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MV Africa Shell
MS Africa Shell, was a British coastal oil tanker operated by the Shell Company of East Africa Ltd. The ship's life was short, lasting only a matter of months from her introduction into service in 1939, until she was intercepted and sunk by the German pocket battleship '' Admiral Graf Spee'' in the Mozambique Channel, off the coast of Portuguese East Africa, becoming the sixth victim of ''Graf Spee's'' commerce raiding sortie. History Pre-war service ''Africa Shell'' was designed and built in the Greenock yards of George Brown Ltd. Her engine came from the Dutch engineering company Werkspoor N.V., Amsterdam. Following her construction ''Africa Shell'' entered into service in the late Spring of 1939. Second World War Background Following the outbreak of war between Germany and the Allies in September 1939, Adolf Hitler ordered the German Navy to begin commerce raiding against Allied merchant traffic. Under the command of Kapitän zur See Hans Langsdorff, '' Admiral Graf ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Port Of London
The Port of London is that part of the River Thames in England lying between Teddington Lock and the defined boundary (since 1968, a line drawn from Foulness Point in Essex via Gunfleet Old Lighthouse to Warden Point in Kent) with the North Sea and including any associated docks. Once the largest port in the world, it was the United Kingdom's largest port as of 2020.New data appended annually. Usage is largely governed by the Port of London Authority ("PLA"), a public trust established in 1908; while mainly responsible for coordination and enforcement of activities it also has some minor operations of its own. The port can handle cruise liners, roll-on roll-off ferries and cargo of all types at the larger facilities in its eastern extent. As with many similar historic European ports, such as Antwerp and Rotterdam, many activities have steadily moved downstream towards the open sea as ships have grown larger and the land upriver taken over for other uses. History The Port of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bundesarchiv DVM 10 Bild-23-63-06, Panzerschiff "Admiral Graf Spee"
The German Federal Archives or Bundesarchiv (BArch) (german: Bundesarchiv) are the National Archives of Germany. They were established at the current location in Koblenz in 1952. They are subordinated to the Federal Commissioner for Culture and the Media ( Claudia Roth since 2021) under the German Chancellery, and before 1998, to the Federal Ministry of the Interior. On 6 December 2008, the Archives donated 100,000 photos to the public, by making them accessible via Wikimedia Commons. History The federal archive for institutions and authorities in Germany, the first precursor to the present-day Federal Archives, was established in Potsdam, Brandenburg in 1919, a later date than in other European countries. This national archive documented German government dating from the founding of the North German Confederation in 1867. It also included material from the older German Confederation and the Imperial Chamber Court. The oldest documents in this collection dated back to the year ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Contraband
Contraband (from Medieval French ''contrebande'' "smuggling") refers to any item that, relating to its nature, is illegal to be possessed or sold. It is used for goods that by their nature are considered too dangerous or offensive in the eyes of the legislator—termed contraband ''in se''—and forbidden. So-called derivative contraband refers to goods that may normally be owned, but are liable to be seized because they were used in committing an unlawful act and hence begot illegally, e.g. smuggling goods; stolen goods – knowingly participating in their trade is an offense in itself, called fencing. Law of armed conflict In international law, contraband means goods that are ultimately destined for territory under the control of the enemy and may be susceptible for use in armed conflict. Traditionally, contraband is classified into two categories, absolute contraband and conditional contraband. The former category includes arms, munitions, and various materials, such a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Prize Rules
In admiralty law prizes are equipment, vehicles, vessels, and cargo captured during armed conflict. The most common use of ''prize'' in this sense is the capture of an enemy ship and her cargo as a prize of war. In the past, the capturing force would commonly be allotted a share of the worth of the captured prize. Nations often granted letters of marque that would entitle private parties to capture enemy property, usually ships. Once the ship was secured on friendly territory, she would be made the subject of a prize case: an ''in rem'' proceeding in which the court determined the status of the condemned property and the manner in which the property was to be disposed of. History and sources of prize law In his book ''The Prize Game'', Donald Petrie writes, "at the outset, prize taking was all smash and grab, like breaking a jeweler's window, but by the fifteenth century a body of guiding rules, the maritime law of nations, had begun to evolve and achieve international recogni ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe and Asia from the "New World" of the Americas in the European perception of the World. The Atlantic Ocean occupies an elongated, S-shaped basin extending longitudinally between Europe and Africa to the east, and North and South America to the west. As one component of the interconnected World Ocean, it is connected in the north to the Arctic Ocean, to the Pacific Ocean in the southwest, the Indian Ocean in the southeast, and the Southern Ocean in the south (other definitions describe the Atlantic as extending southward to Antarctica). The Atlantic Ocean is divided in two parts, by the Equatorial Counter Current, with the North(ern) Atlantic Ocean and the South(ern) Atlantic Ocean split at about 8°N. Scientific explorations of the A ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Canary Islands
