SS Bremen (1928)
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SS ''Bremen'' was a German-built ocean liner constructed for the
Norddeutscher Lloyd Norddeutscher Lloyd (NDL; North German Lloyd) was a German shipping company. It was founded by Hermann Henrich Meier and Eduard Crüsemann in Bremen on 20 February 1857. It developed into one of the most important German shipping companies of t ...
line (NDL) to work the
transatlantic Transatlantic, Trans-Atlantic or TransAtlantic may refer to: Film * Transatlantic Pictures, a film production company from 1948 to 1950 * Transatlantic Enterprises, an American production company in the late 1970s * ''Transatlantic'' (1931 film) ...
sea route. ''Bremen'' was notable for her
bulbous bow A bulbous bow is a protruding bulb at the bow (or front) of a ship just below the waterline. The bulb modifies the way the water flows around the hull, reducing drag and thus increasing speed, range, fuel efficiency, and stability. Large ships w ...
construction, high-speed engines, and low, streamlined profile. At the time of her construction, she and her sister ship were the two most advanced high-speed steam turbine ocean liners of their day. The German pair sparked an international competition in the building of large, fast, luxurious ocean liners that were national symbols and points of prestige during the pre-war years of the 1930s. She held the Blue Riband, and was the fourth ship of NDL to carry the name ''Bremen''.


History

Also known as TS ''Bremen'' – for Turbine Ship – ''Bremen'' and her sister were designed to have a cruising speed of , allowing a crossing time of five days. This speed enabled
Norddeutscher Lloyd Norddeutscher Lloyd (NDL; North German Lloyd) was a German shipping company. It was founded by Hermann Henrich Meier and Eduard Crüsemann in Bremen on 20 February 1857. It developed into one of the most important German shipping companies of t ...
to run regular weekly crossings with two ships, a feat that normally required three. It was claimed that ''Bremen'' briefly reached speeds of during her
sea trials A sea trial is the testing phase of a watercraft (including boats, ships, and submarines). It is also referred to as a "shakedown cruise" by many naval personnel. It is usually the last phase of construction and takes place on open water, and i ...
.


Design and Construction

''Bremen'' was built by the new German shipbuilding company
Deutsche Schiff- und Maschinenbau Deutsche Schiff- und Maschinenbau Aktiengesellschaft (abbreviated Deschimag) was a cooperation of eight German shipyards in the period 1926 to 1945. The leading company was the shipyard AG Weser in Bremen. History The Deschimag was founded in 19 ...
. She was built from 7,000 tons of high-strength steel of 52 kg/m2 (500 N/m2), allowing a weight saving of some 800 tons on the structure. She was also the first commercial ship to be designed with the Taylor
bulbous bow A bulbous bow is a protruding bulb at the bow (or front) of a ship just below the waterline. The bulb modifies the way the water flows around the hull, reducing drag and thus increasing speed, range, fuel efficiency, and stability. Large ships w ...
, though bulbous bows of different types had appeared on earlier merchant vessels, such as of 1926. She was launched at Bremen during the afternoon of Thursday, 16 August 1928 by President
Paul von Hindenburg Paul Ludwig Hans Anton von Beneckendorff und von Hindenburg (; abbreviated ; 2 October 1847 – 2 August 1934) was a German field marshal and statesman who led the Imperial German Army during World War I and later became President of Germany fr ...
, only one day after the launch of her sister ship at Hamburg. SS ''Bremen'' and her sister ship were considered for their time as the most modern liners in the world. The high speeds and the comfort and luxury level on board made high demands of technical personnel. Each ship required an engineering crew of some 170 men. As on her sister ship ''Europa'', ''Bremen'' had a catapult on the upper deck between the two funnels with a small
seaplane A seaplane is a powered fixed-wing aircraft capable of taking off and landing (alighting) on water.Gunston, "The Cambridge Aerospace Dictionary", 2009. Seaplanes are usually divided into two categories based on their technological characteri ...
, which facilitated faster mail service. The airplane was launched from the ship several hours before arrival, landing at the seaplane base in Blexen. The
boiler A boiler is a closed vessel in which fluid (generally water) is heated. The fluid does not necessarily boil. The heated or vaporized fluid exits the boiler for use in various processes or heating applications, including water heating, centr ...
and the machine equipment were designed by Professor Dr. Gustav Bauer. ''Bremen'' had four airtight boiler rooms. The combustion air for the oil burners of the boilers was blown into the boiler rooms by eight steam turbine blowers. The resulting positive pressure meant that the boiler rooms were accessible only through airlocks. The steam was generated in 20 oil-fired water tube boilers, eleven double-enders and nine single-enders in four banks fired by a total of 227 oil burners. The operating pressure was 23 atm = 24 bar with a steam temperature at the superheater discharge of . The maximum steam generating capacity was 500 tons/h. For harbour operation three boilers with their own blower were available, so that during work periods the main boiler airlocks could remain open. The total heating surface amounted to , the superheater surface and the air preheater surface . The feed water was preheated to and the fuel oil consumption was 33 tons/h or 380 g/HP/h or 800 tons/day, fed from oil bunkers with a capacity of 7,552 tons. SS ''Bremen'' had four geared steam turbines that could generate approximately . Each of them had a high pressure, a medium pressure, low pressure and a reverse turbine. In reverse, 65% of the forward power was available. At cruise speed the turbines made 1800 rpm while the propellers made 180 rpm for a power output of . The four propellers were bronze and had a diameter of , pitch of and weighed 17 tons each. The 230 V electric power on the ship came from four
diesel Diesel may refer to: * Diesel engine, an internal combustion engine where ignition is caused by compression * Diesel fuel, a liquid fuel used in diesel engines * Diesel locomotive, a railway locomotive in which the prime mover is a diesel engin ...
generators with a total output of 520 kW. On board, there were total of 420 electric motors, approximately 21,000 lamps, electric cookers and 20 elevators.


