Rhakotis (ship, 1928)
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The Rhakotis of the Hamburg-American Packetfahrt-Actien-Gesellschaft (Hapag) was a combined ship with diesel propulsion built in 1928 by the Deutsche Werft in Hamburg as a San Francisco ship . It was the first new ship for mixed passenger and cargo service to the US Pacific coast. In 1935 it was renamed Rhakotis when it was mainly used on the west coast of South America.
When the war began, the ship was in Callao and was laid up there. In 1940 the rhakotis was transferred to Japan. On January 1, 1943, the Rhakotis ' attempt to break the blockade to reach occupied France failed .
history
Since 1923, Hapag has operated a joint service to the Pacific coast of the USA and Canada together with DDG Kosmos, which has now merged with DADG , and United American Lines, which is part of the Harriman Group . As the first ship, Hapag used the freighter Sachsen , which was soon followed by its sister ship Hessen . In the summer of 1926, these two ships were also withdrawn, so that the line became a pure freight line, on which freighters of the Bremen Roland line also ran. The separation from Harriman in the summer of 1926 and the merger of Hapag with Austral-Kosmos-Stinnes and the incorporation of the Roland-Linie into Norddeutscher Lloyd led to the dissolution of the previous joint services and competition between the major German shipping companies on the west coast lines.
In order to expand its position, Hapag ordered two diesel-powered combi ships for up to 48 passengers in two classes, 9000 t load capacity and a service speed of 13 knots from the Deutsche Werft in Hamburg-Finkenwärder , which is close to it . When it was planned, Helgoland and Westerland were intended as names, but they actually came to water as San Francisco and Los Angeles . During construction, Hapag placed further orders for two somewhat larger ships with Deutsche Werft ( Seattle ) and the Bremer Vulkan ( Portland ). At the end of the series, Deutsche Werft delivered a fifth ship with the slightly smaller Oakland .
The San Francisco opened service on March 10, 1928 and the first four ships were in service by July. However, other ships also had to be called in to reinforce and secure the three-weekly departures. The motor ships Ramses (7983 GRT, 13 kn, up to 33 passengers, DDG Kosmos), Duisburg were then renamed Heidelberg (7389 GRT, 13.5 kn, up to 37 passengers, DADG), Münsterland (6408 GRT, 12 kn, to 18 Passengers, East Asian service Hapag) and the former Stinness ship Emil Kirdorf (5695 GRT, 12 kn, up to 74 passengers) on the route. The freighters Saxony and Hesse also returned to the US west coast route for two years.
In 1930 the service was reinforced by the 8,300 GRT, 14.5 kn fast turbine ships Tacoma and Vancouver , which were again delivered by the German shipyard. There had been no serious attack on Hapag's position, but the political situation led to a decline in traffic with the USA and Canada. In addition, state regulation had made internal German competition impossible. In order to upgrade the politically wanted and promising South American west coast service, Hapag put the sister ships San Francisco and Los Angeles on this route in 1935 . Like the cargo ships Spreewald and Odenwald , the two combination ships also received traditional DDG Kosmos names. The San Francisco became the Rhakotis . The name of the district for the Egyptians in old Alexandria had already been given in 1907 by a 6982 GRT combined ship of the DDG Kosmos supplied by Blohm & Voss .
A trip of the Rhakotis in peace was their mission to end the odyssey of the St. Louis . When the unfortunate ship returned to Antwerp on June 19, 1939, the Rhakotis took over the ship's 511 Jews who wanted to take in France and Great Britain. The Rhakotis was prepared to enable the St. Louis to return to the USA and to carry out a pleasure trip that brought foreign currency. It brought asylum seekers to Boulogne-sur-Mer on the 20th and to Southampton on the 21st .
The fate of the Rhakotis at war
When the war began in 1939, the ship was in the Peruvian port of Callao , which was viewed by the German Reich as a suitable supply point. In addition to the Rhakotis , the combined ships Leipzig (5898 BRT, 1938) and Munich (5619 BRT, 1936) of the NDL and the Hermonthis (4833 BRT, 1935) and Monserrate (5578 BRT, 1938) of the Hapag, which lost there in 1941, also gathered there went. The decision to consider Callao in Peru a safe base turned out to be wrong, as President Prado , newly elected in 1939 , turned increasingly to the Western allies. The Rhakotis escaped the change in the political situation when she first ran to Antofagasta on May 16, 1940 and from there to Japan, where she arrived in Yokohama on June 29 .
