The Söderhamn was a cargo ship that was built in 1899 for the H. M. Gehrckens shipping company in Hamburg . After the end of the Second World War , she was the largest cargo ship flying the "Charlie" flag (German transitional trade flag) for several years.
When Söderhamn was launched on March 11, 1899 by Helsingørs Jernskibs- og Maskinbyggeri A / S in Helsingør with hull number 76, the ship was operated by the H. M. Gehrckens shipping company until the end of the Second World War . The ship, which was originally designed for the liner service to Scandinavia, was used at the beginning of the 20th century for supply trips to Walvis Bay , South West Africa , where it was also located in 1904 during the Herero uprising. During the First World War , the ship was used again in the Baltic Sea. In 1915 the Söderhamn was torpedoed, but thanks to its timber cargo it did not sink. After the end of the war, the freighter had to be delivered to Great Britain, but could be bought back in 1921. In the 1930s, the ship belonged to Nautik GmbH for a few years, but was reintegrated with Gehrckens in 1937.
In November 1944 the ship had a collision with a larger steamer in the Baltic Sea, in which it was torn from the railing to the bilges aft, but again did not sink. After a repair in Gdansk, it was used to rescue refugees. Under the command of Captain Kurt Timm, the Söderhamn brought 19,350 refugees from East Prussia and Pomerania across the Baltic Sea to Schleswig-Holstein and Mecklenburg in nine voyages, starting on January 30, 1945 until arriving at the Scheerhafen in Kiel on April 8, 1945.
At the end of the war in May 1945, the Söderhamn in Kiel was confiscated by the British Ministry of War Transport and renamed Empire Congham . Her new home port was London, with William Robertson Ltd. In 1946 the ship was returned to the Gehrkens shipping company, presumably because it was not of interest to the victorious powers due to its old age and size. After the renaming in Söderhamn , the ship was operated by the Gehrckens shipping company until 1958 and was the largest ship in the German merchant fleet for a few years. In 1958 the aged ship was finally demolished in Hamburg.
literature
Erik Verg: Under the blue flag. 150 years of HM Gehrckens . Ed .: HM Gehrckens. Self-published, Hamburg 1980.
