Planet (ship, 1905)

planet

SMS Planet

Ship data Ship type Survey ship class Planet class Shipyard AG Weser Launch 2nd August 1905 Commissioning November 16, 1905 Whereabouts Sunk in the western Pacific on October 7, 1914. Lifted in October 1916 and broken up in Japan.

Ship dimensions and crew length 49 m ( Lüa ) width 9.8 m Draft Max. 3.3 m displacement 826 t   crew 91

Machine system machine 2 × single cylinder triple expansion machine Machine performance 2 × 175 HP / 129 kW Top speed 9.5 kn (18 km / h) propeller two shafts with fixed pitch propellers

Armament 3 × 3.7 cm revolver cannons , hand weapons

The Planet was a survey ship of the Imperial Navy . Her sister ship was SMS Möwe .

technology

The first planet was built by AG Weser in Bremen. The launch took place on August 2, 1905; Commissioning on November 16, 1905. The fuselage was built in transverse frame steel construction. The drive consisted of two coal-fired three-cylinder expansion steam engines with a total of 350 hp. Through them the planet reached a speed of up to 9.5 knots .

commitment

The ship was mainly used in the Bismarck Archipelago in the western Pacific. At the end of January 1906, Planet left Germany with the task of examining the morphology of the seabed as well as the physical-chemical properties and the biological conditions of the sea areas traveled. The trip ran along the coasts of West and East Africa via the Maldives over the Indian Ocean. Water depths as well as the gas and salt content of the deep sea were measured and meteorological investigations were carried out. A total of over 200 deep-sea plumbing, 40 kite and more than 20 balloon ascents took place. The Planet discovered deep places in the Philippines and Sunda Trenches . In October 1906 the ship reached the Bismarck Archipelago. Service in the West Pacific was interrupted by maintenance in Brisbane, Manila, Singapore, Sydney and Tsingtau . In addition, the planet was also used by the colonial administration of German New Guinea for other purposes, such as the uprising of the Sokehs .

The crew of the ship consisted of six officers, four deck officers and 81 non-commissioned officers, sailors, stokers and craftsmen. The research was carried out by the officers of the regular crew themselves, who had received training for this in Germany. From May 30, 1913 until his involuntary stay on the voyage home from Simpsonhafen on June 29, 1914 in Tsingtau, Corvette Captain Harry Mündel was in command of the ship. He was the first officer on the survey ship from 1905 to 1906 .

Whereabouts

After the start of the First World War , the ship was sunk on October 7, 1914 by its own crew off the island of Yap . Using the ship's equipment, an auxiliary radio station was built on the island of Yap, which was destroyed by the Germans themselves when Japanese warships appeared. In October 1916 the wreck was lifted through Japan and scrapped in Osaka .

literature

• Research trip SMS Planet 1906/07 , Verlag Karl Siegismund, Berlin 1909,

Volume 1: Travel Description

Volume 2: Aerology

Volume 3: Oceanography

Volume 4: Biology

Volume 5: Anthropology and Ethnography

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h} Hans Karr: Typenkompass - German research ships since 1905. Pietsch, Stuttgart 2015, ISBN 978-3-613-50811-8 , p. 82 f.
2. ↑ GND 4959351-1 in the German National Library
3. ↑ Christine Reinke-Kunze: On the trail of the seas: history and tasks of the German research vessels . Koehler, Herford 1986, ISBN 3-7822-0388-7 .
4. ↑ Reinhard Klein-Arendt: “Kamina ruft Nauen!” The radio stations in the German colonies 1904–1918 . 3rd edition, Wilhelm Herbst Verlag, Cologne 1999, p. 262, ISBN 3-923-925-58-1 .