Reliance (ship, 1920)
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The Reliance of the Hamburg-American Packetfahrt-Actien-Gesellschaft (Hapag) was launched in 1914 as Johann Heinrich Burchard for the Hamburg shipping company's South American service. Sold to the Koninklijke Hollandsche Lloyd during the World War , it was transferred to the Netherlands in 1920. In 1922, the United American Lines (UAL) cooperating with Hapag bought the ship and operated it between Hamburg and New York under the name Reliance . From 1923 the ship, which was occasionally used for cruises, was "flagged out" like the other ships on the American line to Panama in order to circumvent American prohibition laws.
On July 27, 1926, Hapag separated from United American Lines and bought the Reliance and two other former Hapag ships from UAL in order to operate independently again. From 1928 the Reliance was mainly used as a cruise ship. In 1938 it caught fire in the port of Hamburg for unknown reasons. The wreck was scrapped in Bremerhaven in 1941 .
Building history
When the First World War broke out, three steamers of around 20,000 GRT were under construction for Hapag's South America service. In Szczecin in was AG Vulcan Stettin on 20 December 1913, the Admiral Tirpitz been launched, which on 10 February 1914. Joh. C. Tecklenborg in Geestemünde the Johann Heinrich Burchard and on 30 March 1914, the William O'Swald at the AG Weser in Bremen . These ships should be able to carry around 1,000 passengers in three cabin classes and, if necessary, a further 1,000 in the tween deck. The ships should have three chimneys and be used together with the steamers Cap Trafalgar and Cap Polonio of Hamburg Süd . The Tirpitz was to be assigned to the service to the American west coast after the Panama Canal was completed .
Only the Admiral von Tirpitz was a turbine ship with two drive shafts, the four South America steamers of the two major Hamburg shipping companies had a different propulsion concept. They were driven by three screws, the two outer shafts being driven by conventional expansion machines, while an exhaust turbine was installed for the central shaft. The four ships retained this propulsion concept during their service life, although it did not allow the speeds that the designers had hoped for.
The Johann Heinrich Burchard was launched on February 10, 1914 at the JC Tecklenborg shipyard in Geestemünde. The ship was named after the former mayor of Hamburg, Johann Heinrich Burchard (1852–1912). On November 20, 1915, the ship was completed during the World War and handed over to Hapag. However, the ship stayed in Bremerhaven because a military mission did not seem sensible. The Hamburg shipping company already dealt intensively with the sale of ships during the war and in June 1916 sold its two large South American steamers to the Netherlands to the Koninklijke Hollandsche Lloyd , which renamed them Limburgia and Brabantia . The delivery date for the ships should be the end of the war.
Use under foreign flags
The former Johann Heinrich Burchard left Bremerhaven as Limburgia on February 3, 1920, whereby the trip should have been declared as a test drive. It was feared that the Allied monitors of the consequences of the peace treaty might not recognize the sale during the war. The Limburgia was deployed from Amsterdam to Argentina. Whether the sale during the war was legal under the terms of the peace treaty remained a matter of dispute until 1922.
In 1922, Hollandsche Lloyd sold four of its passenger ships to Hapag and the United American Lines (UAL) of the Harriman Group, which operated in a shared timetable . Hapag received the older Frisia and Hollandia (built in 1909), a little over 7,000 GRT , which were used as Holsatia and Hammonia on the route to Mexico, while UAL received the two former Hapag ships Limburgia and Brabantia as the largest ships under their new names Reliance and Resolute for getting their share of the common North Atlantic line between Hamburg and New York .
The Reliance was modernized again at Blohm & Voss , got a pure oil firing and the more generously designed passenger facility now offered space for 290 passengers in the 1st class, 320 in the 2nd class and 400 in the 3rd class. On May 2, 1922, she started her first trip under the American flag in Hamburg via Southampton and Cherbourg to New York. From 1923 she was used, like her sister ship Resolute and the Cleveland , also used by the UAL , to circumvent the American prohibition regulations under the flag of Panama . Her last voyage for the American shipping company began on June 25, 1926 in Hamburg. On July 27, Hapag bought itself free again from the timetable joint venture with the American line and at the same time acquired its three former ships, most recently used under the Panamanian flag, in order to be able to operate North Atlantic traffic independently again.
Back in the service of Hapag
On August 24, 1926, the Reliance resumed service on the Hamburg - Southampton - Cherbourg - New York route under the name introduced to the American public for Hapag. However, the New York service was now primarily handled by the newbuildings of the Albert Ballin class , of which all four ships were operational at the beginning of the 1927 season. With the Reliance and its sister, Hapag tried to build on the successes in the cruise business before the World War, whereby these trips were still called pleasure trips. The Reliance opened Hapag's new cruise program on December 18, 1926 with the first of five West India cruises from New York, which it carried out until March 1927. The first 23-day Nordland cruise from Hamburg to Spitzbergen followed in July 1927 . The sister ship Resolute carried out the first Hapag world tour after the war from January to May 1927 and then also a Nordland voyage. Similar programs followed in the years 1928 to 1932, with Mediterranean trips being carried out from 1928 onwards. As a pure cruise ship, Hapag also bought the Oceana and almost all of the shipping company's liner ships also went on a cruise. The Reliance was overhauled in May 1930 and June 1931 and its passenger facilities were adapted. In 1930 the II. Class was renamed the tourist class and in 1931 the III. Class abolished. Despite the global economic crisis, there was initially no slump in sales of luxury travel.
Changes in the cruise business followed after 1933 and the takeover of National Socialism in Germany. The increasing conflicts of the German Reich with other nations reduced the number of foreign passengers and the possibilities of international trips and travel programs. The lower utilization of the liner ships led to overcapacities. Hapag therefore sold its sister ship Resolute to Italy in 1935 and used the Reliance as a pure cruise ship for 500 passengers. In August 1935 she carried out her last scheduled trip between Hamburg and New York and in 1936 she made her first world tour under the command of Commodore Fritz Kruse .
In 1937 the Reliance was modernized again at Blohm & Voss. It was again prepared for two classes and should in future be able to accommodate up to 633 passengers in first class and 186 in second class. The appearance of the ship, which has been painted white since 1934, also changed with new, wider chimneys. With this changed appearance, the ship made a 136-day trip around the world from January 9, 1938, on which 36 ports were called. This was the last great voyage of the ship.
The end of the Reliance
On August 7, 1938, the Reliance was supposed to leave Hamburg for another Nordland voyage. A fire broke out on the cruise ship at 5.15 a.m. early in the morning before the first passengers arrived. The fire could not be brought under control and eventually the Reliance sank from the amount of extinguishing water in the hull. One man was killed in the fire. An initially considered repair of the ship was finally abandoned in 1940 and the ship was then scrapped in Bremerhaven.
The cause of the fire is unclear.
literature
- Arnold Kludas : The History of the German Passenger Shipping Volume III Leap growth 1900 to 1914 , Writings of the German Shipping Museum, Volume 20
- Arnold Kludas: The History of German Passenger Shipping Volume IV Destruction and Rebirth 1914 to 1930 , Writings of the German Shipping Museum, Volume 21
- Arnold Kludas: The History of German Passenger Shipping Vol. V An era comes to an end from 1930 to 1990 , writings of the German Maritime Museum, volume 22
- Claus Rothe: German ocean passenger ships 1896 to 1918 . Steiger Verlag, 1986, ISBN 3-921564-80-8 .
- Rolf Stratmann: The fateful story of the passenger liner Johann Heinrich Burchard . Wirtschaftsverlag Nordwest, Bremerhaven, 2011, ISBN 978-3869181622 .