Swan (ship, 1938)
The Schwan was a combination ship built in 1938 by the German Argo shipping company Richard Adler & Co. , which was used by the Navy as a barrier breaker during World War II and, after the war, only sailed under the British and finally the South African flag until 1962.
Construction and technical data
The ship was on 10 June 1938 on the shipyard of Howaldtswerke AG in Kiel with the hull number 772 from the stack . It was 74.2 m long and 11.7 m wide, had a draft of 4.6 m and was measured at 1311 GRT . A 2-cylinder compound steam engine with a low-pressure steam turbine from Deschimag produced 1350 hp and a speed of 11.5 knots via a shaft .
Sister ship was the 1304 BRT Heron , also built by Howaldtswerke in 1938 , which was also requisitioned by the Navy in 1939 and used as a command ship. Somewhat larger half-sisters were the Adler (1494 GRT) and the Habicht (1577 GRT).
career
Pre-war period
The Schwan was put into service by the Argo Reederei in July 1938 and drove between Bremen and the English North Sea ports until August 1939 .
Second World War
After the war began, it was requisitioned by the Navy and on 12 September 1939 as a patrol boat V 101 used in the first formed in Kiel Vorpostenflottille where they previously her shortly also requisitioned sister ship herons replaced.
In 1940 the ship was converted to a Sperrbrecher, and after the 1st outpost flotilla was renamed the 3rd Sperrbrecherflotille on October 1, 1940, the former Schwan was given the new name Sperrbrecher 31 on October 16, 1940 . On July 15, 1941, it was renamed to Sperrbrecher 131 . It was armed with two 8.8 cm anti -aircraft guns and eight 2 cm anti-aircraft guns. Twelve Junkers aircraft engines in the aft ship generated the electricity for generating the electromagnetic force field through the VES system . The task of the flotilla stationed in Aarhus was to clear and keep clear the exit routes of the German submarines through the Danish approaches to the Baltic Sea ( Little Belt , Great Belt and Öresund ).
Post-war years
The ship was initially British spoils at the end of the war in May 1945, then served in the German mine clearing service until 1947 . On September 12, 1947 was Sperrbrecher 131 carved out of the mine clearing service and the following day in Hull as reparations passed and Britain launched . Even when Atkinson & Prickett from Hull bought the ship in 1948 and renamed it Weltonwold , it continued to hang up. A fire in December 1948 caused considerable damage. In September 1949 the ship was sold to the Currie Line in Leith and renamed Rhineland . In 1956 it was sold again, this time to PD Hendry & Sons in Glasgow , who named the ship Herriesbrook and passed it on to South Africa in November 1956 , to Smith's Coasters (Pty.) Ltd. in Durban . There it was used under the new name Inyoni in coastal traffic between Durban and Cape Town until it was canceled in Durban in August 1962.
Footnotes
- ^ German digital library archive portal: Sperrbrecher 131
- ↑ Instead, Die Reiher joined the Lock Guard Service Sund as a pilot ship and as a pilot ship for the Baltic Sea Lock Pilot Association .
- ↑ http://www.wlb-stuttgart.de/seekrieg/km/vboote/vfl1-20.htm
- ↑ The ShipsList: Leith, Hull & Hamburg Steam Packet Co.
- ↑ Zulu = bird.
