SMH Oswald
His Majesty's auxiliary ship (SMH) Oswald was an originally British cargo ship that was confiscated by the Imperial Navy of the German Reich during World War I and converted first into a tender for mine clearance boats and then into an aircraft mother ship.
The ship was launched in November 1905 at the shipyard of JL Thompson and Sons in Sunderland (North East England) from the stack . It was 112.7 m long and 15 m wide and had a 6.7 m draft. It had two steam boilers and a triple expansion steam engine that developed 2200 hp and allowed a top speed of 10 knots .
First World War
When war broke out in August 1914, the ship was in Danzig , where it was confiscated by the Imperial Navy and initially converted into a supply ship for mine clearance boats operating in the Baltic Sea. Until the end of 1917 the ship served in this function and as a transporter. From February 1918 the ship was converted into an airplane tender in Danzig at great expense and as such, with the number FS III , put into service on July 17, 1918. The Oswald now had a hangar fore and aft, each behind the mast, and could accommodate up to four aircraft. Both masts were provided with heavy cargo booms for setting down and picking up the aircraft. The armament consisted of two 8.8-cm anti-aircraft guns , the crew of 95 men. The water displacement was 7,640 tons.
Whereabouts
The ship was delivered to the United Kingdom in December 1919 . It was sold to Japan in 1924 , where it was used in freight service under the name Eian Maru . The Eian Maru was sunk by American aircraft on July 25, 1945 towards the end of World War II .
Web links
literature
- Dieter Jung, Berndt Wenzel, Arno Abendroth: Ships and boats of the German sea pilots 1912-1976 , 1st edition, Motor Buch Verlag, Stuttgart, 1977