Blue Riband

''Bremen'' was to have made her maiden transatlantic crossing in the company of her sister ''Europa'', but ''Europa'' suffered a serious fire during fitting-out, so ''Bremen'' crossed solo, departing
Bremerhaven Bremerhaven (, , Low German: ''Bremerhoben'') is a city at the seaport of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen, a state of the Federal Republic of Germany. It forms a semi-enclave in the state of Lower Saxony and is located at the mouth of the Riv ...
for
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
under the command of Commodore Leopold Ziegenbein on 16 July 1929. She arrived four days, 17 hours, and 42 minutes later, capturing the westbound Blue Riband from with an average speed of . This voyage also marked the first time mail was carried by a ship-launched plane for delivery before the ship's arrival. A
Heinkel HE 12 The Heinkel HE 12 was a pontoon-equipped mail plane built in Germany in 1929, designed to be launched by catapult from a liner at sea. Development The concept was hit upon after Norddeutscher Lloyd (NDL) had carried a Junkers F.13 seaplane a ...
floatplane, flown by 27-year-old
Luft Hansa ''Deutsche Luft Hansa A.G.'' (from 1933 styled as ''Deutsche Lufthansa'' and also known as ''Luft Hansa'', ''Lufthansa'', or DLH) was a German airline, serving as flag carrier of the country during the later years of the Weimar Republic and th ...
pilot Baron Jobst von Studnitz, was launched at sea twenty miles east of
Fire Island Fire Island is the large center island of the outer barrier islands parallel to the South Shore of Long Island, in the U.S. state of New York. Occasionally, the name is used to refer collectively to not only the central island, but also Lo ...
with 11,000 pieces of mail in six mailbags weighing which it delivered to New York many hours before the ship docked at the North German-Lloyd pier at the foot of 58th Street in Brooklyn. On the return passage to Germany ''Bremen'' took the eastbound Blue Riband with a time of 4 days 14 hours and 30 minutes and an average speed of , the first time a liner had broken two records on her first two passages. The mailplane was launched on the eastbound voyage in the English Channel near Cherbourg carrying 18,000 letters to Bremerhaven where it delivered the mail many hours ahead of the ship's arrival. ''Bremen'' lost the westbound Blue Riband to her sister ''Europa'' in 1930, and the eastbound Blue Riband to Italian in 1932.


