Rhineland class

Rhineland class
The former Pomerania as USS Rappahannock , 1924
Launch :	May 18, 1912 - November 3, 1914
Commissioning:	June 23, 1912 - February 1915
Builders:	Bremer Vulkan , Vegesack, BauNr. 556, 555, 563/4, 569/70, 571/2 Joh. C. Tecklenborg -Werft, Geestemünde, building no. 264/5 Flensburger Schiffsbau Gesellschaft , building no. 340/1
Sister ships:	Rhineland , Alsace , Pomerania , Posen , Mark (II), Palatinate , Anhalt , Waldeck . Altenburg , Meiningen . Dessau , Lippe
Passengers:	some 6 1st class
Crew:	54 - 56 men
Technical specifications
Measurement:	6,557 - 6,742 GRT
Load capacity:	9,810 - 11,460 dw
Length over all:	149.35 - 150.15 m
Width:	18.04-18.08 m
Draft :	7.9 m
Machinery:	Triple expansion machine
Number of screws:	1
Power:	4,000 PSi
Top speed:	12.5 kn
Whereabouts
1912–1919, 1924–1933 NDL 1920–1966 loss / demolition

The Rhineland class was a series of twelve freighters commissioned by North German Lloyd and completed between 1912 and 1915.

Eight were made by the Bremer Vulkan , two ships each were built by the Joh. C. Tecklenborg shipyard and the Flensburger Schiffsbau Gesellschaft . With a size of 6557 to 6742 GRT, a carrying capacity of 9,810 - 11,460 dwt, the ships equipped with a triple expansion steam engine of 4000 hp were 12.5 knots fast. They were 149.35 to 150.15 m long and 18.04 / 18.08 m wide and had a crew of 54/56 men. From the Waldeck onwards , the ships were equipped with cabin equipment for 6 first class passengers.

The development of the type was determined by the attitude of Lloyd that a profitable trip to Australia was not possible under the specifications of the postal contract . The NDL relied on a pure freight line around the Cape of Good Hope , which had already been opened in July 1907, after the Lloyd carried out its first pure freight service to Australia on October 18, 1905, through the Mediterranean and then along the Dutch East Indies via Padang , Batavia , Soerabaya to Townsville , Brisbane and Sydney had started with the Franconia and thus operated a second German line alongside the Hamburg German-Australian Steamship Company (DADG).

The Palatinate made history on August 5, 1914 when Australian artillery prevented it from leaving Melbourne , firing the Allied first shot at a German ship in World War I.

Use at the NDL

On June 23, 1912, the Rheinland (Bremer Vulkan, hull no. 556) was the first ship of this class to enter service, followed by the Alsace (hull no. 555) in 1912 . In 1913 the same shipyard also delivered the Pommern , Posen , Mark (II) - the only ship of the class that was mainly used in East Asia - and the Pfalz (construction no. 563/564, 569/570). In 1914, the Anhalt followed on March 20 (7th ship) and, after the outbreak of war, the Waldeck on November 6, 1914 (construction no. 571/572).

The new freighters enabled the NDL to concentrate its freight service to Australia on weekly departures. For 1914, in addition to 13 Reichspostdampfer departures, departures from 35 freight steamers were planned. From October 1914 New Zealand should also be included in the service.

At or after the beginning of the war, the following freighters were laid up / confiscated abroad:

1914 abroad
Rhineland	06/23/1912	08/11/1914 Padang
Alsace	08/17/1912	August 12, 1914 Pago Pago / Samoa, 1917 confiscated
Pomerania	06/03/1913	??. 08.1914 Honolulu , confiscated in 1917
Poses	08/22/1913	??. 08.1914 Rio de Janeiro , confiscated in 1917
mark	11/13/1913	August 1, 1914 Kobe , supplier, October 7, 1914 Manila , 1917 confiscated
Palatinate	December 19, 1913	08/05/1914 Melbourne confiscated
Stop	03/20/1914	08/24/1914 Telok Betong , on Sundastrasse

The two ships built at the Tecklenborg shipyard Altenburg and Meiningen (December 2, 1914 and February 1915, construction no. 264/265) and the Dessau and Lippe built in Flensburg (December 8, 1914 and February 2, 1915, construction No. 340/341) were only delivered to the NDL during the war.

War missions

The Mark under Captain Lion was equipped in Kobe in August 1914 with 4,000 tons of coal to supply the units of the Imperial Navy and joined the units of the East Asia Squadron at Pagan . In the entourage of the squadron she ran on via Eniwetok to Majuro . There she parted with the auxiliary cruisers Prinz Eitel Friedrich and SMS Cormoran from the squadron and only ran towards New Guinea and after all supplies had been handed over to the Philippines . It was launched in Manila on October 7, 1914, confiscated in 1917 and renamed Suwanee .

