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German ships involved in evacuation of Riga December 1918

Posted: Fri Jul 24, 2020 2:58 pm
by FelixC
Hello everyone,

Is there a list of German vessels involved in evacuating troops from Riga in December 1918? The last vessel may have departed on January 1, 1919. I see the steamer "Roma" was at Libau on January 2-3 1919. not sure if earlier at Riga as well.

Was there a German ship named "Hindenburg" afloat at this time? I see there was an icebreaker with that name sunk earlier in 1918.

Thanks in advance,

Felix C

Re: German ships involved in evacuation of Riga December 1918

Posted: Sat Jul 25, 2020 10:34 pm
by davidships
Two small HINDENBURGs are listed by Miramar, both built 1914:

1) HINDENBURG: 194grt cargo, built by Union Giesserei, Königsberg
later FREDEN, then DUEN II; 1952 broken up at Stavanger

2) VON HINDENBURG: 249grt trawler, built by Seebeck, Geestemünde/Bremerhaven (Yd 343)
12/1/1935 wrecked near Bergen
LR1934: https://plimsoll.southampton.gov.uk/shi ... a0579.pdf

but no idea whether either of these could be relevant.

Re: German ships involved in evacuation of Riga December 1918

Posted: Sun Jul 26, 2020 12:20 pm
by FelixC
Thanks I wrote it was probably memory error on the part of the participant and then searched the first entry and see the 12.1914 : delivered from Union-Giesserei AG, Königsberg, Germany (175) as tugboat / icebreaker HINDENBURG to Kaiserliche Marine, Germany.
So that would be the vessel. The eyewitness wrote it was an icebreaker.
Many thanks.

Re: German ships involved in evacuation of Riga December 1918

Posted: Sun Jul 26, 2020 9:02 pm
by davidships
I had ignored the third HINDENBURG, which was the icebreaker lost earlier in 1918, as assumed that was of no relevance in 12/1918:

3) HINDENBURG: 670grt icebreaker, built 1916 by Stettiner Oderwerke, Stettin-Grabow (Yd 657)
12/1916 completed for Korporation der Kaufmannschaft, Stettin
9/3/1918 mined 60.11N/19.25E, south-west of Eckerö.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindenburg_(icebreaker)