The Canary Islands (; es, Canarias, ), also known informally as the Canaries, are a Spanish autonomous community and archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, in Macaronesia. At their closest point to the African mainland, they are west of Morocco. They are the southernmost of the autonomous communities of Spain. The islands have a population of 2.2 million people and they are the most populous special territory of the European Union. The seven main islands are (from largest to smallest in area) Tenerife, Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria, Lanzarote, La Palma, La Gomera, and El Hierro. The archipelago includes many smaller islands and islets, including La Graciosa, Alegranza, Isla de Lobos, Montaña Clara, Roque del Oeste, and Roque del Este. It also includes a number of rocks, including those of Salmor, Fasnia, Bonanza, Garachico, and Anaga. In ancient times, the island chain was often referred to as "the Fortunate Isles". The Canary Islands are the southernmost region of Spain, and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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". In 1940 she was renamed the ''Uckermark'' and used as supply tanker for the battleships and during Operation Berlin before sailing to Japan on September 1942 as a blockade breaker. Footage of the Altmark appears briefly in the 1942 British wartime propaganda movie ''The Day Will Dawn''. The Altmark Incident ''Altmark'' (Captain Heinrich Dau) was assigned to support ''Admiral Graf Spee'' during her raid in the South Atlantic between September and December 1939. Seamen rescued from the ships sunk by ''Admiral Graf Spee'' were transferred to ''Altmark''. After ''Admiral Graf Spee'' was heavily damaged by British cruisers in Battle of the River Plate and subsequently scuttled by her crew, in the Río de la Plata in December ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Denmark Strait
The Denmark Strait () or Greenland Strait ( , 'Greenland Sound') is an oceanic strait between Greenland to its northwest and Iceland to its southeast. The Norwegian island of Jan Mayen lies northeast of the strait. Geography The strait connects the Greenland Sea, an extension of the Arctic Ocean, to the Irminger Sea, a part of the Atlantic Ocean. It stretches long and wide at its narrowest, between Straumnes, the northwestern headland of the Westfjords peninsula of Hornstrandir, and Cape Tupinier on ''Blosseville Coast'' in East Greenland. The official International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) delineation between the Arctic and the North Atlantic Oceans runs from Straumnes to Cape Nansen, southwest of Cape Tunipier. From Straumnes to Cape Nansen the distance is . Hydrography The narrow depth, where the Greenland–Iceland Rise runs along the bottom of the sea, is . The cold East Greenland Current passes through the strait and carries icebergs south into the North ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
South Atlantic
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe and Asia from the "New World" of the Americas in the European perception of the World. The Atlantic Ocean occupies an elongated, S-shaped basin extending longitudinally between Europe and Africa to the east, and North and South America to the west. As one component of the interconnected World Ocean, it is connected in the north to the Arctic Ocean, to the Pacific Ocean in the southwest, the Indian Ocean in the southeast, and the Southern Ocean in the south (other definitions describe the Atlantic as extending southward to Antarctica). The Atlantic Ocean is divided in two parts, by the Equatorial Counter Current, with the North(ern) Atlantic Ocean and the South(ern) Atlantic Ocean split at about 8°N. Scientific explorations of the Atlanti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wilhelmshaven
Wilhelmshaven (, ''Wilhelm's Harbour''; Northern Low Saxon: ''Willemshaven'') is a coastal town in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated on the western side of the Jade Bight, a bay of the North Sea, and has a population of 76,089. Wilhelmshaven is the centre of the "Jade Bay" business region (which has around 330,000 inhabitants) and is Germany's main military port. The adjacent Lower Saxony Wadden Sea National Park (part of the Wattenmeer UNESCO World Natural Heritage Site) provides the basis for the major tourism industry in the region. History The , built before 1383, operated as a pirate stronghold; the Hanseatic League destroyed it in 1433. Four centuries later, the Kingdom of Prussia planned a fleet and a harbour on the North Sea. In 1853, Prince Adalbert of Prussia, a cousin of the Prussian King Frederick William IV of Prussia, Frederick William IV, arranged the Jade Treaty (''Jade-Vertrag'') with the Grand Duchy of Oldenburg, in which Prussia and the Grand Duchy ente ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hans Langsdorff
Hans Wilhelm Langsdorff (20 March 1894 – 20 December 1939) was a German naval officer, most famous for his command of the German pocket battleship ''Admiral Graf Spee'' during the Battle of the River Plate off the coast of Uruguay in 1939. After the ''Panzerschiff'' () was unable to escape a pursuing squadron of Royal Navy ships, Langsdorff scuttled his ship. Three days later he died by suicide in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Career Langsdorff was born on 20 March 1894 in Bergen, Germany on the island of Rügen. He was the eldest son in a family with legal and religious traditions rather than a naval tradition. In 1898, the family moved to Düsseldorf, where they were neighbours of the family of Graf (Count) Maximilian von Spee, who was to become a German naval hero (while losing his life) at the Battle of the Falkland Islands in 1914. Influenced by his honoured neighbours, Langsdorff entered the Kiel Naval Academy against his parents' wishes in 1912. During the First World Wa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kapitän Zur See
Captain is the name most often given in English-speaking navies to the rank corresponding to command of the largest ships. The rank is equal to the army rank of colonel and air force rank of group captain. Equivalent ranks worldwide include ship-of-the-line captain (e.g. France, Argentina, Spain), captain of sea and war (e.g. Brazil, Portugal), captain at sea (e.g. Germany, Netherlands) and " captain of the first rank" (Russia). The NATO rank code is OF-5, although the United States of America uses the code O-6 for the equivalent rank (as it does for all OF-5 ranks). Four of the uniformed services of the United States — the United States Navy, United States Coast Guard, United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Commissioned Officer Corps — use the rank. Etiquette Any naval officer who commands a ship is addressed by naval custom as "captain" while aboard in command, regardless of their actual rank, even ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
