Rivers-class ocean liner
Known as the rivers - class ship class was a series of eleven North Atlantic express steamers of the North German Lloyd ( NDL). It represented an important step in the development of the shipping company, as one of the first lines of the NDL sat on the transatlantic service on the use of quick steamers. The class consisted of various types of ships, of which nine units were built in Glasgow, five of them at the shipyard of John Elder & Co., and four more came on the same shipyard, which was called from 1886 Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company. The last two ships built, Spree and Havel, however, emerged on the German Vulcan shipyard in Stettin.
Structure of the class
1879 had managed the hitherto fastest Atlantic crossing with a speed of nearly 16 knots of Guion Line Schnelldampfer Arizona. The ships of Hapag and Norddeutscher Lloyd ran at that time around 13 knots. In August 1881, the Director of NDL, Johann Georg Lohmann at John Elder & Company, the Glasgow shipyard that the Arizona had built ordered an equal rank ship, the Elbe. Although the Guion Line had meanwhile ordered yet faster ships at Elder, followed by the success of the Elbe rapidly further orders for the Werra and Fulda, two slightly larger replicas, with which one could offer 1883 weekly departures. The Fulda could adorn themselves with the title of being the second German ship with electric light. The Elbe and the Werra were soon retrofitted. After the number of ships in the rivers class with the two even larger and faster ships Eider and Ems had been increased to five, the NDL was able to offer even the densest fast steamer timetable across the Atlantic.
With a loan of 15 million marks in 1884, the Lloyd ordered the world's first three finished with the newer and more powerful Dreifachexpanions steam engines fast steamer at Elders successor Fairfields shipyard. These first constructed from steel and again slightly larger ships of the NDL, Aller, Travelodge and Saale were now about 17.5 knots and offset the Lloyd in the situation two departures per week to offer. The fastest British competitors were now indeed arrived fast ships already at about 19 knots, to build such a fast ships, the Lloyd but did not decide, especially since you already had to reduce the number of steerage passengers in favor of large machinery in the construction of the last three ships. 1886 Lohmann ordered another, but a knot faster reconstruction of the last ships, the Lahn, with the now up to three weekly departures have been made possible. Since the dimensions of the old Bremerhaven Kaiserschleuse at this time no more ships would allow, held firmly to the Lloyd ship this size, although the competition is now offering far larger and faster ships.
In 1887 the Hapag ordered with the Augusta Victoria the first twin screw steamer, the British departed in 1888 with 10,000 gross tons and 20 knots speed large twin-screw steamers, which the ships of the class rivers had finally look outdated. In the same year put Hermann Henrich Meier, the chair of the Board of Directors NDL- down, because he was no longer agree with the building policy of Lohmann. Despite the resistance in the top of the company ordered Lohmann 1889 against the backdrop of still economically very successful two more ships 7000 gross tons large Einschraubenschiffe at Stettin Vulcan. This Spree and Havel baptized ships should also be reached 20 knots, with the additional space of the larger vessels was therefore almost completely needed by the once bulky machinery.
Further use and whereabouts
The first ship of the class was leaving the Eider, which ran aground on the south coast of the Isle of Wight on 31 January 1892, at fog at Atherfield. After disembarking the passengers of the Nordic rescue club from Hamburg hid the ship on March 29. He called for a million marks salvage, however, the NDL was due to the severe damage of the damaged ship only to the payment of 400,000 marks ready. Ultimately, both parties could not agree and the Eider was auctioned on January 10, 1893 in Southampton for 116,000 marks and then scrapped in London.
The highlights of the career of Fulda were two rescues of passengers and crews of the sunken Cunard Line steamer Oregon and the sinking ship full Luise M. Fuller in 1886. Starting 1891, she sailed the route Genoa - New York. In February 1899 should be set for a charter as a Spanish troop carrier and before the handover to the Canadian Steamship Company (Beaver Line) in the Dock Birkenhead repaired. There broke out on February 2, but supports the Dock, and then the Fulda slipped from the Pallungen and was so badly damaged that it had to be scrapped. The demolition took place in Liverpool.
The Werra was initially on the Bremerhaven - New York. In 1891 and 1898 she sailed for the Lloyd the route Genoa - New York. In 1899 she was sold to the Canadian Steamship Company, but this was prevented by the insolvency of the British. Instead, she was then chartered as a Spanish troop transport until the summer of 1899 and sold to a scrap yard Genoese in September 1901.
The Aller overflowed on June 15, 1887 the British Trawler Willie, who went down with six men. Until 1897, the ship was used by Lloyd on the route Bremerhaven - New York City, then she moved on the route Genoa - New York. On October 27, 1898, the ship will save the 23- member crew of the sinking in the Atlantic British steamer Dago. 1902 Aller was scrapped in Genoa.
1899, the EMS should be just like the Werra sold to the Canadian Steamship Company, but this was prevented by the insolvency of the British. On August 20, 1901, the former Ems began her second career as a Lake Simcoe for the British shipping company, Elder Dempster. In 1904 she was launched and canceled in 1905 in Genoa.
The penultimate ship of the class rivers, the river Spree, suffered in November 1892 and in July 1897 a fraction of the drive shaft and had to be towed each. In November 1897 she ran her Shipyard to again to be converted into a twin-screw ship. The ship was thereby extended to 19.8 meters and equipped with additional boilers, another chimney and two new quadruple expansion steam engines. During the navigation test in June 1899, the newly renovated Empress Maria Theresa twice ran aground and had to return both times be towed free. She was so badly damaged that they run back at low speed to the yard and had to be repaired again. Only in March 1900, the ship could be used again. Four years later she was sold to Russia. As Ural the ship on 27 May 1905, sunk in the Battle of Tsushima by Japanese warships.
The propeller of the " Spree " before conversion to a twin-screw ship is currently (2012 ) as an exhibit on the Isar island off the Deutsches Museum, Munich.
1904, the steamer Lahn Hamburg brokers Henning and Herlessen was sold to Russia. After renovations in Bremerhaven and Libau he served as Spähkreuzer Russ and returned back to the 1907 demolition to Hamburg.
The longest remaining in the employ of Lloyd steamer was the Travelodge. On 13 June 1889 the ship collided with the Russian schooner David, who declined thereafter. Three years later, on June 21, 1892, the Travelodge collided with the full-rigged ship Fred B. Taylor, who also went down. Two crew members of the sailor were killed. The Travelodge moved in 1901 to the distance between Genoa and New York and was launched in Bremerhaven in May 1903. But she made on 11 March 1906 to November 1907 nine more trips between Bremerhaven and New York. 1908 was sold for demolition, the demolition was carried out in the following year.
The hall burned down before Hoboken on June 30, 1900. Here, 109 people lost their lives. After the salvage and repair the ship in the United States served until demolition in 1924 as a cargo steamer. See the main article Saale (ship, 1886)
The last- built ship of the class, Havel, sunken at February 18, 1892 in a collision off Long Iceland under the leadership of compulsory pilotage Connor, the Italian Bark Mascotta. Later it was initially intended for the same conversion as the Spree, but served from 1898 after a sale to Spain as an auxiliary cruiser Meteoro in the Spanish Navy. Then it was back to the passenger ship built Alfonso XII and served with the shipping company Cia. Trasatlantica. With its demolition finally ended in 1926, the history of the rivers class.