SMS ship K
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| Ship data | ||
| Ship name | SMS ship K ex. Crown Prince Wilhelm ex. Gratia ex. Marie |
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| Ship type | Special ship submarine trap |
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| Ship class | Passenger steamer | |
| Keel laying : | 1914 | |
| Launching ( ship christening ): | 1914 | |
| Commissioning as an auxiliary cruiser: | December 1914 | |
| Builder: |
Stettiner Oderwerke construction number: 654 |
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| Crew: | 70-81 men | |
| Whereabouts: | Sunk on November 2, 1917 in the Kattegat at position 56 ° 29 ′ 44 ″ N , 12 ° 11 ′ 23 ″ E | |
| Technical specifications | ||
| Displacement : | 2560 t maximum: 11,200 t |
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| Length: | 77.02 m | |
| Width: | 10.86 m | |
| Volume: | 1768 GRT | |
| Draft : | 5.1 m | |
| Machinery: | 2 steam boilers 1 standing 3-cylinder triple expansion steam engine |
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| Number of screws: | 1 × three-leaf Ø xm | |
| Shaft speed: | × 1 / min | |
| Power: | 1500 hp | |
| Top speed: | 14 kn | |
| Fuel supply: | Tons of coal | |
| Armament | ||
| Sea target guns: | 4 Tk - 10.5 cm L / 35 (122 hm , 600 shots) |
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| Commanders | ||
| Captainleutnant d. R. | Julius Lauterbach | |
The ship K was a German auxiliary ship and a submarine trap in the First World War with the main area of operation in the Baltic Sea and Sound surveillance.
prehistory
Soon after the outbreak of war in 1914, the responsible authorities on the German side became aware of the importance of the Swedish ore supply via the Baltic Sea. Since the Russian fleet, despite its numerical superiority, remained largely inactive in its bases, the guerrilla war, fought mainly by submarines and less by destroyers, gained immense importance. The British had sent a total of ten C- and E-class submarines to the Baltic Sea to support their Russian allies by 1916, which caused major losses to German shipping and the Imperial Navy .
In order to be able to fight the submarines more effectively, the Navy introduced the convoy system on April 7, 1916 and protected the merchant ships with coastal torpedo boats , mainly of the A-II and A-III classes , auxiliary ships and the option of (neutral) Swedish To be allowed to sail in territorial waters.
Ship K
The auxiliary ship K was originally built in 1914 by the Stettiner Oderwerke as a passenger steamer Crown Prince Wilhelm for the Stettin-Rigaer steamship company . In 1915 the Navy took over the ship and converted it into a submarine trap. On November 12, 1915, it was assigned to the I. Handels-Schutz-Flotilla in the Baltic Sea as ship K (code name Gratia) and accompanied convoys to secure submarines. In one of these ventures the ship ran aground on January 3, 1916 and had to be towed free by German torpedo boats. As a result, the existence of German submarine traps in the Baltic Sea became known internationally through the neutral Swedish press. On May 27, the ship K severely damaged the Russian submarine Gepard of the Bars class by ramming it and successfully pushed the bars away the following day . In August, Crown Prince Wilhelm managed to damage the British boat HMS E43 .
Until October 2009 it was presumed that ship K was also responsible for the loss of the British submarine HMS E18 on May 24, 1916. This assumption has not been confirmed because the wreck of HMS E18 off the west coast of the Estonian island of Hiiumaa . was found and probably fell victim to a mine hit there.
loss
In March 1917 the ship was assigned to the special flotilla, whose task was to protect German fishing vessels in the Kattegat . From the autumn of 1917 the British tried repeatedly to invade the Kattegat. This was mainly done to investigate German armed forces, as one of the main exit routes of German submarines ran along here and to determine the strength and effectiveness of the sound guard. Among other things, mine belts were laid between Skagen and Læsø to block shipping routes.
On November 2, 1917, took 15th destroyer flotilla (15th Destroyer Flotilla) of the Royal Navy with 13 destroyers, led by Flottillenführers HMS Parker and remote backup of two light cruiser squadrons and II. Battlecruiser squadron a coup against the fishing vessels in the Kattegat. Despite strong resistance, the ship K was unable to protect the fishing boats. It was sunk northwest of Kullen along with eight trawlers . 30 of the crew of 81 men died, 17 were rescued by a Danish steamer, the rest by a British destroyer .
The wreck was submerged in February 1999.
Individual evidence
- ↑ The War at Sea 1914-18. Ernst Freiherr von Gagern: The War in the Baltic Sea Vol. 3 From the beginning of 1916 to the end of the war Frankfurt / Main: ES Mittler & Sohn 1964 p. 31
- ^ Heinrich Rollmann: War at sea. Baltic Sea Vol. 2, p. 354
- ↑ Wreck in the Baltic Sea. Expedition discovers submarine from the First World War. In: Spiegel Online , October 23, 2009, about the whereabouts of E18 .
literature
- Lutz Bengelsdorf: The naval war in the Baltic Sea 1914-1918. Hauschild, Herford 2008, ISBN 978-3897574045 .
- Erich Gröner , Dieter Jung, Martin Maass: The German warships 1815-1945. Vol. 8/2 outpost boats, auxiliary minesweepers, coastal protection associations. Bernard & Graefe, Bonn 1993, ISBN 978-3763748082 .
Web links
- The German trawler fleet in the Kattegat. Brief description of action with a picture of K . Archived from the original on January 14, 2013 ; accessed on January 14, 2016 .