''Meteor'' was a German

survey vessel A survey vessel is any type of ship or boat that is used for underwater surveys, usually to collect data for mapping or planning underwater construction or mineral extraction. It is a type of research vessel, and may be designed for the purpo ...

, noted for her survey work in the Atlantic Ocean between 1925 and 1927. Handed over to the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

following

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, the ship was renamed ''Ekvator''. Her ultimate fate is not known.

Design and construction

Her

keel The keel is the bottom-most longitudinal structural element on a vessel. On some sailboats, it may have a hydrodynamic and counterbalancing purpose, as well. As the laying down of the keel is the initial step in the construction of a ship, in Br ...

was laid at the Kaiserliche Werft at Danzig in February 1914 and ''Meteor'' was launched in January 1915. Originally intended to become a

gunboat A gunboat is a naval watercraft designed for the express purpose of carrying one or more guns to bombard coastal targets, as opposed to those military craft designed for naval warfare, or for ferrying troops or supplies. History Pre-steam ...

for the

Imperial German Navy The Imperial German Navy or the Imperial Navy () was the navy of the German Empire, which existed between 1871 and 1919. It grew out of the small Prussian Navy (from 1867 the North German Federal Navy), which was mainly for coast defence. Wilhel ...

's colonial service she was not finished during the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

due to limited need for lightly armed vessels. After the war the uncompleted hull was tugged to

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. Wilhelmsha ...

for outfitting work at the Reichsmarinewerft. She was outfitted as a survey vessel and early

sonar Sonar (sound navigation and ranging or sonic navigation and ranging) is a technique that uses sound propagation (usually underwater, as in submarine navigation) to navigation, navigate, measure distances (ranging), communicate with or detect o ...

equipment was fitted. The ship had a steel hull with two propellers each driven by a

triple-expansion steam engine A compound steam engine unit is a type of steam engine where steam is expanded in two or more stages. A typical arrangement for a compound engine is that the steam is first expanded in a high-pressure ''(HP)'' cylinder, then having given up he ...

. Additionally she had a

brigantine A brigantine is a two-masted sailing vessel with a fully square-rigged foremast and at least two sails on the main mast: a square topsail and a gaff sail mainsail (behind the mast). The main mast is the second and taller of the two masts. Older ...

rig to boost range.

Career

''Meteor'' was commissioned as a military ship with the

Reichsmarine The ''Reichsmarine'' ( en, Realm Navy) was the name of the German Navy during the Weimar Republic and first two years of Nazi Germany. It was the naval branch of the ''Reichswehr'', existing from 1919 to 1935. In 1935, it became known as the ''K ...

but spent most of her life in a scientific role.

Scientific work

The Meteor of the German Meteor expedition - 02

''Meteor'' entered service in November 1924 and made her maiden survey expedition between 20 January and 17 February 1925 with the main purpose to check the equipment. On 16 April 1925 ''Meteor'' started the ''German Atlantic expedition'', also known as

German Meteor expedition The German Meteor expedition (German: ''Deutsche Atlantik Expedition'') was an oceanographic expedition that explored the South Atlantic ocean from the equatorial region to Antarctica in 1925–1927. Depth soundings, water temperature studies, wat ...

, and did not return to Germany until 2 June 1927. During this expedition the ship sailed more than and took cross sections of the South Atlantic between Africa and South America mapping the entire ocean.Stein In the course of this survey work ''Meteor'' found a bank (

seamount A seamount is a large geologic landform that rises from the ocean floor that does not reach to the water's surface (sea level), and thus is not an island, islet or cliff-rock. Seamounts are typically formed from extinct volcanoes that rise abru ...

) that rises to below sea level from a depth of . This bank was named ''"Meteor Bank"'' (). Between 1929 and 1935 ''Meteor'' made several journeys to Iceland and Greenland, where she performed survey work as well as fishery protection duties. A ''North Atlantic Expedition'' was performed in 1937/38 in order to take cross sections of the

North 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 ...

that complemented the earlier survey work done in the South Atlantic. During the ''Gulf Stream Expedition'' from 1938 a plateau rising to below surface from a sea depth of more than 4,000 m was discovered. In order to distinguish it from the smaller bank found in the South Atlantic, this bank was named ''"Great Meteor Bank"'' and is today known as

Great Meteor Seamount The Great Meteor Seamount, also called the Great Meteor Tablemount, is a guyot and the largest seamount in the North Atlantic with a volume of . It is one of the Seewarte Seamounts, rooted on a large terrace located south of the Azores Plateau. ...

().

Second World War

With the outbreak of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

the ship was removed from service on 8 September 1939. Reactivated in 1940 ''Meteor'' was used as a tender in the

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the North and Central European Plain. The sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from ...

as well along the Norwegian Coast. With the end of the war, the ship was laid off in

Kiel Kiel () is the capital and most populous city in the northern Germany, German state of Schleswig-Holstein, with a population of 246,243 (2021). Kiel lies approximately north of Hamburg. Due to its geographic location in the southeast of the J ...

Soviet service

In November 1945 the ship was handed over to the Soviet Union, but briefly returned into German service for a few months in 1946 to perform survey work under Soviet supervision. Eventually she became the Soviet survey vessel ''Ekvator''. Her final fate is unclear, she was either scrapped in 1968 or survived some more years as a

barracks ship A barracks ship or barracks barge or berthing barge, or in civilian use accommodation vessel or accommodation ship, is a ship or a non-self-propelled barge containing a superstructure of a type suitable for use as a temporary barracks for sai ...

Heritage

Two German research vessels were named after the ''Meteor'': * ; sold to

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

in 1986 and renamed ''Rapuhia''; scrapped 1993 * ; in service

References

Sources

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Meteor (ship) Research vessels of Germany Ships built in Danzig Ships built in Wilhelmshaven Auxiliary ships of the Reichsmarine Auxiliary ships of the Kriegsmarine Research vessels of the Soviet Union 1915 ships