Before World War II

As
Nazism Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) i ...
gained power in Germany, ''Bremen'' and her pier in New York were often the site of
Anti-Nazi Anti-fascism is a political movement in opposition to fascist ideologies, groups and individuals. Beginning in European countries in the 1920s, it was at its most significant shortly before and during World War II, where the Axis powers were ...
demonstrations. On 26 July 1935 a group of anti-Nazi demonstrators boarded ''Bremen'' just before she sailed and tore the
Nazi flag The flag of Nazi Germany, officially the flag of the German Reich, featured a red background with a black swastika on a white disc. This flag came into use initially as the banner of the Nazi Party (NSDAP) after its foundation. Following the ap ...
from the
jackstaff A jack staff (also spelled as jackstaff) is a small vertical spar (pole) on the bow of a ship or smaller vessel on which a particular type of flag, known as a jack Jack may refer to: Places * Jack, Alabama, US, an unincorporated community * ...
and tossed it into the
Hudson River The Hudson River is a river that flows from north to south primarily through eastern New York. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York and flows southward through the Hudson Valley to the New York Harbor between N ...
. At the time there was a dual flag law, by which both the black-white-red horizontal tricolor (previously the flag of the German Empire), and the swastika flag were simultaneously official national flags of Germany. As the ship's swastika flag was the one tossed into the river, US authorities claimed that no symbol of Germany had been harmed. On 15 September 1935 Germany changed its flag law, removing the status of the black-white-red flag of imperial Germany, lest it be used by reactionaries. The Nazis on coming to power had used it as a co-national flag to replace the black-red-gold flag of the
Weimar Republic The Weimar Republic (german: link=no, Weimarer Republik ), officially named the German Reich, was the government of Germany from 1918 to 1933, during which it was a constitutional federal republic for the first time in history; hence it is ...
. ''Bremen'' started her South America cruise on 11 February 1939, and was the first ship of this size to traverse the
Panama Canal The Panama Canal ( es, Canal de Panamá, link=no) is an artificial waterway in Panama that connects the Atlantic Ocean with the Pacific Ocean and divides North and South America. The canal cuts across the Isthmus of Panama and is a condui ...
. On 22 August 1939, she began her last voyage to New York. After ten years of service, she had almost 190 transatlantic voyages completed.


World War II

On 26 August 1939, in anticipation of the
invasion of Poland The invasion of Poland (1 September – 6 October 1939) was a joint attack on the Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union which marked the beginning of World War II. The German invasion began on 1 September 1939, one week aft ...
, the Kriegsmarine high command ordered all German merchant ships to head to German ports immediately. ''Bremen'' was on a westbound crossing and two days from New York when she received the order. ''Bremen''s captain decided to continue to New York to disembark her 1,770 passengers. She left New York without passengers on 30 August 1939 and on 1 September, coincident with the start of the Second World War, she was ordered to make for the Russian port of Murmansk. Underway, her crew painted the ship grey for camouflage. She made use of bad weather and high speed to avoid
Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against ...
cruisers, arriving in
Murmansk Murmansk (Russian: ''Мурманск'' lit. "Norwegian coast"; Finnish: ''Murmansk'', sometimes ''Muurmanski'', previously ''Muurmanni''; Norwegian: ''Norskekysten;'' Northern Sámi: ''Murmánska;'' Kildin Sámi: ''Мурман ланнҍ'') ...
on 6 September 1939. With the outbreak of the
Winter War The Winter War,, sv, Vinterkriget, rus, Зи́мняя война́, r=Zimnyaya voyna. The names Soviet–Finnish War 1939–1940 (russian: link=no, Сове́тско-финская война́ 1939–1940) and Soviet–Finland War 1 ...
between Finland and the Soviet Union, on 10 December 1939 ''Bremen'' made a dash to
Bremerhaven Bremerhaven (, , Low German: ''Bremerhoben'') is a city at the seaport of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen, a state of the Federal Republic of Germany. It forms a semi-enclave in the state of Lower Saxony and is located at the mouth of the Riv ...
, arriving on 13 December. On the way she was sighted and challenged by the S-class submarine . While challenging ''Bremen'', an escorting
Dornier Do 18 The Dornier Do 18 was a development of the Do 16 flying boat. It was developed for the ''Luftwaffe'', but ''Luft Hansa'' received five aircraft and used these for tests between the Azores and the North American continent in 1936 and on their ma ...
seaplane A seaplane is a powered fixed-wing aircraft capable of taking off and landing (alighting) on water.Gunston, "The Cambridge Aerospace Dictionary", 2009. Seaplanes are usually divided into two categories based on their technological characteri ...
forced ''Salmon'' to dive for safety. After diving, ''Salmon''s commander decided not to torpedo the liner because he believed she was not a
legal Law is a set of rules that are created and are law enforcement, enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. ...
target. His decision not to fire on ''Bremen'' likely delayed the start of
unrestricted submarine warfare Unrestricted submarine warfare is a type of naval warfare in which submarines sink merchant ships such as freighters and tankers without warning, as opposed to attacks per prize rules (also known as "cruiser rules") that call for warships to s ...
. ''Bremen'' was used 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 s ...
; there were plans to use her as a transport in
Operation Sea Lion Operation Sea Lion, also written as Operation Sealion (german: Unternehmen Seelöwe), was Nazi Germany's code name for the plan for an invasion of the United Kingdom during the Battle of Britain in the Second World War. Following the Battle o ...
, the intended invasion of
Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It i ...
. On 16 March 1941, ''Bremen'' was set alight by 15-year-old crew member Walter Schmidt while at her dock in Bremerhaven and completely gutted. A lengthy investigation discovered that the arson was the result of a personal grudge against the ship's owners, and was not an act of war. Schmidt was later guillotined for the arson, becoming one of the youngest people to be judicially executed by the regime. Starting in 1942 she was dismantled to the waterline so the steel could be used for munitions. In 1946 her remains were towed up the River Weser, beached on a sandbar off Blexen, Nordenham and destroyed by explosives, though some parts of the double hull remain visible to this day.


