Serpa Pinto (ship)
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The Serpa Pinto was a Portuguese cargo and passenger ship that became famous as a refugee ship during World War II . The ship has also been named Ebro and Princesa Olga throughout its history .
history
The ship was built in Belfast in 1914 and entered service with the Royal Mail Line under the name Ebro in early 1915. Like her one year older sister ship, the Essequibo , she was intended for the liner service between Great Britain and the British Isles in the Caribbean. Due to the First World War , however, she was used for other tasks, including as a coast guard ship and mine layer .
In 1922 the Ebro was sold to Pacific Steam Navigation Company , which used the ship on the New York - Chile line on the Panama Canal route. Due to the Great Depression of the airline service in 1930 has been set, the last line drive in November 1930. After that, the Ebro transferred to Britain and the River Avon launched . After a five-year layover, she was sold in 1935 to the state-owned Yugoslav shipping company Jugoslavenska Lloyd , which renamed the ship Princesa Olga . From the new home port of Dubrovnik , the ship served the line to Haifa .
In 1939 the ship was sold to the Portuguese shipping company Companhia Colonial de Navegação (CCN). For this purpose, the ship was fundamentally renovated and rebuilt in Split . The extradition to the CCN took place in March 1940.
As the new flagship of the CCN, the ship was named Serpa Pinto , after the Portuguese Africa explorer Alexandro Alberto de Serpa Pinto . Godmother was his daughter, Dona Carlota Serpa Pinto. The first voyage under the Portuguese flag took place in May 1940 under the command of Captain Américo dos Santos to Mozambique . In the following years the Serpa Pinto undertook many refugee trips as the ship of neutral Portugal. Germans and people of German origin were brought to Europe from overseas and, in return, Jews and other refugees from the Nazi regime were driven overseas. One of these trips was the last trip with German diplomatic personnel in Brazil from Rio de Janeiro to Lisbon in May 1942.
In 1942 the ship was stopped by a German submarine , but as a neutral ship it was not bothered.
A short time later, Brazil declared war on the German Reich , and Germans remaining in Brazil were interned . Directly afterwards, the Serpa Pinto made the last official refugee voyage from Lisbon via Casablanca to New York in June . There were 677 refugees on board.
On a later refugee passage, a German submarine had the ship evacuated and the captain arrested in order to sink the Serpa Pinto . The passengers were already floating in the lifeboats when the destruction order was revoked from Berlin. A third time the Serpa Pinto was stopped on the way to Europe by the State Department of the United States and 232 Germans were taken off board who were to be exchanged as internees for US citizens in Germany. The Americans were deceived by Germany in choosing their own people and therefore stopped the 232 from leaving.
In 1942 the movement of refugees practically came to a standstill under the pressure of intensified persecution in Germany-occupied Europe. On October 23, 1941, a decree by Heinrich Himmler prohibited the emigration of Jews; practically only Jews who were already z. B. were in Portugal or who managed to escape (e.g. via the Pyrenees) there.
The trip Rio de Janeiro - Lisbon - New York is described in the book "The Ship of Fate".
After that, the Serpa Pinto was used for exchanging citizens from enemy nations. The highest occupancy of the ship, which was officially equipped for 500 passengers, was the trip with 941 Germans and South Americans of German descent from New York to Lisbon in July 1942.
On May 26, 1944, the Serpa Pinto narrowly escaped sinking by a German submarine. The ship was stopped by U 541 (Kptlt. Petersen) and the crew and passengers were ultimately asked to leave the ship. The announced sinking was delayed by several hours, with several lifeboats drifting over the horizon. Since the final sinking order from the high command of the navy failed to materialize, Captain dos Santos was able to negotiate the sparing of the ship. After several hours of searching, all lifeboats were found and the passengers were taken back on board. Nevertheless, the lives of two crew members and one passenger were to be lamented. Later on, the CCN accused Captain dos Santos of arbitrariness as part of these events, and at the end of 1944 he was deprived of command of the Serpa Pinto .
From 1950 the CCN used larger and more modern ships on the South America line, the Serpa Pinto was replaced by the Santa Maria and instead used for smaller routes to Madeira , the Azores and Canary Islands and Havana . In August 1952 she served as a transport ship and accommodation for the Portuguese Olympic team at the Olympic Games in Finland .
In September 1955, the Serpa Pinto was sold to Belgium for 115,000 British pounds and subsequently broken up in Antwerp .
Passenger capacity
The ship had a normal capacity for about 500 passengers. 113 1st class cabins, 82 2nd class cabins and 130 3rd class cabins were available for them. As mentioned in the text above, this occupancy was far exceeded in times of crisis. For this purpose, some of the holds were equipped with hammocks.
literature
- Rosine De Dijn : The Ship of Fate. Rio de Janeiro - Lisbon - New York 1942 ; Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt 2009; ISBN 978-3-421-04350-4 .