Schwabenland was a Hansa liner of 8,500 gross register tons (GRT), built in 1925. It was converted into a catapult ship in 1934; a Heinkel-built K-9 catapult was installed on the ship's stern, along with a crane for lifting aircraft. The K-9 could accelerate a 15-ton aircraft to 94 miles per hour (151 km/h). Schwabenland's twin diesel screws gave it a speed of 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph).[2]
Lufthansa sought to engage in air mail service to the Americas using seaplanes launched off catapult ships, with Schwabenland being the second of those ships. The craft flew with a payload of 500 kg (1,100 lb) over 5,000 kilometres (3,100 mi);[3] each flight carried 100,000 air mail letters.[4]
Schwabenland was borrowed from Lufthansa for the 1938-1939 Third German Antarctic Expedition. The ship sailed in secret from Hamburg on 17 December 1938, carrying a complement of 82 men and two Dornier Wal seaplanes. The ship contacted the German whaling fleet off Bouvet Island, then anchored near the edge of the pack ice at 69°14′S, 4°30′W. After the expedition had completed its work, Schwabenland headed north on 6 February 1939, reaching Germany again on 11 April.[6]
In August 1942 it was transferred to Tromsø, Norway.[8]
The ship was damaged and forced to beach by the British submarine Terrapin in 1944 which was attacking a convoy off Flekkefjord, Norway. Schwabenland was then run aground at Sildeneset in Abelnes Harbour, and later refloated. When the war ended, the ship was taken by the British, and on 31 December 1946 it was loaded with poison gas ammunition, and scuttled in the Skagerrak.[9]
^"The Schwabenland in the Antarctic". The Geographical Journal. 95 (1). The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers): 52–54. January 1940. doi:10.2307/1788684. JSTOR1788684.
^Marriott, Leo (2006). Catapult aircraft : the story of seaplanes flown from battleships, cruisers and other warships of the world's navies, 1912-1950 (1. publ. in Great Britain. ed.). Barnsley: Pen & Sword Aviation. pp. 101–105. ISBN184415419X.
^Dancey, Peter Lufthansa to Luftwaffe-Hitlers: Secret Air Force Lulu Press, Inc, 12 Mar 2013
Caruana, Joseph; Grobmeier, Alvin H.; Layman, R. D. & Truebe, Carl E. (1990). "Question 33/89". Warship International. XXVI (4): 417–420. ISSN0043-0374.
Murphy, David Thomas (2002). "Aryan Aurora". German Exploration of the Polar World : A History, 1870–1940. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. pp. 183–207. ISBN0-8032-3205-5.
Weimar / Nazi Germany
