Fatherland (ship, 1940)
|
||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||
The Vaterland was a passenger ship commissioned by HAPAG from Blohm & Voss in Hamburg in 1938 for use on the North Atlantic route . It was to be the shipping company's first major newbuild since the First World War and to act as a counterweight to the extremely successful express steamers Bremen and Europa of Norddeutscher Lloyd , which had been in service on the same route since the late 1920s.
history
The construction of the Vaterland progressed according to plan until the outbreak of World War II. A turbo-electric drive was planned for the ship - as had already been tested in the French liner Normandie - which was supposed to enable economical operation at medium speeds of around 23 to 24 knots. The design thus corresponded to the HAPAG philosophy, which was pursued even before 1914, of not aiming for any speed records. With the outbreak of war there was soon a great need for shipyard capacities, especially for submarine construction, so it was decided to clear the slipway of the fatherland for this.
This early emergency launch took place on August 24, 1940. On the same day, the battleship Bismarck was put into service in the immediate vicinity . During the launch there was a collision between the departing Vaterland and the stern of the warship, with only minimal damage to its flagstick. The hull of the passenger ship was then moored in the port of Hamburg and any further work on it was stopped. It was used by the Navy as a wood store.
On July 25, 1943, the unfinished ship was hit by several bombs and severely damaged during the devastating air raids on Hamburg . By 1948, the wreck of the Vaterland was scrapped on the spot.
Planned sister ships
According to HAPAG's plans, the Vaterland was to have two identical sister ships, which - as with the Imperator class from 1913 - were to be named Imperator and Bismarck . However, their orders were no longer awarded.
Web links
- Page with many photos of the ship and the ship model (Russian)
- thegreatoceanliners.com Illustration of the shipyard model of the Vaterland
- thegreatoceanliners.com page with central information about the ship (menu item "Miscellaneous", then "Intended giants of the seas")
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b lostliners.de
- ↑ Breyer / Koop: Battleship Bismarck - A technical history documentation, Augsburg 1996, p. 25.
- ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original dated December 30, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from September 18, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
