Prinsesse Ragnhild (ship, 1931)
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The Prinsesse Ragnhild (I) was a passenger ship of the Norwegian shipping company Det Nordenfjeldske Dampskibsselskab (NFDS), which transported passengers and cargo on the Hurtigruten along the Norwegian coast between 1931 and 1940 . On October 23, 1940, shortly after casting off in Bodø off the island of Landegode , the Prinsesse Ragnhild with 455 people on board was shaken by an explosion and sank. 299 people died. The exact cause is still unclear.
The ship
The 1,590 GRT steamship Prinsesse Ragnhild was built in the renowned Fredrikstad Mekaniske Verksted shipyard on the island of Kråkerøy, which belongs to Fredrikstad . The ship was launched on March 12, 1931 and was completed in November of the same year. Its construction cost 1.47 million Norwegian kroner based on its monetary value at the time . The ship was named after Ragnhild of Norway , the eldest daughter of King Olav V and Queen Märtha of Sweden . The Prinsesse Ragnhild was 76.7 meters long, 11.5 meters wide and had a draft of 6.4 meters. She was a combined passenger and cargo ship . Their four-cylinder compound steam engine produced an output of 2500 hp and enabled the ship to reach a speed of 16.5 knots (30.5 km / h). The ship was equipped with a chimney , a propeller and two masts .
It belonged to the Norwegian shipping company Det Nordenfjeldske Dampskibsselskab (NFDS), founded in 1857 and based in Trondheim , which was also its home port . The construction of the Prinsesse Ragnhild was agreed with the shipyard in order to enable a replacement for the Haakon VII , which was commissioned in 1907 and which sank in a storm off Florø in 1929 . The completed steamer was handed over to the shipping company on November 25, 1931. From then on, the Prinsesse Ragnhild was a typical Hurtigruten ship. The Prinsesse Ragnhild was the first Norwegian ship to be equipped with an echo sounder .
On March 6, 1933, the ship ran aground due to major leaks at Kiberg near Vardø . The rescue ship Jason towed the Princess Ragnhild to Trondheim, where she was repaired. In March 1934, Olav V. from Norway and his wife Märtha went on board the Prinsesse Ragnhild from Trondheim to Kirkenes . On April 10, 1940, the day after the Wehrmacht invaded Norway , the Prinsesse Ragnhild sought protection from German air raids in the Hjørundfjord near Ålesund .
Downfall
On Wednesday, October 23, 1940 at 10.30 which ran Prinsesse Ragnhild in Bodø , capital of the province of Nordland , a crossing to Stamsund on the Lofoten from. On board were 50 Norwegian crew members, 75 civilian Norwegian passengers and 330 Germans, a total of 455 people. Shortly after departure, at around 11.20 a.m., there was a serious explosion on board the steamer . The Princess Ragnhild went under in eight to ten minutes. The Norwegian cargo ship Batnfjord was nearby and rescued 142 people from the water. The fishing cutter Gangerolf picked up another 14 people and recovered three bodies .
299 people, including dozens of civilian Norwegian crew members and passengers as well as numerous Germans, were killed in the accident. The number of people on board, as well as the number of fatalities and survivors, varies depending on the source. To this day, the cause of the downfall of the Prinsesse Ragnhild is unclear. Some sources suspect that the ship ran into a sea mine that was laid by the Ivanhoe , the Icarus , the Impulsive or other destroyers of the Royal Navy as part of Operation Wilfred on April 8, 1940 .
The British submarine Taku was also suspected of having shot at and sunk the passenger steamer. However, it was countered that the Taku was in French waters at the time. The wreck of the Prinsesse Ragnhild was found in March 2000 by the Tyr , a ship of the Norwegian Navy, at a depth of about 300 meters. ( 67 ° 26 ′ 21 ″ N , 14 ° 28 ′ 1 ″ E )
literature
- Dag Bakka, Jr. Skipene somebody tied together - Hurtigruten gjennom 100 år . Rhema Forag (Bergen), 1993
- Mike Bent: Coastal Express. The Ferry to the Top of the World. Conway Maritime Press Limited, London 1987, ISBN 0-85177-446-6 .