The Palatinate tried to leave Melbourne on August 5, 1914 . The Australian artillery at Fort Nepean at the exit of Port Phillip Bay fired a warning shot that stopped the ship and was the first Allied shot at a ship in World War I. The confiscated Palatinate remained in use as a boorara for British companies until 1926. She brought Australian troops to the Dardanelles , was badly damaged in July 1915 by a collision with the French cruiser Kléber . After repairs, she was torpedoed twice in the English Channel in 1918 . Reconditioned, it was used to repatriate Australian troops from Europe and the Middle East.

Of the five ships of the class that were only completed during the war, only the Altenburg was used as a transporter during the 1917/18 landings on Oesel and in Finland .

Operations under the US flag

All ships under US control were put into service in 1917.

Alsace , confiscated in Samoa, was renamed Appeles . In the service of Kerr Navigation in 1920/21 she became a Kermit , in 1923 she was sold to United American Lines , in 1927 to American Hawaiian Steamship , which she renamed Nebraskan . Briefly loaned to the Soviet Union ( Sukhona ) in 1943 , she returned to US service in 1944 and was canceled in 1948.

Pomerania , which was confiscated in Honolulu, was put into service as a horse truck on December 8, 1917 under the name Rappahannock . On November 16, 1918, she reached France on her fourth voyage, five days after the armistice. She made another tour USA - France before she was decommissioned in the summer of 1919. From June 1922 to December 10, 1924, she served again in the US Navy as the USS Rappahannock (AF-6) supply . On October 5, 1933 it went to the R. Luckenbach Steamship Co. as William Luckenbach . 1946, sold to Italy as Maria C , it was launched at the end of 1952 and scrapped in 1953.

The mark confiscated in Manila was used as a US transporter Suwanee . In 1920 she became the Poznan of the Polish American Navigation and in 1922 the Paul Luckenbach of the R. Luckenbach Steamship . In 1942 she was sunk in the Indian Ocean by a Japanese submarine.

Operations under other flags

Posen , confiscated in Brazil, was renamed Almirante Eliszario and in 1918 Belmonte . In 1921 she was chartered to France, but came back to Brazil and was renamed Mandu . She remained - from 1956 under the name Comandante Martini - until 1966, when she burned out in Macau , in the Brazilian service.

The Palatinate , confiscated in Melbourne in 1914, was immediately used as a boorara . It was registered in Syria in 1926 and renamed Nereus . In 1937 she ran aground near Vancouver .

The Rhineland in Padang came under the British flag, was renamed Morton Abbey in 1921 and the Abbekerk of the Vereenigde Nederlandsche Scheepvaartmaatschappij (VNS) in 1922 . At the end of 1931 it was sold to Japan for demolition.

The Anhalt initially came under the British flag. In 1921 it was sold to Spain and renamed Aya Mendi . On January 23, 1925, the NDL bought back its former ship.

The Dessau were also delivered to Great Britain . It was bought back by Voreda in 1922 and by NDL in 1924.

The Lippe was also delivered to Great Britain in 1919. It became the Trestisthney in 1921 and the Pipiriki in 1924 . It was launched in 1929 and scrapped in 1933.

The three remaining ships were delivered to France in 1919.

The Altenburg became the Camranh of the Chargeurs Réunis and was lost in September 1920 when it was stranded in the Strait of Malacca .

The Waldeck became the Dalny of the same shipping company. The ship was taken possession of by the German occupying forces in Marseille in December 1942 as part of the Laval-Kaufmann Agreement , but was torpedoed and sunk by a British submarine on January 10, 1943 on its transfer journey to Genoa .

The Meiningen came as Si Kiang for the Messageries Maritimes in service. It was bombed by Japanese planes off Manila in December 1941 and burned out.

Re-use at the NDL

In October 1924, the NDL bought the Voreba ex Dessau back from Great Britain to use it on the East Asian route. It was launched on May 1, 1933 and broken up in 1935.

On January 23, 1925, the NDL bought back its former Anhalt from Spain and deployed it to East Asia. In 1932 it was sold to the Soviet Union, which used it as Kharkov on the Black Sea. In 1941 it was self- sunk in Nikolajew , but lifted, repaired and started up as Boy Feddersen by the Germans . It was then sunk by a Soviet submarine in 1943.

literature

Carl Herbert: War voyages of German merchant ships . Broschek & Co, Hamburg 1934.
Arnold Kludas : The History of German Passenger Shipping 1850 to 1990 . Ernst Kabel Verlag, 1986.
Arnold Kludas: The ships of the North German Lloyd 1857 to 1919 . Koehlers Verlagsgesellschaft, Herford 1991, ISBN 3-7822-0524-3 .
Otto J. Seiler: Australienfahrt , ES Mittler & Sohn, Herford 1988, ISBN 3-8132-0270-4 .

Web links

[1] Picture of BOORARA ex PFALZ
NavSource Online: Service Ship Photo Archive - ID-1854 / AF-6 Rappahannock
[2] Department of the Navy: Naval Historical Center Online Library of Selected Images: ID-1854 / AF-6 Rappahannock
[3] Department of the Navy: Naval Historical Center Online Library of Selected Images: Civilian Ships: SS Suwanee