarded the voyages, compared to only 162 in Plymouth, which this year regularly called on the departure.
For the 1910 season, the passenger facilities were rebuilt like on the sister ships, so that only 2nd class cabins were offered. With space for 400 second class passengers and 2,400 tween deck passengers, the new measurement now resulted in 14,472 GRT. On January 2, 1910, the Patricia overran the old lightship Elbe 5 in the Elbe estuary near Nebel , whose crew could be rescued. Despite the accident, the ship was able to take over the replacement transport for the German garrison in Tsingtau on January 8 in Wilhelmshaven . On her first voyage to East Asia, the Patricia , the largest merchant ship to date, arrived in Tsingtau on February 18th, and started her return journey on the 26th. When she arrived back in Wilhelmshaven on April 7, she took over the replacement transport for the German cruiser squadron in East Asia, with which she left again on April 18. On July 15, the ship returned to Bremerhaven with the relieved crews.
In 1912, Patricia again handled the "replacement transport for the Kiautschou Gouvernement" and the river cannon boats " Vaterland , Tsingtau and Otter " for 1162 emigrating men from January 6, 1912 to March 30, and then the transport for the cruiser squadron until July 9 1912 from. In the second half of the year, the Patricia was used again on her regular route to New York as an emigrant ship, on which she made three more trips. In 1913 eight more trips followed, on which the Patricia transported a total of over 16,000 emigrants to the USA. The load on the ship fluctuated between 1134 and 2685 passengers. On November 27, 1913, Patricia left Hamburg for her last trip from Germany to New York.
She had been chartered for the third time for the two replacement transports to China in 1914. The garrison transport began this time on January 12th in Cuxhaven , where the ship arrived again on March 30th. The last replacement transport of almost 1,500 men for the cruiser squadron under the future commander of the gunboat Tiger , Karl von Bodecker, left Wilhelmshaven on April 23 and arrived in Tsingtau on June 3. After a six-day stay, the Patricia ran back to Europe with the detached crew from the squadron and arrived back in Wilhelmshaven on July 20, 1914.
The outbreak of the First World War led to the ship remaining in the Port of Hamburg, where the sister ships Graf Waldersee and Pretoria were also moored. Only the latter was used as a troop transport for the German landing company against the Baltic Islands .
American troop carrier
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The Patricia and her two sister ships that remained in Germany during the war had to be handed over by the Germans in March 1919. The Patricia was the first to be transferred to Cowes on the 22nd and taken over by the Americans, who took her over to the United States Navy on the 28th . Her first trip to repatriate American troops to the United States began on March 30th in Brest, New York.
The Pretoria and Graf Waldersee , who were delivered immediately after Patricia , followed into this service without changing their name. Her sister ship Pennsylvania , which was confiscated in the USA in 1917, had been used to repatriate American troops under the name USS Nansemond since January 1919 .
When the Patricia left New York on her second voyage back to France on June 11, 1919, she was called after a short time by radio to support her sister ship Graf Waldersee .
This had already left Hoboken (New Jersey) in the early evening and had been rammed by the freighter Redondo south of Long Island in thick fog . Severe water ingress in the engine room had made them immobile, while Redondo , who was also leaking , was able to continue her journey to New York when Patricia arrived at the scene of the collision in total darkness on the morning of the 12th. The Patricia took over the few passengers on the Graf Waldersee and all crews that were not needed. She took the unpowered sister ship in tow, which was put aground off Long Beach, Long Island with the support of arriving tugs .
The Patricia then continued her journey to Brest, while the Graf Waldersee was sealed by divers and pumped dry by June 14th, before being towed back to New York for repairs by four tugs.
In total, the Patricia made four repatriation trips and brought 8,865 soldiers back to the States. The four ships took over 45,000 US Army soldiers back to the USA on 16 trips.
On September 13, 1919, the ship was released from the service of the US Navy and on the 18th left to Great Britain, where the Patricia continued to be used as a troop transport through Ellerman ’s Wilson Line.
Final fate
The Patricia returned to Great Britain from her last voyage as a troop transport in late 1921 and was then broken up in Blyth .
literature
- Arnold Kludas : The History of German Passenger Shipping Vol. II Expansion on All Seas 1890 to 1900 , Writings of the German Shipping Museum, Volume 19
- Arnold Kludas: The History of German Passenger Shipping Vol. III Leap growth 1900 to 1914 , Writings of the German Shipping Museum, Volume 20
- Arnold Kludas: The History of German Passenger Shipping Vol. IV Destruction and Rebirth 1914 to 1930 , Writings of the German Maritime Museum, Volume 21
- Reinhard Karl Lochner: Die Kaperfahrten of the small cruiser Emden , 1979, Wilhelm Heyne Verlag, Munich, ISBN 3-453-00951-7
- Claus Rothe: German ocean passenger ships 1896 to 1918 . Steiger Verlag, 1986, ISBN 3-921564-80-8 .
Web links
- Johannes Gerhardt: Albert Ballin , Hamburg University Press, Hamburg 2009, as an online edition
- Patricia pictures
- Patricia
- German replacement transports to China at www.tsingtau.info
- "Memories of an old sea dog" Excerpt: Spring 1914 to spring 1920 by Karl von Bodecker, with a description of the last departure of Patricia to Tsingtau on www.tsingtau.info
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d Rothe, p. 58.
- ↑ Clearly through the timetables of the shipping company
- ↑ Information on the Patricia passengers
- ↑ a b Kludas, II, p. 77.
- ↑ Report on an emigrant who used the Patricia , with several pictures of the ship
- ↑ List of trips and passenger numbers
- ↑ Press release of the shipping company with a picture of Patricia , without showing the background of the trip
- ↑ Lochner, pp. 17, 463
- ↑ a b Kludas, IV, p. 44f.
- ↑ adopted representation of the course of the accident