Thessalia (ship, 1905)
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
.svg){kind=small}
The first Thessalia of the Hamburg-American Packetfahrt-Actien-Gesellschaft (Hapag) was created in February 1905 by renaming the Columbia under construction in Flensburg . From November 1905 she was used in the Kosmos service to the west coast of South America. The ship spent the First World War in Antofagasta , Chile.
In 1921 the ship was returned to Hamburg and formally transferred to the shipping controller. On January 19, 1922, Hapag bought back its former, non-operational ship from the Shipping Controller and had it modernized by Blohm & Voss in order to use it as a passenger ship under the new name Galicia to South America. In 1924 it was then discontinued on the West India route. The former Thessalia was sold for demolition in 1933 when the existing tonnage was reduced.
Building history
In January 1901, the Deutsche Dampfschiffahrtsgesellschaft Kosmos (DDG Kosmos) signed a contract with Hapag for a joint venture on the line to the west coast of South America operated by DDG Kosmos since 1892. The 20-year contract stipulated that Hapag would hold a stake of 12.5% and, from 1905, 25%. Initially, Hapag only used three freighters, then mainly its A-class ships on the line. By merging with the largest German shipping company, DDG Kosmos hoped to prevent all attempts to penetrate its trading area with a competing line.
Hapag ordered three new buildings for the expansion of the company's stake planned for 1905. The Reiherstieg shipyard delivered the Polynesia (6,022 GRT), the first ship, followed by the California (6,152 GRT, from 1906 Thuringia ) from Blohm & Voss and the Thessalia (6,146 GRT) from Flensburg.
The Thessalia , delivered by the Flensburger Schiffbaugesellschaft in March 1905, was launched under the name Columbia on December 21, 1904 and was renamed during the expansion. In addition to its two Hapag sisters, DDG Kosmos also owned five sister ships built by Blohm & Voss ( Osiris , Tanis , Elkab , Edfu and Esne ), which came into service between November 1902 and October 1904, the last two of which were transferred to DOAL in 1910 were resold. The Hapag ships differed from the Kosmos ships by their slightly enlarged passenger facilities.
In the service of Hapag
The Thessalia carried out her maiden voyage to Philadelphia from March 20, 1905 and was not used for the first time until November 27, 1905 on the route to the American west coast through the Strait of Magellan . On average, the operating group offered around 50 departures from Europe each year, of which 17 usually led along the Pacific coast to Canada (first started in 1901) and where the round trip lasted up to eight months. An average of six of the voyages only led to Central America and every thirteen voyages returned the ships in Peru and Chile. Hapag's attempt to increase passenger traffic failed after the trial operation of two ships of the Rhenania class ( Rhaetia , Rhenania ) in 1908. While Hapag did not use any other larger newbuildings on the line, DDG Kosmos received two more external dimensions similar twin-screw ships in 1905 and 1906 ( Negada , Nitokris ) and then until 1914 another nine slightly enlarged ships with a passenger facility . In addition, a large number of pure cargo ships came from both shipping companies.
When the First World War broke out in 1914 , the Thessalia sought refuge in Antofagasta in Chile, while her two sister ships stayed in Montevideo and were confiscated there when Uruguay entered the war on the Entente side in 1917 . As early as autumn 1914, the crew of the Thessalia rendered the propulsion of their ship unusable in order to prevent feared removal by Germany's opponents of the war.
Post war fate as Galicia
Even the German ships that remained in neutral states were subject to the extradition agreed with the German surrender at the end of the war. The Thessalia , which was not ready for use , was therefore towed to Hamburg, where it was formally handed over to the shipping controller without any actual delivery. Hapag managed to buy back the ship that was not operational on January 19, 1922.
It was made ready for use again at the Blohm & Voss shipyard and received a passenger facility for 79 passengers in 1st class and a further 139 passengers in III. Class. Newly measured at 6,146 GRT, the ship began her first voyage under the new name Galicia on July 6, 1922 in the reopened passenger service of Hapag on the route to the La Plata ports , where, in addition to the steamers Rugia and Teutonia, which had also been bought back by Rhenania - Class was used. She was the second Hapag ship to be named Galicia after a West India freighter of 2,860 GRT from 1889, which sank off Vigo in 1912 .
