Somali (ship, 1889)
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 Somali , destroyed at the bottom of the Rufiji Delta |
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| Ship data | ||
| Ship name | SMH Somali | |
| Ship type | Auxiliary ship | |
| Ship class | freighter | |
| Keel laying : | ||
| Launching ( ship christening ): | October 23, 1889 (as Osiris ) | |
| Commissioning: | December 30, 1889 | |
| Builder: | Blohm & Voss , Hamburg | |
| Build number: | 68 | |
| Shipping company: | German steamship company Kosmos | |
| Home port: | ||
| Distinguishing signal : | ||
| Crew: | 58 men | |
| Whereabouts: | Rufiji Delta (East Africa) | |
| Technical specifications | ||
| Displacement : | 5100 t | |
| Length: | 97.85 m | |
| Width: | 12.38 m | |
| Size: | 2638 GRT | |
| Draft : | 7.11 m | |
| Machinery: | 1 three-cylinder expansion steam engine | |
| Number of boilers: | 2 | |
| Number of screws: | 1 | |
| Power: | 1300 hp | |
| Speed: | 11 kn | |
| commander | ||
| First lieutenant at sea | Herm | |
His Majesty's auxiliary ship Somali (ex Osiris ) was a German auxiliary ship that was used in 1914 to supply the small cruiser Königsberg in German East Africa . Remains of shipwrecks are located in the Rufiji - Delta on the position of 7 ° 51 '33 " S , 39 ° 18' 9" O .
use
As early as 1890 which was Osiris from the German Reich for the so-called Wissmann flotilla of Hermann Wissmann in Charter taken.
The Osiris became the property of the German East Africa Line in 1901 and was renamed Somali on August 22, 1901 . She was used in the service between Durban , Dar es Salaam and Bombay .
The Somali was on August 1, 1914 after the outbreak of the First World War , in Dar es Salaam with a carbon charge for the light cruiser SMS Königsberg provided and ran on August 3 under their commander , Lieutenant Herm, from the port and steamed in the Gulf of Aden . On August 14, she met the Königsberg near the island of as-Sauda 'in the Hallanija group . The starboard wall of the Somali was already badly damaged by heavy weather at this point. Since the proximity of British warships was registered due to flashing headlights and heavy radio traffic , both ships steamed south in a heavy monsoon . In Hafun , the Königsberg was able to take over most of the Somali coal cargo , which was hardly seaworthy.
On September 1, 1914, the two ships met off the Aldabra Island. However, the coal had to be broken off after a short time because the two hulls of the ship constantly collided in the long swell of the Indian Ocean and the frames on the Somali had already broken. The Somali moved to the Rufiji Delta and stayed there to later steal the Königsberg .
On November 1, 1914, British naval forces began firing on the Koenigsberg and Somali in the Delta. The Somali caught fire and burned out completely.
Final fate
The wreck of the Somali was not demolished for unknown reasons, presumably because the technical effort was too great. The hull gradually sank into the silt of the delta. In a photo from the mid-1960s, the structure of the ship can still be seen, even if it is already overgrown by mangroves . In 2001, parts of the bridge , the boiler and the port side of the hull could be made out.
literature
- Erich Gröner : The German warships 1815–1945, Vol. 4: Auxiliary ships I: Workshop ships, tenders and escort ships, tankers and suppliers , Koblenz 1986, p. 226f.
- Kevin Patience: Shipwrecks and salvage on the East African coast , Kingdom of Bahrain, Arabian Gulf 2006, pp. 184f.
- Hugo von Waldeyer-Hartz: The cruiser war 1914-1918. The cruiser squadron. Emden, Koenigsberg, Karlsruhe. The auxiliary cruiser , Oldenburg i. O. 1931, pp. 138-151.
Footnotes
- ↑ Kevin Patience: Shipwrecks and salvage on the East African coast , Kingdom of Bahrain, Arabian Gulf 2006, pp. 184f.
- ↑ Illustration of the Somali wreck , around 1965
