Niobe (schooner)
{{Short description|Training schooner of the Reichsmarine}}
| {{Infobox ship begin}}
|+ {{Infobox ship image |Ship image=Bundesarchiv DVM 10 Bild-23-63-20, Segelschulschiff "Niobe".jpg |Ship caption=Niobe, 1930 }} {{Infobox ship career |Hide header= |Ship country=Germany |Ship flag={{shipboxflag|Weimar Republic|naval}} |Ship name=Niobe |Ship owner= |Ship namesake=Niobe |Ship ordered= |Ship builder=Frederikshavns Værft og Flydedok{{sfn|Gröner|1988|p=104}} |Ship laid down= |Ship launched=2 August 1913{{sfn|Gröner|1988|p=105}} |Ship captured=21 November 1916 |Ship acquired= |Ship commissioned= |Ship decommissioned= |Ship in service=30 April 1923{{sfn|Gröner|1988|p=105}} |Ship out of service= |Ship struck= |Ship reinstated= |Ship honours= |Ship honors= |Ship fate=Sunk 26 July 1932 off Fehmarn{{sfn|Gröner|1988|p=105}} |Ship notes= }} {{Infobox ship characteristics |Hide header= |Header caption= |Ship class=training vessel |Ship displacement={{convert|645|t|LT|abbr=on}}{{sfn|Gröner|1988|p=104}} |Ship length={{convert|46.1|m|ftin|abbr=on}}{{sfn|Gröner|1988|p=104}} |Ship beam={{convert|9.17|m|ftin|abbr=on}}{{sfn|Gröner|1988|p=104}} |Ship draught={{convert|5.2|m|ftin|abbr=on}}{{sfn|Gröner|1988|p=104}} |Ship propulsion=1 Bolinder 2-cylinder two-stroke engine of {{convert|160|shp|abbr=on}}{{sfn|Gröner|1988|p=104}} |Ship sail plan={{convert|943|sqm|sqft|abbr=on}}+{{convert|40|sqm|sqft|abbr=on}}{{sfn|Gröner|1988|p=104}} |Ship speed={{convert|7.5|kn}}{{sfn|Gröner|1988|p=104}} |Ship range= |Ship complement=7 officers, 27 men, and up to 65 cadets{{sfn|Gröner|1988|p=104}} |Ship notes= }} |
Segelschulschiff Niobe was a tall ship used by the Reichsmarine to train cadets and aspiring NCOs. She sank during a white squall on 26 July 1932, with the loss of 69 lives. A memorial monument to Niobe was erected at Gammendorfer Strand on Fehmarn island, within view of the site of the sinking.
History
= Design =
The ship had a steel hull and displaced 645 tonnes. After her conversion into a training ship she measured {{convert|57.8|m|ftin|abbr=on}} in length overall, {{convert|46.1|m|ftin|abbr=on}} without the bowsprit, and {{convert|9.17|m|ftin|abbr=on}} in width. The height of the main mast was {{convert|34.8|m|ftin|abbr=on}}, and she carried 15 sails with {{convert|983|sqm}} of total sail area. She had an auxiliary diesel engine with {{convert|160|shp}}. Her regular crew comprised seven officers and 27 men. Usually 65 cadets would be trained.
=Early service=
She was built as a four-masted schooner in 1913 by the Danish shipyard Frederikshavns Værft og Flydedok under her original name Morten Jensen and initially sailed as a freighter for F. L. Knakkergaard in Nykøbing Mors. In 1916 she was sold to Norway and renamed Tyholm. Later that year, while carrying mine timber to England, she was taken as a prize by {{SMU|UB-41}} and sold to private German owners. Following several intermediate phases under various names (Aldebaran, Niobe, and Schwalbe), including one as a charter ship for a film company.
=Training ship=
Niobe was purchased in 1922 by the German navy which selected her new name Niobe after the mythological daughter of Tantalus, and converted her into a three-masted barque to train future officers and non-commissioned officers. The previous training vessels, Grossherzog Friedrich August and Prinzess Eitel Friedrich, had been seized by the Allies as war reparations.
The first commanding officer of Niobe was the legendary Kapitänleutnant (Lieutenant Commander) Graf Felix von Luckner. Von Luckner had previously commanded the {{SMS|Seeadler|1915}}, a sailing ship used as a commerce raider, during the First World War and won fame for his outsized personality, daring and compassion. Von Luckner, who was a recipient of the Pour le Mérite and the Iron Cross, resigned from the German Navy in 1922.
=Loss=
In a white squall on 26 July 1932, the ship capsized near the German island of Fehmarn in the Baltic Sea ({{coord|54|35.7|N|11|11.2|E|display=inline, title}}){{cite book |first1=Jak P. |last1=Mallmann Showell |first2=Gordon |last2=Williamson |date=2009 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5F0qAQAAIAAJ&q=Island+of+Fehmarn |title=Hitler's navy: a reference guide to the Kriegsmarine, 1935–1945 |publisher=Naval Institute Press |page=124 |isbn=978-1-59114-369-7}} and sank within minutes as due to the hot weather, all hatches and portholes were open. 40 of her crew were rescued by the cargo ship {{SS|Theresia L M Russ}}, but 69 died.
The ship was raised on 21 August 1932, towed to Kiel and inspected while the bodies were buried. On 18 September 1933 the wreck was ceremonially sunk by the torpedo boat Jaguar, attended by much of the then-small German navy.
Flags were lowered to half-mast from Flensburg to Konstanz as a public outpouring of grief gripped the nation. The Prussian State Mint issued a Niobe memorial coin to help raise money for a replacement ship, and soon earned 200,000 Reichsmarks towards the effort, and spurred the building of the Gorch Fock in a record 100 days.{{cite book |last1=Prager |first1=Hans Georg |title=Blohm+Voss: Ships And Machinery For The World |date=1977 |publisher=Koehlers Verlagsgesellschaft mbH |isbn=0904-609-146 |pages=153}}
References
=Notes=
{{Reflist}}
=Bibliography=
- {{cite book|first1=Walter|last1=Bölk|first2=Erich|last2=Landschof|title=Schiffe in Not. Strandungen und Seeunfälle um Fehmarn 1857-1987|publisher=Verlag Heinrich Möller Söhne|location=Rendsburg|year=1988|isbn=3-87550-090-3}}
- {{cite book|first=Fritz Otto|last=Busch|title=Niobe. Ein deutsches Schicksal|publisher=Breitkopf & Härtel|location=Leipzig|year=1932}}
- {{cite book|first=Erich|last=Gröner|title=Hilfsschiffe II: Lazarettschiffe, Wohnschiffe, Schulschiffe, Forschungsfahrzeuge, Hafenbetriebsfahrzeuge (I)|work=Die deutschen Kriegsschiffe, 1815-1945|volume=V|publisher=Bernard&Graefe|location=Koblenz|year=1988|isbn=3763748040}}
- {{cite book|first=Gerhard|last=Koop|title=Die deutschen Segelschulschiffe|publisher=Bernard & Graefe Verlag|location=Bonn|year=1998}}
{{1932 shipwrecks}}
{{1933 shipwrecks}}
Category:Sailing ships of Germany
Category:Maritime incidents in 1932
Category:Maritime incidents in 1933