Rugia (ship, 1905)
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The second Rugia of the Hamburg-American Packetfahrt-Actien-Gesellschaft (Hapag) was the third ship of the Rhenania class built by Bremer Vulkan for traffic to East Asia . A total of five ships ( Rhenania , Rhaetia , Hohenstaufen , Habsburg ) of this type were built.
After Hapag finally gave up passenger traffic to East Asia, the ships were used on other lines. Before the outbreak of World War I , the Rugia was last assigned to the line from Emden to the USA, which was opened in 1914 . She was in Emden when the war broke out and served the Imperial Navy as a barge there. In May 1919 the ship had to be delivered to Great Britain. In 1921, Hapag bought the ship back and deployed it to South America and then the West Indies.
In 1933 the Rugia in Hamburg was canceled.
In the service of Hapag
The first three ships of the Rhenania class were ordered by Hapag from Bremer Vulkan before the conclusion of the new order of the East Asia services with the NDL . The management of the Hamburg shipping company wanted to maintain a certain pressure on the NDL by procuring new ship material. The new ships should run to East Asia in 70 days, while the NDL on the Reichspostdampfer line had to process the voyages in 52 days. The ships were given twenty spacious two-bed cabins for the agreed upper limit of 40 passengers, which offered considerably more space than the ships of the generals class and at 900 marks were also considerably cheaper than the 2000 marks that the NDL charged for one passage .
The Rugia , launched in Vegesack on May 15, 1905 , took up the name of a North Atlantic liner from 1882 that Hapag had sold to France in 1895. The ship, which was taken over on August 27, 1905, began its maiden voyage to East Asia on September 25, on which the two sister ships Rhenania and Rhaetia, completed before her, as well as the similar Borussia delivered by the Germania shipyard had already been used. The uncertainty over the course of the Russo-Japanese War and the possibilities of use on the planned route had already led to an increase in the passenger facilities during the construction of the second and third ship, which could now accommodate 98 to 130 cabin passengers and room for 800 passengers in the intermediate deck in order to be used economically on other Hapag routes. As early as March 25, 1906, the Rugia sailed for the first time from Hamburg to New York and on May 13, she started the first voyage of a ship of the class to Brazil .
In 1909 the Rugia was first used as a troop transport with part of the replacement transport for the garrison of the Kiautschou protected area in East Asia when it left Wilhelmshaven on January 9th . The Hapag Spreewald left Bremen with the other part of the land troops on the same day . On April 8, both ships with the detached parts of the garrison returned to their ports of departure.
From 1913 the Rugia was used again in the North Atlantic. In addition to New York, it now also ran to Philadelphia . On May 1, 1914, she began her first trip with 700 emigrants in Emden. The two major German shipping companies had undertaken to regularly transport emigrants from Emden in order to prevent another planned emigration shipping company. When the First World War broke out, the Rugia was in Emden, while the sister ship Rhaetia, which was used together with her on the new line, was in Philadelphia. The Rugia was finally used in Emden by the Imperial Navy as a residential ship.
Post-war missions
Like all larger German ships, the Rugia had to be delivered due to the armistice agreement at the end of the World War and was transferred to Great Britain on May 20, 1919. It was initially used by the Union Castle Mail Line , then by the Ellerman Lines .
Hapag managed to buy back their ship as early as September 1921, which was then modernized. The Rugia received a new passenger facility for 75 passengers in the first class and 66 in the III. Great and was now measured with 6,672 GRT. On August 19, 1922, she started her first trip from Hamburg to New York. Then she followed her sister ship Teutonia (ex Habsburg ) in service to South America. In addition to these two ships, Hapag initially also used the Galicia (ex Thessalia , Kosmos-Dienst, 1904 FSG, 6146 GRT) on this route . In a severe Pampero , the Rugia stranded off Santa Rosa on July 10, 1923 and could only be removed in December after more than five months. The rebuilt ship came in 1924 together with the Teutonia and Galicia on the re-established route to the West Indies and Central America. In the course of the global economic crisis, the ship had to be laid up in 1932 and was then scrapped in 1933.
Fate of the sister ships
| Launched in service |
Surname | tonnage | Passengers | fate |
| August 26, 1904 December 5, 1904 |
Rhenania building no. 475 |
6,414 GRT | 40 I. Kl., 100 ZwD 1907: 97 I. Kl., 68 II. Kl., 100 III. Kl. |
December 24, 1904 maiden voyage to East Asia, 1908 Kosmos-service to the American West Coast, 1910 Reichspostdampfer line to East Africa, August 1914 in Naples renamed, seized in 1915 by Italy and Feltre , on 25 May 1916 by UB 32 east Flamborough Head sunk |
| November 5, 1904 May 12, 1905 |
Rhaetia construction no. 476 |
6,600 GRT | 98 I. Kl., 802 ZwD | May 27, 1905 maiden voyage to New York, August 30, 1905 first voyage to East Asia, 1906 service in Brazil, 1909 on the North Atlantic (also Philadelphia and Boston), 1914 in Philadelphia, confiscated by the USA in 1917 and renamed Black Hawk , then Black Arrow , 1924 demolished |
| 05/25/1906 07/30/1906 |
Habsburg building no. 490 |
6,437 GRT | 42 I. Kl., 100 ZwD 1908: 63 I. Kl., 900 ZwD. |
August 20, 1906 maiden voyage to East Asia, 1909 service in Brazil, 1914 Hamburg, 1921 renaming to Teutonia , South America, then West India service, 1933 abandoned |
| 08/18/1906 10/16/1906 |
Hohenstaufen building no. 485 |
6,489 GRT | 42 I. Kl., 100 ZwD 1908: 63 I. Kl., 1,100 ZwD. |
20th October 1906 maiden voyage to East Asia, 1908 Kosmos, 1909 Brazil service, 1914 Rio de Janeiro , 1917 confiscated by Brazil and renamed Cuyaba , 1964 demolished |
literature
- Arnold Kludas : The History of German Passenger Shipping. Vol. III: Rapid growth 1900 to 1914, writings of the German Maritime Museum, volume 20.
- Arnold Kludas: The History of German Passenger Shipping. Vol. IV: Annihilation and Rebirth 1914 to 1930, Writings of the German Maritime Museum, Volume 21.
- Claus Rothe: German ocean passenger ships 1896 to 1918. Steiger Verlag, 1986, ISBN 3-921564-80-8 .