RC Rickmers
 Five-mast auxiliary barque RC Rickmers in roadstead (after 1913)
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The RC Rickmers was the second German five-masted barque and the fifth five-masted ship in the world merchant fleet. Like her sister ship Maria Rickmers , in contrast to the five-masters built before her, she was equipped with a steam engine as an auxiliary drive ( auxiliary sailor ). After two wooden full ships - 1,080 BRT (1868) and 1,760 BRT (1888) - she was the third ship of this name, under which a modern cargo ship still sails today . After the accidents of the Prussians and the Thomas W. Lawson in 1907, she was the largest sailing ship in the world until the France was launched in 1911. In 1914 it was confiscated as spoils of war and renamed Neath .
description
In 1906, RC Rickmers was established for Rickmers Reismühlen Rhederei und Schiffbau A.-G. (Company name since 1889) manufactured at the in-house shipyard in Geestemünde under construction number 147. Its hull, masts and yards were made of steel . Named after the company founder Rickmer Clasen Rickmers (1807–1886), it was supposed to replace Maria Rickmers, who had disappeared on her maiden voyage . Like all Rickmers ships, the hull was painted in the shipping company colors green (surface hull) and red (water pass, underwater hull) in line with company tradition. According to some naval authors , it was considered a prestige building and answer to the two F. Laeisz five-master Potosi and Prussia . When it was launched , its 5,548 GRT even surpassed the largest square sail ship at the time, the five-mast full-rigged ship Prussia , by 467 GRT, but was never registered as Germany 's largest sailing ship because of the auxiliary engine . Some sailors called it a " sailing steamer " rather than a sailing ship because of its steam engine and the huge chimney behind the central mast . Their maximum loading capacity of 7,900 tn.l. and thus the economic efficiency was reduced by the 600 t coal bunker. The big ship caused quite a stir , especially in the USA, and showed good Etmales due to the lines and rigging , which, however, were created with the help of the steam engine. After the conversion to sail training ship the large Bark had an over-long poop deck to the center pole. The huge ship required a specially trained crew, as not all seamen and captains knew how to operate a five-masted sailing ship. This became evident later in the war when the British took over the barque, who asked the interned captain to explain the command of the ship (especially the sailing commands), since England had no experience with five-masted sailors.
history
The barque's main destinations were East Asia ( Singapore , Kobe / Hiogo Japan , Saigon - maiden voyage), Siberia ( Vladivostok ), the US west coast ( San Francisco , Portland in Oregon ), Australia ( New South Wales ) and South America ( Chile ). When leaving, the ship mostly carried coal from Wales and other countries, while traveling home mainly rice for the company's own rice mills. In 1912 and 1913 she made two long trips:
- Cardiff - Philadelphia - Cape of Good Hope - Kobe ( Japan ) - Portland (Oregon) - Antwerp
- Cardiff - Philadelphia - Cape of Good Hope - Japan - Vladivostok - Indian Ocean - Hull
A special event was the visit of the Russian Tsar Nicholas II on the ship in 1912 during the stay in Vladivostok .
The R. C. Rickmers was not economical because of the coal bunker (around 600 t) which reduced the loading space, the additional personnel required to maintain the steam engine (2 machinists, 2 trimmers, 2 heaters) and the resulting coal consumption . When the Rickmers-Linie switched to steam between 1910 and 1913, the shipping company sold all tall ships . There was no buyer for the large barque, which is why in 1913/1914 it was converted into the shipping company's own training ship for the training of junior naval officers in the company's own shipyard . At the beginning of the First World War , the large barque was in Cardiff to take over a load of coal; the British Admiralty confiscated it and renamed it Neath (pronounced [niːθ] ), after a place and river name in South Wales ; Welsh Nedd [nɛθ] . Due to a lack of experience with this type of ship, the British ship's crew had problems guiding the huge sailor. Under the English flag , she was sunk on March 27, 1917 - with a load of sugar from Mauritius - 30 nautical miles southeast of Fastnet ( Ireland ) by the submarine U 66 of the German Imperial Navy .
literature
- Jochen Brennecke: Windjammer. The great report on the development, travels and fate of the "Queens of the Seven Seas". 3. Edition. Koehler, Herford 1984, ISBN 3-7822-0009-8 , chap. XXII - The largest of the sailing ships in the world , pp. 299–300
- Hans-Jörg Furrer: The four- and five-masted square sailors in the world . Koehler, Herford 1984, ISBN 3-7822-0341-0 , p. 173
Web links
- RC Rickmers in the roadstead
-
Profile of RC Rickmers at bruzelius.info (English)
- German translation by L. Bruzelius on esys.org
- Profile with picture (English)
- Brief description with picture on rickmers.com
- Rickmerswerft with mention of the five-masted barque (German)
