Yellow fleet
The Yellow Fleet was a group of 15 ships that were moored in the Suez Canal for almost eight years from June 1967 to May 1975 . The name came from the yellow shimmer of the sand that was blown from the desert by the constant wind onto the decks of the ships.
history
On June 5, 1967, a convoy of 14 cargo ships from Port Taufiq near Suez drove northward along the Suez Canal when the Six Day War broke out. The ships anchored in the Great Bitter Lake , the widest point in the channel. Since the canal was blocked by deliberate sinking, the ships were stuck for an indefinite period. Another ship, the US Tanker Observer , was anchored in the Timsah Sea .
The ships were temporarily in the combat area, but they were not affected. Some of the crews were able to leave the ships after a few weeks, the rest were regularly replaced every six months. A strong feeling of togetherness developed on the ships and between the crews. In autumn 1967 the crews of the ships on the Melampus founded the “Great Bitter Lake Association”, an association with the aim of promoting friendship and mutual help.
To reduce costs, the ships were grouped into 3 groups from 1969, each of which was looked after by a single crew of around 10 men. During this time, a number of hand-painted postage stamps with the group names of the ships, which were recognized by the Egyptian post, were created. The letters so franked are now sought-after collector's items. The ships did not leave the lake until May 1975, only the two German ships were able to do so on their own.
The 53-minute documentary Captured in Bittersee was filmed in 2009 about the events and the people affected, directed by Jens Arndt and Fayd Jungnickel.
In May 2020, Zenith Magazin conducted an interview with Jürgen Katzler, who was the captain of the German ship Münsterland from June to December 1969. In it, he describes in retrospect that the occupations witnessed the war between Egypt and Israel first hand . Air battles took place over the ships, tanks shot across the lake and sometimes cartridge cases even fell on deck. In addition, Katzler describes his time on the Bitter Lake as an international "association of comradeship" and says that he especially enjoyed the weekly sailing regatta.
List of ships
Surname | nationality | group | Owner / shipowner | captain | charge | Tonnage (GRT) | Remarks |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
North wind | Germany | MüWiNiKiEs | Nordstern shipping company | Gerhard Lomer | Oil cake, cotton products, general mixed freight | 8 656 | IMO: 5255868; Built at the Flensburger Schiffbau-Gesellschaft shipyard in 1958. Other names Rodanthi A. and Centaurus . Canceled in Shanghai from May 28, 1985 . |
Münsterland | Germany | MüWiNiKiEs | HAPAG | Karl Hoffmann | including steel, wool, sand, lead, canned food, pears, hides, grain, jam, eggs, meat | 9 365 | Saarland class The Münsterland was overhauled after she arrived in Hamburg on 24 May 1975, continue to be used in East Asia service. Sold to Greece on June 21, 1978 and continued to operate under the name Munsterlandes . Launched on January 2, 1983 in Trincomalee . November 17th in tow to Kaohsiung , Taiwan . December 1983 on to the People's Republic of China , demolition from March 1984 in Fuzhou , Fujian Province . |
Killara | Sweden | MüWiNiKiEs | Rederiaktiebolaget Transatlantic | Stubborn Sundnér | Wool, rawhide, fruits | 10 714 | 1975 sold to Hellenic-Lines and back in service |
Nippon | Sweden | MüWiNiKiEs | Svenska Ostasiatiska Kompaniet | 10 309 | sold to Norway as Marit ; from 1975 as Hellenic Patriot momentum | ||
Essayons , ex- Sindh | France | MüWiNiKiEs | Messageries Maritimes | 7 051 | Ruul-Pedersen shipping company, Norway, at the start of the war the ship was called Sindh , Messageries Maritimes, France | ||
Lednice | Czechoslovakia | LedMelAga | Danube shipping company | Rawhide | 1 462 | on the move again; 1989: Dija ; 1992: Atlsaco Pride , Ocean Trader ; Shot off a wreck off Sri Lanka in 1994. | |
Agapenor | United Kingdom | LedMelAga | Blue funnel line | Toys | 7 654 | Ammunition load unloaded in Cyprus, sold and canceled when Nikos was on the way, 1981. | |
Melampus | United Kingdom | LedMelAga | Blue funnel line | Jim Starkey | 8 509 | 1975 in service as Annoula II ; Canceled in 1983. | |
Scottish Star | United Kingdom | DjaBiPorSt | Blue Star Line | Brian McManus | 10 174 | Launched in Piraeus from 1975 to 1979, then canceled. | |
Port Invercargill | United Kingdom | DjaBiPorSt | Port line | Arthur Kensett | 10 463 | 1976 in operation as Greek Kavo Kolne . Canceled in 1979. | |
Djakarta | Poland | DjaBiPorSt | Polskie line Oceaniczne | 6 915 | back on the road as Manina III ; Stranded and abandoned in 1981. | ||
Bolesław Bierut | Poland | DjaBiPorSt | Polskie line Oceaniczne | Bogdan Kryspin | 6 674 | General cargo ship of the type B-54, of the Polish Ocean Lines. Mostly drove in the East Asian service. In 1975 she was sold to a Greek shipowner. | |
Vassil Levsky | Bulgaria | Navigation Maritime Bulgarians | Ivan Stanchev | 4,975 | Built in 1943 by Burntisland Shipbuilding Company as the MAC ship Empire MacKendrick . After the end of the war Granpond , Condor (1951), Saltersgate (1959). Canceled in 1975 . | ||
African Glen | United States | Farrell Lines | 6 116 | sunk in 1973 in the Yom Kippur War | |||
Observer | United States | - | Marine Carriers Corporation | 17 614 | anchored in the Timsah Sea |
literature
- Hans Jürgen Witthöft: Trapped in the Great Bitter Lake for eight years , ProMar, Hamburg 2015, ISBN 978-3-00-051599-6 .
Web links
- Wolfgang Scharrnbeck: Trapped in the Suez Canal. In: Spiegel Online. May 17, 2008, accessed April 6, 2015 .
- Peter Kiehlmann: Pictures of the north wind. German Steamship Company "HANSA", December 11, 2009, accessed on April 6, 2015 .
- Jörn Teger: Trapped in Bitter Lake. In: Mare No.40. October 2003, accessed April 6, 2015 .
- Bjoern Moritz: Post from the Great Bitter Lake! In: Seemotive - motif philately around the seafaring. May 13, 2011, accessed April 6, 2015 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Jörn Teger: Caught in the Bitter Lake. In: Mare No.40. October 2003, archived from the original on August 8, 2014 ; Retrieved April 6, 2015 .
- ↑ Documentation Captured in Bitter Lake
- ↑ "We even played football on a ship." May 28, 2020, accessed June 3, 2020 .
- ↑ Schiff Nordwind at: shipspotting.com (English). Retrieved November 11, 2012.
- ↑ Thierry Bressol: Le Sindh et le plus mauvais jour du Canal de Suez 1 ( Memento of 29 March 2009 at the Internet Archive (French)). Retrieved November 11, 2012.
- ↑ Ship Bolesław Bierut (PDF file; 104 kB) at: cargo-vessels-international.at (English). Retrieved November 11, 2012.
- ↑ Schiff Observer at: shipspotting.com (English). Retrieved November 10, 2016.