Rex (ship, 1897)

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Wreck of the Rex off Lohme

The Rex was a Swedish mail steamer and passenger ferry . The ship operated from 1897 to 1900 on the forerunner line of the later royal line from Sassnitz to Trelleborg .

history

The ship was for 22,000 British pounds on the yard of Sir James Laing and Sons in Sunderland with the hull number 559 for the shipping company Sverige-continents of the brothers Knut and Gustav O. Wallenberg in Stockholm built and ran there on 18 February 1897 by the stack . It was 69 meters long and 10.70 m wide, had a draft of 3.70 m and was measured at 1,214 GRT . The ship was intended for the post steamship connection between Sassnitz and Trelleborg, planned jointly with the Stettiner Dampfschiffs-Gesellschaft JF Braeunlich and going into operation from May 1, 1897 , but the delivery was delayed due to an engine damage that occurred during the test drive , and the ship was only on On April 29, 1897 in Malmö with the last furniture.

Since the Imperator , which Braeunlich had specially built for the new line, was not yet ready either, Braeunlich's side paddle steamer Freia brought the Swedish guests of honor on April 29, 1897, including Foreign Minister Count Ludvig Vilhelm August Douglas and the former Minister of the Interior and now General Director of the Swedish Postal Administration, Julius Edvard von Krusenstjerna, to Sassnitz. The Rex brought under whose other invited guests from Malmo to Sassnitz. On April 30th, the Swedish guests of honor and the corresponding German dignitaries, including the Prussian "Railway Minister" Karl von Thielen , drove to Trelleborg on the Rex , accompanied by the German cruiser SMS Gefion . On May 1, 1897, the regular operation of the mail steamer line Sassnitz – Trelleborg began, which, in addition to the Rex and the Imperator, was carried out by the Braeunlich ships Germania (1899–1909) and Freia and the Svea of the Sverige continents.

In the first year of operation, the Rex had an accident when it hit an underwater rock on the approach to Trelleborg and damaged its propeller ; this required repairs to the shipyard in Karlskrona .

Much more serious, however, was the accident on February 27, 1900. During the voyage from Trelleborg to Sassnitz, the ship was driven off course on a storm night due to strong wind pressure and ran aground at 4:20 in the morning about 200 m from the bank near Nardevitz ( Rügen ) . There were 33 crew members and five passengers on board . Six people were killed in a lifeboat , the others were rescued with a trouser buoy . Towing attempts failed and the ship was declared a total loss. The wreck later broke in two and was partially demolished on site until the remains were driven off.

In July 2012, an approximately 30-meter-long hull shell was found in just three meters of water not far from the site of the accident.

literature

Web links

Footnotes

  1. ↑ 600,000 marks are also mentioned.
  2. ↑ Usedom Island - the Freia side paddle steamer ( Memento from May 14, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
  3. ↑ Ralph Somme: Wreck of the Swedish mail steamer "Rex" rediscovered , T-Online, July 16, 2012.

Coordinates: 54 ° 35 ′ 49 ″  N , 13 ° 41 ′ 24 ″  E