In 1942 the Rhakotis was used as a blockade breaker to Europe and left Yokohama on September 27th, to be loaded in Singapore from October 15th . She loaded raw rubber, tin, zinc, fats, rice, tea, cinchona bark, coconut oil and pearls. She then moved to Batavia , from where she finally sailed for Europe on November 5th. On November 18, she met the auxiliary cruiser Michel in the Indian Ocean. She ran around the Cape of Good Hope into the Atlantic, where on December 12th she discovered a lifeboat with three men who had spent 36 days in their boat. One of the three died after the rescue. The two survivors of the City of Cairo also survived the self- sinking of the Rhakotis when it was captured by the British aerial reconnaissance shortly before its destination, which led the light cruiser HMS Scylla to the blockade breaker. On January 1, 1943, its own crew sank the Rhakotis as the cruiser approached about 200 nautical miles northwest of Cape Finisterre at 45 ° 0 ′ 0 ″ N , 11 ° 0 ′ 0 ″ W . The crew saved themselves in four lifeboats. Of the submarines used for the search, U 410 found two of the boats on January 2 and brought 80 men including the two rescued Englishmen to St. Nazaire the following day . The other two boats reached the Spanish coast.
Fate of the Hapag combined ships of the North America West Coast Service
| Launched in service |
Surname | tonnage | shipyard | fate |
| January 28, 1928 May 2, 1928 |
Los Angeles from 1935: Roda |
6573 BRT 9045 tdw |
German shipyard BauNr. 103 |
May 5, 1928 maiden voyage to the North American Pacific Coast, from 1935 as Roda in Chile service, on 9 April 1940 as a supply transporter during the attack on Norway before Stavanger by Norwegian destroyer Aeger sunk |
| March 28, 1928 June 7, 1928 |
Seattle | 7369 BRT 9775 tdw |
German shipyard BauNr. 104 |
June 9, 1928 Maiden voyage to the North American west coast, launched in Willemstad in September 1939 , arrived in Tromsø after the blockade had broken through on March 31, 1940, sunk off Kristiansand on April 9, 1940 by the Norwegian destroyer Gyller when she came between the German attackers and the Norwegian defenders |
| 19.04.1928 06.30.1928 |
Portland | 7132 BRT 9560 tdw |
Bremer Vulkan BauNr. 647 |
July 7, 1928 Maiden voyage to Vancouver , September 22, 1939 in Coquimbo , docked in Talcahuano in December 1940 , ran in January 1941 via the Nordmark utility and, after Admiral Scheer's takeover of 327 prisoners , to Bordeaux until March 14, 1941 , on October 22nd she ran out to Japan and returned as a successful blockade breaker on May 10th, 1942, the renewed attempt of such a journey in February 1943 ended on April 13th when the French cruiser Georges Leygues in the Natal Freetown Narrows of Portland and it was sunk by its crew |
| 01.08.1929 10.10.1929 |
Oakland | 7087 BRT 9670 tdw |
German shipyard BauNr. 121 |
October 12, 1929 Maiden voyage to the North American west coast, September 30, 1939 Sperrbrecher IV of the Kriegsmarine , sunk in Brest after being hit by a bomb on August 27, 1944 , lifted in 1947, deployed from 1949 to 1969 under the French and Greek flags |
| 02.08.1930 17.04.1930 |
Tacoma | 8268 BRT 10660 dw |
German shipyard BauNr. 124 |
April 19, 1930 Maiden voyage to Vancouver, laid up in Talcahuano on September 10, 1939, laid up in Montevideo on November 22, 1939 , confiscated in 1942, scrapped in 1986 |
| 27.02.1930 05.20.1930 |
Vancouver | 8269 BRT 10660 dw |
German shipyard BauNr. 125 |
May 31, 1930 Maiden voyage to Vancouver, August 31, 1939 laid up in Curacao , confiscated in 1940, scrapped in 1959 |
literature
- E. Goos, E. Graves: The motor ships "San Francisco" and "Los Angeles". In: Journal of the Association of German Engineers , Volume 72, No. 41 (October 13, 1928), pp. 1450–1456.
- Arnold Kludas : The History of German Passenger Shipping Vol. IV Destruction and Rebirth 1914 to 1930 , Writings of the German Maritime 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 Shipping Museum, Volume 22
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Kludas, Vol. IV, p. 193.
- ↑ a b c d e f g Kludas, Vol. IV, p. 192.
- ↑ Kludas, Vol. IV, p. 195.
- ↑ Kludas, Vol. V, p. 67.
- ↑ Kludas, Vol. V, p. 73.
- ^ Kludas, Vol. V, p. 147
- ↑ Jochen Brennecke: Black ships, wide seas. 4th edition, Heyne, Munich 1975, pp. 262ff.
- ↑ " Sea War, April 3-14, 1940 Norway"
- ↑ "Sea War, April 13-15, 1943 South Atlantic"
- ↑ a b Kludas, Vol. V, p. 70