German ship Doggerbank
Encyclopedia
The German ship Doggerbank (Schiff 53) was a German
auxiliary minelayer
and blockade runner
during the Second World War.
Laid down as the British
merchant vessel
Speybank in 1926, the vessel was captured in 1941 by the German auxiliary cruiser Atlantis
, converted to an auxiliary minelayer for the Kriegsmarine
and renamed Doggerbank. After laying mines off the coast of South Africa
, it travelled to Japan
. On the return trip, it was accidentally sunk by German submarine U-43, with all but one of the 365 men on board (108 crew plus 257 prisoners-of-war) lost at sea.
, Glasgow
for Andrew Weir & Co. The ship was captured on 31 January 1941 by German auxiliary cruiser Atlantis in the Indian Ocean
. Speybank was sent back to France
under the command of Paul Schneidewind and reached Bordeaux
on 10 May 1941.
The ship was taken over by the German Kriegsmarine in 1941, renamed Doggerbank - Schiff 53 (German: "Ship 53"), and converted to an auxiliary minelayer. It remained under the command of Kapitänleutnant
Paul Schneidewind.
Doggerbank left France in January 1942 to lay mines of the coast of South Africa and then to proceed to Japan. In Japan, Doggerbank took aboard many of the survivors of the auxiliary cruiser Thor
and the German tanker Uckermark
, the former Altmark, which had been destroyed in an accident in Yokohama
on 30 November 1942. All up, it had 365 men on board when leaving the Far East. It also carried a cargo of 7,000 tons of raw materials and rubber, fats and fish oil.
The ship travelled via Kobe
, Saigon, Singapur
and Jakarta
, which it left on 10 January 1943, heading to France. In the mid-Atlantic on 3 March 1943, at 9.53 pm, it was torpedoed by U-43. U-43 mistook it for a British ship "of the Dunedin Star type" as Doggerbank was travelling ahead of its schedule. The ship was hit by all three torpedoes fired at it and sank within two minutes, with perhaps two hundred men killed instantly.
U-43 observed five life boats being launched by the ship and attempted to make contact with the survivors, but failed to get close enough because of the darkness. Unaware of the ship's sinking as it had been unable to send an SOS, the German admiralty took days to realise the ship had been sunk or captured.
The eventual sole survivor of the crew of 108 and the 257 prisoners-of-war on board, Fritz Kürt, was in the Doggerbanks jolly boat
, together with the ships captain, Schneidewind, a small number of other men and the ships dog. The boat headed for the South American
coast, approximately three weeks away. Through suicide and accidents, the small crew was eventually reduced to two, Kürt and an old sailor by the name of Boywitt, the captain having shot himself and the ship's dog having drowned. Desperate for water and food, Boywitt drank sea water on the 19th day of their journey and died, with Kürt too weak to even roll the dead body over board. Kürt was eventually picked up by the Spanish
motor tanker Campoamor on 29 March and taken to Aruba
.
The German submarine U-43 was sunk on 30 July 1943 without survivors.
Kürt was exchanged in a prisoner-of-war swap in 1944, reported back to the German admiralty and then hid in Hamburg
until the end of the war, having been about to be arrested.
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
auxiliary minelayer
Minelayer
Minelaying is the act of deploying explosive mines. Historically this has been carried out by ships, submarines and aircraft. Additionally, since World War I the term minelayer refers specifically to a naval ship used for deploying naval mines...
and blockade runner
Blockade runner
A blockade runner is usually a lighter weight ship used for evading a naval blockade of a port or strait, as opposed to confronting the blockaders to break the blockade. Very often blockade running is done in order to transport cargo, for example to bring food or arms to a blockaded city...
during the Second World War.
Laid down as the British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
merchant vessel
Merchant vessel
A merchant vessel is a ship that transports cargo or passengers. The closely related term commercial vessel is defined by the United States Coast Guard as any vessel engaged in commercial trade or that carries passengers for hire...
Speybank in 1926, the vessel was captured in 1941 by the German auxiliary cruiser Atlantis
German auxiliary cruiser Atlantis
The German auxiliary cruiser Atlantis , known to the Kriegsmarine as Schiff 16 and to the Royal Navy as Raider-C, was a converted German Hilfskreuzer of the Kriegsmarine, which, during World War II, travelled more than in 602 days, and sank or captured 22 ships totaling...
, converted to an auxiliary minelayer for the Kriegsmarine
Kriegsmarine
The Kriegsmarine was the name of the German Navy during the Nazi regime . It superseded the Kaiserliche Marine of World War I and the post-war Reichsmarine. The Kriegsmarine was one of three official branches of the Wehrmacht, the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany.The Kriegsmarine grew rapidly...
and renamed Doggerbank. After laying mines off the coast of South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
, it travelled to Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
. On the return trip, it was accidentally sunk by German submarine U-43, with all but one of the 365 men on board (108 crew plus 257 prisoners-of-war) lost at sea.
History
Speybank was built in 1926 at Harland & Wolff at GovanGovan
Govan is a district and former burgh now part of southwest City of Glasgow, Scotland. It is situated west of Glasgow city centre, on the south bank of the River Clyde, opposite the mouth of the River Kelvin and the district of Partick....
, Glasgow
Glasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
for Andrew Weir & Co. The ship was captured on 31 January 1941 by German auxiliary cruiser Atlantis in the Indian Ocean
Indian Ocean
The Indian Ocean is the third largest of the world's oceanic divisions, covering approximately 20% of the water on the Earth's surface. It is bounded on the north by the Indian Subcontinent and Arabian Peninsula ; on the west by eastern Africa; on the east by Indochina, the Sunda Islands, and...
