SS Deutschland (1923)

The SS Deutschland
History
Germany
Name:	SS Deutschland
Owner:	Hamburg-America Line
Port of registry:	Germany
Route:	Hamburg to New York
Ordered:	1921
Builder:	Blohm & Voss, Kommandit Ges auf Aktien, Hamburg, Germany
Launched:	28 April 1923
Maiden voyage:	27 March 1924
Homeport:	Hamburg, Germany
Fate:	Transferred to the Kriegsmarine in 1940.
Notes:	Paintwork: black hull red boot-topping upper works white funnels buff with red, white and black tops
Nazi Germany
Name:	SS Deutschland
Acquired:	1940
Fate:	Capsized and sank on 3 May 1945 as a result of a British air attack.
General characteristics
Class and type:	Ocean liner
Type:	Steamship
Tonnage:	21,046 gross tons
Length:	196.6 m overall
Beam:	22 m
Depth:	12.8 m
Decks:	4
Installed power:	8 steam turbines
Propulsion:	Twin screw
Speed:	20 knots
Complement:	976 passengers
Crew:	422 officers and crew

SS Deutschland^{[note 1]} was a 21,046 gross registered ton (GRT) German HAPAG ocean liner which was sunk in a British air attack on May 3, 1945 when it was in the process of being converted as a hospital ship. All people on-board the Deutschland survived the attack, though two accompanying vessels sank with great loss of life.

Commissioning

One of a group of four ships that included the SS Albert Ballin, SS Hamburg, and SS New York, the Deutschland was launched on 28 April 1923. She began her maiden voyage on 27 March 1924, to Southampton and then on to New York City. The turbine powered ship had a speed of 14.5 knots; she was later re-engined with larger geared turbines in 1929, with service speed increased to 19 knots. This gave the ships a seven-day passage across the Atlantic.

On 11 November 1933, Deutschland collided with the American cargo ship SS Munargo in New York Harbor. Munargo suffered severe damage and was beached north of Bedloe's Island,^[1] but was refloated on 18 November 1933.^[2]

Second World War

In 1940, Deutschland became an accommodation ship for the German Navy at Gotenhafen. In 1945, on seven Baltic voyages as part of Operation Hannibal, she carried 70,000 soldiers and refugees from the German eastern territories to the west.

Sinking

In April 1945, she began being converted into a hospital ship. An attempt was made to paint the vessel white, but there was only sufficient paint available to paint her funnels white, and to paint a Red Cross on one side of one of her funnels. Subsequently, on 3 May 1945, she was attacked by British RAF squadrons three times, and capsized and sank in the Bay of Lübeck off Neustadt, but all people aboard survived. A fourth British air attack that day sank the SS Cap Arcona and the Thielbek, with great loss of life.^[3][4]

In 1949, her wreck was raised and scrapped.

See also

• List of maritime disasters

Footnotes

1. Sometimes called Deutschland IV to distinguish from others of the name

References

1. "Casualty reports". The Times (46606). London. 20 November 1933. col G, p. 19.
2. "Casualty reports". The Times (46607). London. 21 November 1933. col F, p. 23.
3. Roy Nesbit: Cap Arcona: atrocity or accident?, Aeroplane Monthly, June 1984.
4. Heinz Schön: Die Cap Arcona-Katastrophe. Eine Dokumentation nach Augenzeugen-Berichten. Motorbuch-Verlag, Stuttgart 1989, ISBN 3-613-01270-7."