SMH Glyndwr

SMH Glyndwr was originally a British cargo ship that was confiscated by the Imperial Navy of the German Empire during World War I and converted into an aircraft mother ship.

Construction and technical data

The ship was launched in October 1904 at Blohm & Voss in Hamburg under the name Craig Ronald from the stack . In 1911 it was renamed Glyndwr . The ship was 100.8 m long and 13.4 m wide and had a draft of 5.8 m. It had two steam boilers and a triple expansion steam engine that developed 1,600 hp and enabled the ship to travel at a top speed of 10 knots .

First World War

The outbreak of war surprised the ship in Danzig , where it was confiscated by the German Navy. It was then modified into an aircraft mother ship with relatively little effort and put into service on December 16, 1914 as SMH Glyndwr . SMH stood for His Majesty's Auxiliary Ship. The ship had no hangars , but carried up to four seaplanes on the cargo decks in front of and behind the superstructures. A heavy cargo boom was used on the fore and aft deck to set down and pick up the aircraft . The ship was armed with two 10.5 cm guns, had a crew of 91 and displaced about 6000 t.

Until March 1915, the Glyndwr was used in the Danzig Bay for the training of pilots and observers and for testing aerial reconnaissance against submarines. Towards the end of March 1915, the ship moved to Memel in order to carry out aerial reconnaissance from there using its four aircraft. On June 4, 1915, it suffered significant damage from mines that was not fully repaired, and from September 1916 it was then only used as a Hulk .

Whereabouts

After the end of the war, the ship was delivered to Great Britain on January 21, 1919, where it was completely overhauled and then returned to freight service under the name Akenside , from the 1920s under the Greek flag and the name Agia Varvara . The ship was scrapped around 1955.

Web link

Glyndwr, at World Aircraft Carriers List: Germany (with photo)

literature

Dieter Jung, Berndt Wenzel, Arno Abendroth: Ships and boats of the German sea pilots. 1912-1976 : 1st edition: Motor Buch Verlag, Stuttgart 1977 ;. ISBN 3-87943-469-7

Individual evidence

↑ Erich Killinger, Flucht um die Erde , Berlin: Ullstein AG, 1934, pp. 14-19.
^ Heinrich Rollmann, The War in the Baltic Sea , Volume II, Berlin: ES Mittler & Sohn, 1929, pp. 32–35.

[1] Erich Killinger, Flucht um die Erde , Berlin: Ullstein AG, 1934, pp. 14-19.

[2] Heinrich Rollmann, The War in the Baltic Sea , Volume II, Berlin: ES Mittler & Sohn, 1929, pp. 32–35.