South Sea (ship)
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CA Larsen and Torodd about 1933
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The whaling - factory ship South Sea created in 1928 through the conversion of cable laying machine Colonia in the Norwegian factory ship Torodd . After being sold within Norway, the ship was renamed Sydis in 1934. In 1937 the German Reich was able to buy the ship. Under the name Südmeer , it was used by the Hamburg whaling office in the fishing seasons 1937/1938 and 1938/1939 in the Southern Ocean.
In the Second World War , the Navy used the ship as an oil transporter from 1942 and temporarily stationed it in Kirkenes . On October 14, 1944, the Südmeer was sunk in an Allied air raid near Honningsvåg , making it the last whaling factory ship to be lost in World War II.
Building history
The ship was built as a cable lay at the Wigham, Richardson & Co. Ltd. shipyard . in Walker near Newcastle upon Tyne on behalf of Telegraph Construction & Maintenance Co. , London, for the laying of a trans-Pacific cable. On February 14, 1901, the Colonia, with its hull reminiscent of a clipper, was launched as the world's largest cable lay. The size was necessary to accommodate the cable lengths on board for the large distances to be overcome in the Pacific. A total of around 5600 km of cable could be stowed in four round cable tanks with slightly different dimensions. On May 6, 1902, the new ship carried out its first major sea trial along the British east coast. Then the cable lay marched into the Pacific.
Use as a cable layer
In 1902 the Colonia began laying a cable from Bamfield ( Vancouver Island ) to Fanning Island , for which it was designed. She was supported by the cable laying company Anglia (1889 / 6,514 GRT) and laid the cable via Fiji and the Norfolk Islands to Queensland . In addition, a cable was laid from Australia to New Zealand . From 1903 she took over the laying of the US American transpacific cable and laid the cable from Honolulu to Midway (2,474 km), on to Guam (4919 km) and from there to Manila (3,041 km).
In 1905, Colonia in the North Atlantic was supposed to lay a fourth telegraph cable from America to Europe on the northern route. While leaving Halifax, Nova Scotia in mid-August, she struck a rock and suffered a leak in a ballast tank. The feared loss of the almost new ship and the twice as valuable cable on board could be prevented, since the cable was reloaded to the American cable layman Mackay Bennet and then the leak was sealed. The Colonia was brought back to Halifax for repairs and was able to resume work in September, with the support of Mackay Bennet and the new Cambria (1906, 1955 BRT). In the following years, the ship was in use in various areas of the Atlantic, but also in the Mediterranean, Red Sea and Indian Ocean.
During the First World War , the ship was mainly busy with repair work on the submarine cables, but also laid some new lines of importance, such as a cable from Peterhead to Alexandrowsk near Murmansk and a new cable from New York via Cuba to Panama .
After the end of the war, the Colonia was used on the American continent and in 1919 moved a connection from Rio de Janeiro to Ascension over 3898 km. The operating company procured a new ship for the plan to lay a second transpacific cable from Canada to Australia. The Dominia , completed by Swan Hunter in Wallsend in 1926 , became the largest cable lay in the world with its 9273 GRT. The acquisition of the new ship made the Colonia superfluous. Still used in the Mediterranean in 1927 and 1928, the cable layer, which had laid almost 150,000 km of cable, was sold in 1928 to the whaling company A / S "Odd" in Sandefjord .
Conversion to a whaling factory ship
1928 bought by the whaling company A / S "Odd" was Colonia in Framnäs MV in Sandefjord to whaling - factory ship rebuilt. Unlike the tankers San Nazario and San Lorenzo (to Thorshammer and Ole Wegger ), which are also being converted for the shipowner Lars Christensen , the old and smaller ship was immediately given a stern lift to pull the whales hunted by their fishing boats on board, and so on Processing easier to carry out. The former Colonia , renamed Torodd , was to replace the older factory ship Pythia with its new owner .
Norwegian flag whaling
The Torodd was first used in the Southern Ocean in 1928 with four fishing boats and remained in service until the entire Norwegian whaling fleet was launched in 1931. After that, A / S Odd only used the newly acquired Solglimt and Torodd remained in reserve.
In the summer of 1934 the ship with older fishing boats was sold to "Norske Hvalprodukter A / S" in Oslo, run by Nordstrøm, Jespersen & Co. This had new processing plants installed in order to be able to produce not only whale oil, but also other products and renamed the ship Sydis . As early as the 1934/1935 season, the Sydis was used with five whalers off the Antarctic. In the 1936/1937 season she was the factory ship with the largest meat meal production.
Sale to Germany
In 1937 the factory ship with its fishing boats was sold to Germany. The employment contracts of the 280 Norwegians deployed on the ships were also taken over. The new owner became the "Deutsche Oelmühlen Rohstoff GmbH", which renamed the factory ship in Südmeer and the fishing boats in Süd 1 to Süd 5 .
| Fishing boat | GRT | Length (m) | Width (m) | PSi | Kn | crew | Construction year | Shipyard | comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| South I. | 220 | 33.30 | 6.60 | 700 | 11.5 | 15th | 1925 | Framnes MV, Sandefjord | ex Isen (1934), Grib |
| South II | 219 | 33.30 | 6.60 | 700 | 11.5 | 15th | 1925 | Framnes MV | ex ?? (1934), Hauken |
| South III | 201 | 33.70 | 6.60 | 700 | 11.5 | 15th | 1924 | Akers MV, Oslo | ex Istre (1934), Thor Junior |
| South IV | 201 | 33.70 | 6.60 | 700 | 11.5 | 15th | 1924 | Akers MV, | ex Isfire (1934), Thor Sr. |
| South V | 220 | 33.30 | 6.60 | 700 | 11.5 | 15th | 1924 | Framnes MV, | ex Isfem (1934), Neb |
In the first season, the Salvesen shipping company also chartered the British flag whalers Shera and Stefa (253 GRT, 35.4 - 7.4 m, 850 hp, 12 kn, 15 men, 1929 Smith's Dock , Middlesbrough ). These were to be replaced in 1939 by two new buildings ordered from Seebeck in Wesermünde , South VI and South VII (381 GRT, 40.4 - 8.1 m, 1700 hp, 14 kn, 15 men), but these were designated as Wiking 9 and Wiking 10 were delivered.
The "Hamburger Walfang Kontor", which also coordinated the use of the rented factory ships CA Larsen and Skytteren , and in the following year also took over the purchased factory ship Wikinger ex Vikingen, was in charge of operations.
Remaining in World War II
The Südmeer was in Hamburg when the war broke out. In 1940 she was taken over by the Navy and used for transports and as a stationary tanker and workshop ship. At times she served as a base ship in Kirkenes. On October 14, 1944, the Südmeer was sunk by Allied aircraft near Honningsvåg .
literature
- Joh. N. Tønnessen, Arne Odd Johnsen: The History of Modern Whaling , University of California Press (1982), ISBN 0-520-03973-4
- Dieter Vierus: Cable layers from all over the world , transpress VEB Verlag für Verkehrwesen , Berlin (1989), ISBN 3-344-00394-1
Web links
- History of Colonia
- Website about Swan, Hunter & Wigham Richardson (English)
- Torodd Lardex.net
Individual evidence
- ↑ Vierus, p. 83
- ^ Factory ship Pythia
- ↑ Tønnessen, p. 720.
- ↑ Whalers Grib
- ↑ Whaler Thor Junior (2)
- ^ Whaler Thor Senior
- ↑ Whalers Neb