Rule Carol I (ship, 1898)

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Rule Carol I.
The SMR rule Carol I
The SMR rule Carol I
Ship data
flag IndonesiaRomania (war flag) Romania Russian Empire
Russian EmpireRussian Empire (naval war flag) 
other ship names

Korol Karl (1918)
Ioan Roata (1918)
Regele Carol I (1918)

Ship type Passenger ship , mine-layer , auxiliary cruiser , aircraft mother ship
Shipyard Fairfield Shipbuilders , Govan / Glasgow
Launch March 22, 1898
Whereabouts Sunk October 10, 1941 after being hit by a mine
Ship dimensions and crew
length
106.70 m ( Lüa )
width 12.80 m
Draft Max. 8.50 m
displacement 3600 t
measurement 2369 BRT , 839 NRT
 
crew 75 men
Machine system
machine two three-cylinder triple expansion machines
Machine
performance 		6,500 hp (4,781 kW)
Top
speed 		18.0 kn (33 km / h)
propeller 2
Armament

First World War:

Second World War:

  • 2 × 105mm guns
  • 2 × 20mm flak
  • 200 mines

The rule Carol I was a Romanian passenger ship built in 1898 , which sailed under the Russian flag under the name Korol Karl during the First World War as an auxiliary cruiser and aircraft mother ship, briefly as Ioan Ruata in the turmoil of the Russian civil war and again under her old name from 1918 under the Romanian flag . During the Second World War , the Romanian Navy used her as an auxiliary cruiser and mine-layer . In October 1941, the ship sank after being hit by a mine. It was named after the first Romanian king, Charles I , who ruled from 1881 to 1914.

Construction and technical data

The ship was laid down in Scotland in 1897 at the Fairfield Shipbuilders yard in Govan / Glasgow under construction number 399. The launch took place on March 22, 1898, the completion of the work and the delivery to the Romanian shipping company Serviciul Maritim Român (SMR) took place on June 16, 1898. Only after the transfer from Scotland and the arrival in their new home port of Constance on 28 June 1898 she was given her name Regele Carol I in the presence of the king .

Its length was 106.70 meters in total, it was 12.80 meters wide and had a draft of 8.5 meters. She was measured with 2369 GRT or 839 NRT and had a load capacity of 360 tdw. The drive consisted of two three-cylinder triple expansion machines from the shipyard Fairfield Shipbuilders, whose output was 6500 hp . This acted on two screws , the steamer reached a speed of 18.0 knots . 75 passengers could be carried in first, 42 in second and 204 in third class. The crew consisted of 75 men. As armament it carried four 101mm guns and two 63mm anti-aircraft guns in World War I, two 105mm guns, two 20mm anti-aircraft guns and - depending on the type - up to 200 mines in World War II .

history

Pre-war period

The Regele Carol I on a postcard from 1916

The Carol I rule was used by the shipping company for passenger trips on the two routes between Constana and Istanbul and between Constana and Piraeus . As early as 1899 her propulsion system was switched from coal to oil and in 1905 she received a telegraph on board. At the beginning of the First World War, the ship sailed the route Constana - Istanbul - Smyrna - Piraeus - Alexandria . There were also seasonal side routes to Haifa and Beirut.

First World War

When Romania entered the war on the Entente side , the Romanian government left the Carol I rule to the Russian Navy in 1916 , which had the ship converted into an auxiliary cruiser and aircraft mother ship. In October / November 1916 the ship received four 101mm guns, two 63mm anti-aircraft guns , two searchlights and two flying boats in Sevastopol . She was given the name Korol Karl on November 29, 1916 . In March 1917, the Korol Karl was assigned to the Russian cruiser division, which guarded the entrance to the Bosporus and was involved in the bombardment of the Anatolian coast. The ship also carried out troop transports.

A year later, in March 1918, the ship briefly fell into the hands of the communists in the turmoil of the Russian civil war : at that time, the ship was in the port of Batumi near the Turkish border. There the Korol Karl was occupied by soldiers of the Caucasian Socialist Republic, the officers were arrested and the ship was renamed Ioan Roata . The fixing lasted until the end of March, then the ship was able to leave Batumi again and finally drove back to Romania, where it entered Sulina on April 1, 1918 .

