SMS Wolf (1906)
| SMS Wolf | ||
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_ex_BELGRAVIA_auf_der_Jade_ein_Linienschiff_passierend._Aufnahmedatum_unbekannt,_vermutlich_Januar_1916.jpg) German auxiliary cruiser SMS WOLF (I) ex BELGRAVIA passing a liner on the Jade (date of photo unknown, probably January 1916). |
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| Ship data | ||
| Ship name | SMS Wolf ex. Belgravia | |
| Ship type | Auxiliary cruiser | |
| Ship class | freighter | |
| Keel laying : | 1905/06 (?) | |
| Launching ( ship christening ): | May 10, 1906 | |
| Commissioning as an auxiliary cruiser: | January 14, 1916 | |
| Builder: | Workman, Clark ; Belfast (construction no.231) | |
| Shipping company: | Hamburg America Line , Hamburg | |
| Crew (as auxiliary cruiser): | 16 officers, 345 men | |
| Whereabouts: | It ran aground on the island of Neuwerk in the mouth of the Elbe , delivered to France on May 3, 1919, scrapped in Genoa in 1934 . | |
| Technical specifications | ||
| Displacement: | 12,900 t |
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| Length over all: | 141.1 m | |
| Width: | 16.23 m | |
| Height (railing): | xm | |
| Registered tonnage: | 6648 GRT | |
| Depth in case of deployment displacement: | 7.8 m | |
| Machinery: | 1 standing four-cylinder, four-fold expansion steam engine , four cylinder boilers, one propeller shaft | |
| Boiler pressure: | 15 atü | |
| Number of screws: | 1 × leaf Ø xm | |
| Shaft speed: | × 1 / min | |
| Top speed when driving miles: | 13 kn | |
| Performance at top speed: | 3,300 PSi | |
| Construction speed: | 11.5 kn | |
| Fuel supply: | 5,900 tons of coal | |
| Driving distance: | 30,000 nm at 10 kn | |
| Armament | ||
| Artillery: | four 15 cm SK L / 40 as a primary armament and two 3.7-cm automatic cannons | |
| Max. Range d. Main armament: | 13,700 m | |
| Torpedo tubes: | two 50 cm deck tubes | |
| Mines: | 600 | |
| Infantry weapons: | Handguns | |
| Ammunition doping: | 600 rounds of 15 cm grenades and 16 torpedoes C / 08 (caliber 50 cm). | |
| Armor protection: | none | |
| commander | ||
| Corvette Captain | Curt Hermann (1881-1927) | |
SMS Wolf (III) was the former HAPAG - steamship Belgravia , of the Imperial Navy after the outbreak of the First World War was rebuilt and equipped with weapons as auxiliary cruiser to do service. However, after its commissioning in early 1916, the ship was so severely damaged when it ran aground on a sandbank that it was no longer used as an auxiliary cruiser.
Equipment as an auxiliary cruiser
In January 1916, the Belgravia was equipped and put into service as an auxiliary cruiser Wolf under Corvette Captain Curt Hermann. The armament was distributed over the forecastle . The four guns stood in pairs in front of and behind the foremast and were covered by camouflage flaps. The two torpedo tubes in each of control and port also hidden behind Tarnklappen just before the bridge construction. The ship received a fog machine to make it unrecognizable in the event of danger. A dummy chimney , false portholes and adjustable masts were also used to camouflage themselves from espionage .
The teams were not given any further information about the purpose and destination of the upcoming trip. Only the provisions, also for tropical latitudes, and the coal supply indicated to the sailors a longer patrol .
Failed patrol
On February 26, 1916, the Wolf ran out of Hamburg for the first and only patrol. The weather worsened already while sailing. Storm and blowing snow came up. On the same day the Wolf ran aground near Neuwerk in the Elbe estuary, whereby the propulsion system became unusable because of the deflection. With the help of the steamers Retter and Goliath , water ingress could be brought under control. The damage was so severe that the Wolf had to be towed back to the port of Hamburg by several torpedo boats .
On February 28, 1916, the auxiliary cruiser was decommissioned.
Whereabouts
On April 1, 1916, the ship was again returned as Belgravia to HAPAG , which launched it.
After the end of the First World War she was awarded to France as war indemnity and extradited to Cherbourg on May 3, 1919 . The Compagnie Générale Transatlantique in Le Havre bought the ship to have it registered as Iowa in 1922 . In April 1934, the Iowa was finally sold to a shipyard in Genoa and scrapped.
One name, two auxiliary cruisers
A few months after the Wolf's failed patrol , the steamer of the Hansa Line Wachtfels was converted as an auxiliary cruiser and also put into service under the name Wolf . The crew was partially taken over.
The writer Theodor Plievier was a sailor on both auxiliary cruisers. He processed the equipment and failed patrol of the ex-Belgravia in his autobiographical novel Des Kaiser Kulis .
literature
- John Walter: Pirates of the Emperor - German trade troublemakers 1914-1918 . Motorbuch Verlag, Stuttgart 1996, pp. 186f. ISBN 3-613-01729-6
- Theodor Plievier: The emperor's coolies - novel of the German navy . Aufbau-Verlag, Berlin / Weimar 1985, p. 129ff.
- Hans H. Hildebrand, Albert Röhr, Hans-Otto Steinmetz: The German warships. Biographies - a mirror of naval history from 1815 to the present . One volume reprint of the seven-volume original edition. 6th volume. Mundus, Ratingen 1983, ISBN 3-88385-028-4 , p. 105.