RMS Carinthia (ship, 1925)
.jpg) |
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||
The RMS Carinthia (II) was an ocean liner of the British shipping company Cunard Line that was put into service in 1925 and operated in passenger and mail traffic between Great Britain and the USA . From 1939 the ship served as an armed auxiliary cruiser (Armed Merchant Cruiser) in World War II , until it was sunk by a German submarine on June 7, 1940 off Ireland . With a volume of 20,277 GRT, it was the fifth largest ship that was sunk by a German submarine during World War II.
The ship
The keel of the ship was laid in the English port city of Barrow-in-Furness in 1924 . The Carinthia was built at the Vickers Ltd. shipyard, which a few years later became part of the Armstrong-Whitworth & Co., Ltd. has been. The ship was supposed to be called Servia (II), but when it was launched on February 24, 1925, it was named Carinthia (English for Carinthia ). The Carinthia was a survey of 20,277 GRT the fifth largest after the First World War built liner. The 190 meter long steamer was powered by four sets of steam turbines that operated on two propellers, made 2437 nominal horsepower (nhp) and could accelerate the Carinthia to a speed of 16.5 knots. The ship was equipped with two masts and a chimney. The ship's crew consisted of about 450 people. 30 lifeboats were installed on deck. The sister ship of the Carinthia , the RMS Franconia (II), was built by John Brown & Company in Clydebank and put into service as early as 1923.
The passenger accommodations were designed for 240 passengers in the first, 460 in the second and 950 in the third class. The third class, in particular, attracted attention because of its innovations, as the passengers did not eat at long tables as usual, but separate tables were available for families and groups of friends. In addition, a smoking room, a small library and a shop were available to third-class passengers. The Carinthia was equipped with sports facilities that stretched over a total of 460 m² and included a swimming pool , a gymnastics room, a cricket field, and shower and bath rooms for massage treatments. On the A-deck was the first class smoking room, modeled after El Greco's house . The first class lounge was in the style of Wilhelm III. held by England .
Service time as a passenger ship
The Carinthia was built for passenger traffic from Liverpool to Boston and New York and ran on her maiden voyage on August 22, 1925. From March 1930 the passenger classes were called First Class, Tourist Class and Third Class and from October 1931 Cabin Class, Tourist Class and Third Class. From 1933 the Carinthia only used its regular New York route in the summer, while in the winter months it was used for cruises , e.g. B. to the fjords of Norway and the North Cape .
In 1933, the Carinthia made a circumnavigation of the world , during which it stopped in 40 ports, including Tristan da Cunha in the South Atlantic , which is considered one of the most remote inhabited islands in the world. On this journey, the Carinthia covered 40,000 miles (64,000 km). In the same year she received an emergency call from the Latvian steamer Andromeda , which had collided with an underwater object about 80 nautical miles off the French Atlantic island of Ouessant . She was too far away to come to the aid of the ship before it sank. The crew of the Andromeda was picked up by the steamer Hartside .
On May 24, 1934, the steamer made the first of three crossings from London via Southampton and Le Havre to New York and returned to the Liverpool-New York service on May 3, 1935. From then until 1939 she was used again as a liner during the summer and as a cruise ship during the winter. On July 15, 1939, the Carinthia ran for the last time from Liverpool to New York. She was then used again in the cruise business until she drove from New York back to Liverpool on September 3, 1939.
Service as an auxiliary cruiser
The ship was then converted into an auxiliary cruiser and began service on December 30, 1939 under its old name. After the test drives off Liverpool, she steamed with supplies to Portsmouth and then to Greenock . From January 1940, the ship was part of the Northern Patrol and made several patrols in the area south of Iceland until it was brought to Birkenhead for overhaul in March 1940 . Next, the Carinthia steamed south to join a patrol off the coast of Portugal as part of the North Atlantic Escort Force .
On March 20, 1940, the HMS Carinthia collided with the HMS Cilicia , a former British passenger ship that had also been converted into an auxiliary cruiser. Both ships drove in the dark and at high speed. The Carinthia rammed the smaller Cilicia almost amidships at the level of Division No. 2. The destroyer HMS Gallant then escorted the two ships to Belfast . The collision was so violent that the Gösch of Carinthia on board of Cilicia remained for the rest of their period of service as an auxiliary cruiser in the exhibition was on display.
On June 3, she stopped in Gibraltar to take up supplies and then sailed to rejoin the patrol. On June 6, 1940, the ship, which was under the command of Captain JFB Barrett, was located west of Galway Bay off the Irish coast by the German submarine U 46 under the command of Lieutenant Engelbert Endrass at position 53 ° 13 ′ N , 10 ° 40 ' W attacked. At 1:13 p.m., the submarine shot a torpedo at the steamer, which was armed with eight 152-mm guns and two 76-mm guns, and hit the stern. Two officers and two sailors were killed in the explosion. The engine room and several cargo holds filled up quickly.
Although there was little chance of saving the ship, the crew sent signal rockets into the sky and opened fire on the submarine. At around 2.30 p.m. on June 6, a second torpedo was shot down and missed its target. The Carinthia remained buoyant for 36 hours after the first attack, until she capsized and sank 34 nautical miles west of Tory Island at 9:40 p.m. on the evening of June 7th . The wreck lies at the position 55 ° 12 ' N , 9 ° 12' W .