Interwar period

At the end of the First World War, the former shipping company, the Serviciul Maritim Român, got the ship back and gave her the old name Regele Carol I again . The SMR continued the passenger traffic and put the ship on the route between Constana, Varna , Istanbul and Saloniki. After the beginning of the Second World War, the subsequent entry into the war by Italy in June 1940 and Romanian neutrality, the Carol I rule only traveled between Constanta and Istanbul.

Second World War

Even before Romania entered the war on the side of the Axis Powers in June 1941, the Romanian Navy requisitioned the Carol I rule and had it converted into a mine ship - initially without armament. The ship was assigned while retaining the name of the 6th section, to which, in addition to the rule Carol I, the mine ship Dacia belonged

The first deployment took place together with the mine- layer Amiral Murgescu and the mine ship Aurora from June 16 to 19, 1941. The three ships laid defensive mine blocks along the coast between Cape Midia on the Turkish-Bulgarian border and Tuzla near the Soviet border, to protect your own shipping from attacks. The effectiveness of these barriers became apparent after the German attack on the Soviet Union, Operation Barbarossa : During the advance of Soviet cruisers and destroyers on Constan aufa on June 26, the destroyer Moskva got into the minefield and sank, the cruiser Voroshilov was damaged. By the end of the year, six Soviet submarines sank on these mine barriers.

Only after these missions did the Carol I rule in July receive the armament of two 105mm guns and two 20mm anti-aircraft guns. How necessary this equipment was was shown in a Soviet air raid on August 5th. Several members of the crew were injured in the process, the ship remained without major damage.

When they were used again in October 1941, the Carol I rule was lost: Together with the mine- layer Amiral Murgescu and the mine-ship Dacia , the ships blocked the Bulgarian coast from October 7 to October 16. The three mine ships were escorted by the Romanian torpedo boats Sborul , Naluca , Smeul and the minesweepers Ghigulescu and Dumitrescu . At times, the Bulgarian torpedo boats Smeli , Derzky and Khabri were also used for security purposes, and Romanian destroyers were also used when marching in and out. By October 10, initially four bans and one partial ban were thrown. On October 10, shortly after leaving Varna with 150 mines on board , the rule Carol I hit a mine laid by the submarine L-4 and sank within 13 minutes. 21 crew members died.

Footnotes

  1. ^ Lloyd's of London (1940-1941). "Navires a Vapeur et a Moteurs": http://www.plimsollshipdata.org/pdffile.php?name=40a0777.pdf , http://www.clydeships.co.uk/view.php?ref=6376 , https : //wrecksite.eu/wreck.aspx? 31341 , http://navypedia.org/ships/romania/ro_cm_amc2.htm , http://worldwar2.ro/arr/?article=253 , https: // www. historia.ro/sectiune/general/articol/odiseea-vapoarelor-romanesti-inchiriate-rusiei-in-primul-razboi-mondial-foto
  2. ↑ http://worldwar2.ro/arr/?article=253 , https://www.historia.ro/sectiune/general/articol/odiseea-vapoarelor-romanesti-inchiriate-rusiei-in-primul-razboi-mondial- photo
  3. ↑ Craciunoiu, p. 148, http://worldwar2.ro/arr/?article=253 , https://wrecksite.eu/wreck.aspx?31341 , https://www.historia.ro/sectiune/general/ articol / odiseea-vapoarelor-romanesti-inchiriate-rusiei-in-primul-razboi-mondial-foto , http://www.clydeships.co.uk/view.php?ref=6376 , cf. http://www.naval-history.net/xGW-RussianNavy1914-1918.htm
  4. ↑ http://worldwar2.ro/arr/?article=253
  5. ↑ Bertke, p. 72
  6. ↑ Craciunoiu, p. 148, p. 151, http://www.naval-encyclopedia.com/ww2/romanian-navy , http://worldwar2.ro/arr/?article=253 , cf. Nimitz, p. 623ff.
  7. ↑ http://worldwar2.ro/arr/?article=253 , http://navypedia.org/ships/romania/ro_cm_amc2.htm , Sobanski, p. 46
  8. ↑ Bertke, p. 323f., Http://www.wlb-stuttgart.de/seekrieg/41-10.htm

literature

Web links