Legacy

In 2004, a stamp was issued showing '' Bremen '' before the Manhattan skyline. In 2003,
Radio Bremen Radio Bremen (RB), Germany's smallest public radio and television broadcaster, is the legally mandated broadcaster for the city-state Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (which includes Bremerhaven). With its headquarters sited in Bremen, Radio Brem ...
produced a one-hour radio feature, ''Königin der Meere – Die Geschichte des Schnelldampfers "Bremen"'' (''Queen of the Seas - The story of the rapid steamer "Bremen"'') by Detlef Michelers and other former sailors on ''Bremen''. In the stairwell in the Übersee Museum Bremen, there is a 1:100 scale model of ''Bremen'', while in the shipping exhibit there is a model of her significantly smaller earlier namesake to the same scale. A much larger, 39-foot long model of the ''Bremen'', known officially as ''Bremen IV, Junior'' was built between 1949 and 1962 by enthusiasts Günter Bos and Günter Buse. The 10-ton model, operated by a two-person crew inside, would tour the world, and achieve a Guinness World Record for largest seaworthy model ship. It currently resides at
Technik Museum Speyer The Technik Museum Speyer is a technology museum in Speyer (Rhineland-Palatinate), Germany. 208 History The museum was opened in 1991 as a sister museum of the Auto & Technik Museum Sinsheim and is run by a registered alliance called "Auto & T ...
.


View of ''Bremen''


Further reading

* Ahrens, Adolf: ''Die Siegesfahrt der "Bremen"''. Berlin, 1939. * Aschenbeck, Nils: ''Schnelldampfer Bremen – Die Legende/Express Liner Bremen – The Legend''. Delmenhorst, 1999 . * Huchthausen, Peter A.: ''Shadow Voyage: The Extraordinary Wartime Escape of the Legendary S.S. Bremen'', Wiley, 2005. * Willoughby, J. Russell: ''Bremen & Europa - German Speed Queens of the Atlantic''. Maritime Publishing Concepts 2010 . * ''Nur das Gästebuch bezeugt den alten Glanz. Erinnerungen an Julius Hundt, Chief-Ingenieur der "Bremen" / Besuch an Bord war ein Erlebnis''. In ''Weser-Kurier''. Bremen, 1999. * ''"Bremen"-Fotos aus privaten Alben. Bildband über den Schnelldampfer''. In ''Weser-Kurier'', Bremen, 1999. * Hermann Haarmann / Ingrid Peckskamp-Lürßen: ''Mit der Kamera um die Welt – Richard Fleischhut (1881–1951)''. Kettler-Verlag .


References


External links


The Great Ocean Liners: ''Bremen''



El "BREMEN", un transatlántico notable
(Spanish) * https://web.archive.org/web/20080804013637/http://www.radiobremen.de/magazin/geschichte/schiffe/bremen/
"New Catapult Drives Plane From Deck of Liner"
November 1929, ''Popular Mechanics'' photo of Heinkel 12 on ''Bremen'' catapult
Video dedicated to SS ''Bremen''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bremen (1929) 1928 ships B Blue Riband holders Maritime incidents in March 1941 Ship fires Ships built in Bremen (state) Ships of Norddeutscher Lloyd Steamships of Germany