SS Gneisenau (1935)

P1

Passengers II.Klasse: 144

Yard Number: 893

The Gneisenau was a passenger ship of the North German Lloyd, which was in 1935 for regular service to East Asia in service. It was named after August Neidhardt von Gneisenau, the Prussian Field Marshal and military reformer.

History

The third new building for the fast steamer traffic to East Asia of the NDL ran on May 17, in 1935 the DESCHIMAG in Bremen from the stack. Was christened the ship by Ursula Countess von Gneisenau. The three new buildings should occupy the lucrative line and shorten the Reiseumläufe by modern drive concepts. The Gneisenau was, however, unlike the Scharnhorst and the Potsdam, geared turbines as prime movers who worked through gears to the two propeller shafts and fixed-pitch propellers. The steam was produced in four Wagner- water tube boilers.

After only a very short trial period in the North Sea, the ship left for its maiden voyage to ports in the Far East on January 3, 1936. The modern for its time ship lay at the outbreak of World War II in Bremerhaven and was requisitioned by the German Navy and used as an accommodation ship. 1942 should be the Gneisenau, as her sister ship Potsdam, also be converted into an aircraft carrier, but was taken out of the Flugzeugträgerbauprogramm again because of their warships at low speed. During a transfer, the Gneisenau ran on May 2, 1943 Gedser on a mine and sank. With the end of the war and the clarification of property rights between the USSR and Denmark, the Gneisenau was scrapped. The demolition work on site took over a Danish company. This work went on until 1954.