Prince class
The Prinzen class ships were built by HAPAG specifically for the West India service, which was reorganized from 1901 onwards. Soon afterwards, the ships were also used in the demanding Atlas service from New York to Central America. The ships served the later Great White Fleet as a model for their luxurious ships from the "5000 Ton Class".
West India Service (1871)
HAPAG's so-called West India Service began in 1871 with freighters ranging in size from 1000 to 3000 GRT and passenger facilities for 100 to 300 passengers. The Batavia was the first ship to sail from Hamburg to Trinidad , and later to Saint Thomas . But in the first few years the Batavia and the other 12 ships used in this service only incurred losses. Therefore the passenger service has been discontinued in the meantime. There were then freighter with max. 10 passengers used, who drove with eight departures per month in 1890. Each departure per month served its own line, which were referred to as line I to VIII. This meant that all important ports in the Central America region could be served once a month. The freight steamers in use at this time had more passenger facilities again, but they were hardly used.
Atlas Service New York - Central America (1901)
The reason was that many passengers took high-speed steamers across New York in order to travel from there to Central America with the regular ships of the Atlas service. A reason for Albert Ballin to take over the Atlas service from the Atlas Steamship Co. in 1901 , including the seven small steamers and the facilities in the Central American ports. This was the main reason to reorganize the Central America Service afterwards.
Prince Class Ships (1902/1903)
| Surname | delivery | shipyard | GRT | length
in m |
width
in m |
height
in m |
machine | power
in PSi |
crew | Passengers
1st Class |
Passengers
2nd Class |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Prince Eitel Friedrich | 1902 | Reiherstieg Hamburg | 4650 | 113 | 14th | 8.2 | IV expansion | 2400 | 115 | 100 | 635 |
| Prince Waldemar | 1902 | Reiherstieg Hamburg | 4650 | 113 | 14th | 8.2 | IV expansion | 2400 | 115 | 100 | 645 |
| Prince Adalbert | 1903 | Vegesack volcano | 6030 | 123 | 15th | 8.3 | IV expansion | 2700 | 120 | 125 | 1030 |
| Prince Sigismund | 1903 | Neptune Rostock | 4690 | 113 | 14th | 8.2 | IV expansion | 2400 | 115 | 100 | 1010 |
| Prince August Wilhelm | 1903 | FSG Flensburg | 4735 | 113 | 14th | 7.7 | IV expansion | 3000 | 115 | 160 | 630 |
| Prince Oskar | 1903 | Vegesack volcano | 6030 | 123 | 15th | 8.3 | IV expansion | 2700 | 120 | 125 | 1050 |
| Prince Joachim | 1903 | FSG Flensburg | 4760 | 113 | 14th | 7.7 | IV expansion | 3000 | 115 | 160 | 690 |
In order to make the passenger service more attractive, new ships were designed with spacious 1st class passenger facilities. The Prinzen class ships were built in 1902/1903 at various German shipyards for HAPAG's new Central America service. The prelude was the departure of the Prinz Adalbert on April 8, 1903 in direct service from Hamburg via various European ports to Cuba (Havana) and Mexico (Vera Cruz).
The ships had a measurement of 4,700 to 6,000 GRT, a carrying capacity of 5,500 to 6,200 tdw and passenger facilities for 100 to 160 passengers in 1st class and 600 to 1,000 passengers in 3rd class. The quadruple expansion engines developed 2,400 to 3,000 PSi and gave the ships speeds of 11.5 to around 13 knots. The two ships from the Bremer Vulkan were twin screw ships.
The service was soon carried out jointly with the Danish Det Østasiatiske Kompagni (East Asiatic Company). Their steamers then called Hamburg and the Hapag steamers called Copenhagen. Initially there were two, and soon afterwards, after two more ships were put into service by HAPAG, three departures per month. Some of the Prince-Class ships soon switched to Atlas service.
For the modernization, further ships purchased were used in these Hamburg-West India services in 1903, including the Fionia , the first German seagoing ship with a diesel engine . Other new buildings, some of which were very luxuriously furnished, such as Prince Bismarck and Crown Princess Cecilie , were in service on the Hamburg-Mexico line from 1905 to 1912.
literature
- Arnold Kludas : The History of German Passenger Shipping. Volume 1, Ernst Kabel Verlag, Hamburg.
- S. Wiborg, K. Wiborg: Our field is the world - 150 years of Hapag-Lloyd. Festschrift published by Hapag-Lloyd AG, Hamburg 1997.
- Arnold Kludas : The ships of the North German Lloyd: 1857-1970. (In two volumes), Koehlers Verlagsgesellschaft, Herford 1991/1992.
- HJ Witthöft: Hamburg-America line. Köhler Verlag, 1997, ISBN 3-7822-0695-9 .