When newbuildings were available again, the three pre-war ships were relocated to the reopened route to Central America in 1924, where the Galicia remained until the end of her service life. The takeover of DDG Kosmos and the DADG , which has now merged with it , as well as the Stinnes Line in 1926 and the subsequent global economic crisis led to considerable excess capacities which forced the older units to be shut down.
The explorer Karl Helbig was a stoker on the Galicia in 1928 during a voyage to the Caribbean and later recorded his memories in the book Seafaring Before the Fires .
In January 1933, the former Thessalia was therefore sold to the Deutsche Werft in Hamburg for demolition.
Fate of the sister ships
| Launched in service |
Surname | tonnage | shipyard | fate |
| August 26, 1904 December 10, 1904 |
Polynesia | 6022 GRT | Reiherstieg BauNr. 414 |
December 24 launched in 1904 maiden voyage to the west coast of South America, 5 August 1914 in Montevideo, 14 September 1917 seized and as Colonia back on track, 1927 sale to Arnold Bernstein in Hamburg, renamed Hohenstein , renamed in January 1935 in Tel Aviv , use between Trieste and Haifa , December 1938 sold to Japan for demolition |
| November 19, 1904 January 12, 1905 |
California Thuringia from June 1905 |
6152 GRT | Blohm & Voss building no. 174 |
February 4, 1905 maiden voyage to the west coast of South America, renamed in June 1905, placed in Montevideo in August 1914, confiscated September 14, 1917 and underway again as Maldonado , 1928 sold to Bernstein in Hamburg, renamed Eberstein , 1938 sold to Komrowski , Hamburg, 1947 shipped and scrapped in the UK |
| Kosmos sister ships | ||||
| 2.09.1902 1.11.1902 |
Osiris | 5952 GRT | Blohm & Voss building no. 162 |
Maiden voyage to the west coast of South America, launched in Pisagua in August 1914 , delivered to Belgium on September 15, 1921 and underway again as Pays de Liege , sold for demolition in June 1926 |
| October 29, 1902 December 19, 1902 |
Tanis | 5950 GRT | Blohm & Voss building no. 163 |
Maiden voyage to the west coast of South America, launched in Valparaíso in August 1914 , driven to the coast in a storm on July 12, 1917 and broken |
| 19.09.1903 21.11.1903 |
Edfu | 5983 GRT | Blohm & Voss building no. 168 |
Maiden voyage to the west coast of South America, sold to DOAL as Usambara in 1910 , launched in Tenerife in August 1914 , delivered to France on June 9, 1919, lost when Montana was on the move, March 22, 1928 due to stranding |
| 12.07.1904 06.11.1904 |
Esne | 6001 GRT | Blohm & Voss building no. 171 |
Maiden voyage to the west coast of South America, sold to DOAL as Commodore in 1910 , laid up in Mormugoa in August 1914 , confiscated by Portugal on February 23, 1916 and underway again as Mormugoa , Infante de Sagres from 1924 , Zaire from 1927 , October 24, 1929 lost to stranding |
| 198.09.1904 30.10.1904 |
Elkab | 5983 GRT | Blohm & Voss building no. 172 |
Maiden voyage to the west coast of South America, launched in Las Palmas in August 1914 , delivered to France on June 28, 1919 when Minnesota was on the move, scrapped in the Netherlands in 1934 |
literature
- Karl Helbig: Seafaring Before the Fires. Memories of a ship heater. HG Prager Vlg., Hamburg 1987 (2nd revised edition 1988).
- Arnold Kludas : The History of German Passenger Shipping. Volume II: Expansion on all seas 1890 to 1900. Writings of the German Maritime Museum, Volume 19.
- Arnold Kludas: The History of German Passenger Shipping. Volume III: Rapid growth 1900 to 1914. Writings of the German Maritime Museum, Volume 20.
- Arnold Kludas: The History of German Passenger Shipping. Volume IV: Destruction and Rebirth 1914 to 1930. Writings of the German Maritime Museum, Volume 21.
Web links
- The Thessalia at schiffe-maxim.de (February 24, 2013)
- Björn Müller: THESSALIA / GALICIA according to Kludas, Arnold: The history of the Hapag ships, vol. 2: 1901–1914. Bremen: Hauschild, 2008