SS General von Steuben was a German passenger liner and later an armed transport ship of the German Navy that was sunk in the Baltic Sea during World War II. She was launched in 1923 as München (after the German city, sometimes spelled Muenchen), renamed General von Steuben in 1930 (after the famous German officer of the American Revolutionary War), and renamed Steuben in 1938.
During World War II, the ship served as a troop accommodation vessel, and from 1944 as an armed transport. On 10 February 1945, while evacuating German military personnel, wounded soldiers, and civilian refugees during Operation Hannibal, the ship was torpedoed by the Soviet submarine S-13 and sank. An estimated 4,000 people lost their lives in the sinking.
Early history
In 1923, München became the first German trans-Atlantic passenger liner to be launched, and also the first to enter New York Harbor, since the end of World War I. She arrived in July 1923 on her maiden transatlantic voyage.[1]
1930 fire and sinking
On 11 February 1930, after München docked in New York City and discharged passengers and most of her crew from a voyage from Bremen, Germany, a fire broke out in a paint locker on board and quickly spread to another storage hold. The massive fire and explosion resulted in a five-alarm fire and all of the city's fire equipment was sent to the burning ship. The fire could not be controlled and the ship sank next to the wharf where it had docked.[1]
In one of the largest shipping salvage efforts of its time, München was raised, towed to a dry dock, repaired, and returned to service.[2] Shortly afterwards, the ship's owner renamed her General von Steuben.[3]
World War II
The ship, now called Steuben, was recommissioned in 1939 as a Kriegsmarine accommodation ship. In 1944, she was pressed into service as a transport ship returning wounded troops to Kiel from eastern Baltic ports.
Operation Hannibal
Along with the MV Wilhelm Gustloff and numerous other vessels, Steuben was part of the largest evacuation by sea in modern times. The Operation Hannibal evacuations surpassed the British evacuation at Dunkirk in both size of the operation and number of people evacuated.
By early January 1945, Grossadmiral Karl Dönitz realized that Germany was soon to be defeated. Wishing to save his submariners, he radioed a coded message on 23 January 1945 to the Baltic Sea port of Gotenhafen (the Polish city and port of Gdynia under German occupation) to evacuate to the West, under the code name Operation Hannibal.
Submariners at that point were schooled and housed in ships floating in the Baltic ports, most of them at Gotenhafen. Among the ships were SS Deutschland (1923), SS Hamburg (1925), Hansa, and Wilhelm Gustloff.
Wreck
The Steuben wreck was found and identified in May 2004 by Polish Navy hydrographical vessel ORP Arctowski. Pictures and graphics appeared in a 2005 National Geographic article.[5]
The wreck lies on its port side at about 70 m in depth, and the hull reaches up to 50 m in depth. The ship was mostly intact when it was found.
In July 2021, the German news magazine Der Spiegel reported that the wreck had been plundered and severely damaged in the process. The wreck is an official war grave, and entering it is illegal. Due to international treaties, the wreck remains property of the German state, but Poland is responsible for its protection.[6] Over the past decade, looting has become one of the biggest reasons for the deteriorating condition of shipwrecks in the Baltic sea.[7]
See also
- SS Cap Arcona
- Iosif Stalin
- Goya
- SS Deutschland (1923)
- Thielbek
- MV Wilhelm Gustloff
- Armenia
- List by death toll of ships sunk by submarines
External links
References
- "New York City, NY (Hudson River) Liner MUENCHEN Fire" Associated Press, 11 February 1930^
- "The Ship That Came Back To Life" Popular Mechanics, June 1930^
- Poul Grooss. The Naval War in the Baltic 1939 -1945 Seaforth Publishing, 30 April 2017, retrieved 23 February 2018