Pobeda (ship, 1928)
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The Pobeda ( Russian Победа ) was a cruise ship that was used until 1977 and last sailed under the Soviet flag. It was used as Magdalena from December 1928 by the Hamburg-American Packetfahrt-Actien-Gesellschaft (Hapag) for trips to Central America and the West Indies . After an accident and renovation in 1934, it was renamed Iberia . In 1946 the ship was delivered to the Soviet Union as a reparation .
On September 1, 1948, the Chinese General Feng Yuxiang , who was on his way from the USA via the Soviet Union to China, was killed in a fire on board the Pobeda shortly before Odessa .
history
The Magdalena was part of a program to procure new passenger ships for Hapag's branch lines. In 1927 the shipping company ordered five motor ships, which were launched in 1928 and 1929 and of three types. As the largest type, two ships ( St. Louis , Milwaukee , 16,700 GRT, 16.5 kn, 700 passengers) were procured to supplement the North Atlantic, a ship for the South American service ( General Osorio , 11,590 GRT, 15.5 kn, 980 passengers ) and two ships for the Central America service ( Orinoco , Magdalena , 9,700 GRT, 15 kn, 340 passengers). The Milwaukee was the only one of these ships to be built in Hamburg by Blohm & Voss , and the Bremer Vulkan delivered three ships .
The Magdalena ran as a third of the new motor vessels on August 23, 1928 on the Schichau shipyard in Gdansk from the stack . The maiden voyage for Hapag took place on December 14, 1928 from Hamburg to Puerto Limón . She was used on the route to the West Indies and Central America together with her sister ship, the Orinoco , built near the Bremen volcano , which began its first voyage on the route on April 21 of that year.
With two marine diesel engines with a total output of 6,800 hp, which acted on two screws, the ship measured with 9,779 GRT and 5,499 NRT reached a speed of 15 kn . The range was 14,000 nm . The ship had space for 137 1st class passengers, 102 2nd (tourist) class and 106 3rd class passengers. All cabins on the ship now had running water and there were 18 luxury cabins on board, which even had their own bathroom and toilet.
On February 8, 1934, the Magdalena ran aground on the way from Puerto Cabello to Willemstad off Curaçao . The passengers were taken over by the Dutch gunboat Johan Maurits van Nassau , which had been stationed in Willemstad since 1933 .
It was only on May 28, 1934 managed to salvage the Magdalena , by the salvage tug Sea Hawk of Hamburg was towed. The ship was repaired and converted at Blohm & Voss. It received a new bow section, which lengthened it by 10 meters, and after the renovation, the passenger facilities (now 168 seats in 1st class, 80 in tourist class and 110 in 3rd class) were measured at 9,829 GRT and only had one chimney . Her appearance was now in line with the larger motor ships Cordillera and Caribia (12,000 GRT, 17 kn, 400 passengers) that had been used with her on the West India-Central America route since 1933 .
Service as Iberia
On February 2, 1935, the ship was put back into service by Hapag, this time under the name Iberia . Together with her sister ship Orinoco (which had been serving this route since January 1933) she was now used in the so-called express service via Cuba to Mexico , which was operated monthly. The former route of the two ships to the West Indies, to the North American coast and to Central America was taken over by the larger Cordillera and Caribia in 1933 .
The German Navy used the Iberia during the Second World War from the summer of 1940 as a barracks ship and then as a barracks ship for the submarine school in Gdansk. After the end of the war it was briefly accommodated in Kiel for members of the Royal Navy before it was handed over to the Soviet Union as reparation on February 18, 1946.
In Soviet service
The new home port of the ship, renamed Pobeda , was Odessa . First she was used in the liner service between the Crimea and the Black Sea ports in the Caucasus , later also for trips to North America . During a trip from New York via Alexandria and Batumi to Odessa on September 1, 1948, south of the Crimea, a fire broke out on board, in which 42 people were killed. Contact with the ship was partially lost and when the rescue teams arrived, the fire was under control and the ship was able to continue on its own. A sailor, a barmaid and 40 passengers died, including 19 women and 15 children. Among the dead was the most prominent passenger, the Chinese general Feng Yuxiang , with one of his daughters. Feng Yuxiang, known as the “Christian General”, was a former Chinese warlord who had fought against the Japanese at times with Chiang Kai-shek and most recently in the USA criticized the support of the American government under Harry S. Truman for Chiang.
From October 20, 1950, the Pobeda was modernized at the Wismar repair yard and was then measured with 9,828 GRT, 5,474 NRT and 5,295 tdw. She could carry 150 deck and 432 cabin passengers. On May 14, 1952, the repair was completed and the ship was relocated to the Black Sea. In 1962 it was used in the withdrawal of the Russian troops stationed in Cuba. Then she continued to operate in scheduled and cruise service in the Black Sea until she was decommissioned in 1977. In 1978 the ship arrived in Gadani (Pakistan) for demolition.
literature
- Arnold Kludas : The History of German Passenger Shipping 1850 to 1990 . Ernst Kabel Verlag, 1986.
- Claus Rothe: German ocean passenger ships. 1919 to 1985. In: Library of Ship Types. transpress Verlag für Verkehrwesen, Berlin 1987, pp. 116–117, ISBN 3-344-00164-7 .
- Reinhart Schmelzkopf: The German Merchant Shipping 1919–1939 . Verlag Gerhard Stalling, Oldenburg, ISBN 3 7979 1847 X .
Web links
- Magdalena . In:Miramar Ship Index. Retrieved October 27, 2009.
- Dutch Report on the stranding of the Magdalena
- Pobeda. In: The Soviet Fleet. Retrieved October 27, 2009 .
- Feng Yuxiang's attitude from 1945
- Three photos of the Pobeda
- Postcard of the Pobeda