. Speybank was sent back to France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
under the command of Paul Schneidewind and reached Bordeaux
Bordeaux
Bordeaux is a port city on the Garonne River in the Gironde department in southwestern France.The Bordeaux-Arcachon-Libourne metropolitan area, has a population of 1,010,000 and constitutes the sixth-largest urban area in France. It is the capital of the Aquitaine region, as well as the prefecture...
on 10 May 1941.
The ship was taken over by the German Kriegsmarine in 1941, renamed Doggerbank - Schiff 53 (German: "Ship 53"), and converted to an auxiliary minelayer. It remained under the command of Kapitänleutnant
Captain Lieutenant
Captain lieutenant or captain-lieutenant is a military rank, used in a number of different navies worldwide.It is generally equivalent to the Commonwealth or US rank of lieutenant, and has the NATO rank code of OF-2, though this can vary....
Paul Schneidewind.
Doggerbank left France in January 1942 to lay mines of the coast of South Africa and then to proceed to Japan. In Japan, Doggerbank took aboard many of the survivors of the auxiliary cruiser Thor
German auxiliary cruiser Thor
Thor was an auxiliary cruiser of the German Kriegsmarine in the Second World War, intended for service as a commerce raider. Also known to the Kriegsmarine as Schiff 10; to the Royal Navy she was Raider E...
and the German tanker Uckermark
German tanker Altmark
Altmark was a German oil tanker and supply vessel, one of five of a class built between 1937 and 1939. She is best known for her support of the German commerce raider, the "pocket battleship" and her subsequent involvement in the "Altmark Incident"....
, the former Altmark, which had been destroyed in an accident in Yokohama
Yokohama
is the capital city of Kanagawa Prefecture and the second largest city in Japan by population after Tokyo and most populous municipality of Japan. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of Tokyo, in the Kantō region of the main island of Honshu...
on 30 November 1942. All up, it had 365 men on board when leaving the Far East. It also carried a cargo of 7,000 tons of raw materials and rubber, fats and fish oil.
The ship travelled via Kobe
Kobe
, pronounced , is the fifth-largest city in Japan and is the capital city of Hyōgo Prefecture on the southern side of the main island of Honshū, approximately west of Osaka...
, Saigon, Singapur
Singapur
Singapur is the fifth album by Estonian rock band Terminaator. It was released in 1998.- Track listing :# Aja teenija [The recruit, lit: time servant] - 5:25# Singapuri Lu [Lu of Singapore] - 3:44...
and Jakarta
Jakarta
Jakarta is the capital and largest city of Indonesia. Officially known as the Special Capital Territory of Jakarta, it is located on the northwest coast of Java, has an area of , and a population of 9,580,000. Jakarta is the country's economic, cultural and political centre...
, which it left on 10 January 1943, heading to France. In the mid-Atlantic on 3 March 1943, at 9.53 pm, it was torpedoed by U-43. U-43 mistook it for a British ship "of the Dunedin Star type" as Doggerbank was travelling ahead of its schedule. The ship was hit by all three torpedoes fired at it and sank within two minutes, with perhaps two hundred men killed instantly.
U-43 observed five life boats being launched by the ship and attempted to make contact with the survivors, but failed to get close enough because of the darkness. Unaware of the ship's sinking as it had been unable to send an SOS, the German admiralty took days to realise the ship had been sunk or captured.
The eventual sole survivor of the crew of 108 and the 257 prisoners-of-war on board, Fritz Kürt, was in the Doggerbanks jolly boat
Jolly boat
The jolly boat was a type of ship's boat in use during the 18th and 19th centuries. The origins of the name is the subject of debate, but it was by the 18th century one of a number of ship's boats, and was used mainly to ferry personnel to and from the ship, or for other small scale activities...
, together with the ships captain, Schneidewind, a small number of other men and the ships dog. The boat headed for the South American
South America
South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...
coast, approximately three weeks away. Through suicide and accidents, the small crew was eventually reduced to two, Kürt and an old sailor by the name of Boywitt, the captain having shot himself and the ship's dog having drowned. Desperate for water and food, Boywitt drank sea water on the 19th day of their journey and died, with Kürt too weak to even roll the dead body over board. Kürt was eventually picked up by the Spanish
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
motor tanker Campoamor on 29 March and taken to Aruba
Aruba
Aruba is a 33 km-long island of the Lesser Antilles in the southern Caribbean Sea, located 27 km north of the coast of Venezuela and 130 km east of Guajira Peninsula...
.
The German submarine U-43 was sunk on 30 July 1943 without survivors.
Kürt was exchanged in a prisoner-of-war swap in 1944, reported back to the German admiralty and then hid in Hamburg
Hamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
until the end of the war, having been about to be arrested.
Further reading
- Hans HerlinHans HerlinHans Herlin was a German novelist. He started a writing career as a journalist and worked his way up to become managing editor of Molden, one of Germany's largest publishing houses. In 1972 he began writing books full time, and in 1975 published his best known novel Commemorations, about "Nazi...
: The survivor : the true story of the sinking of the Doggerbank (German: Der letze Mann der Doggerbank), translated by John Brownjohn, published: 1994 (English edition) - John R. StilgoeJohn R. StilgoeJohn R. Stilgoe is an award-winning historian and photographer who is the Robert and Lois Orchard Professor in the History of Landscape at the Visual and Environmental Studies Department of Harvard University, where he has been teaching since 1977. He is also a fellow of the Society of American...
: Lifeboat, University of Virginia PressUniversity of Virginia PressThe University of Virginia Press , founded in 1963, is a university press that is part of the University of Virginia.-External links:*...
, ISBN 0813922216