SS General von Steuben
The SS General von Steuben (German: Dampfschiff „General von Steuben“) was a German passenger liner of 14,660 tons. She was launched as München[1] (after the capital of Bavaria), renamed in 1930 General von Steuben, after German general Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben (de), who served in the American Revolution, and renamed again in 1938 simply Steuben.
While transporting wounded bed-bound German servicemen and civilian refugees, including women and children, in 1945, she was sunk by a Soviet submarine.
History
During World War II, commissioned in 1939, she had served as a troop accommodation ship of the Kriegsmarine, and from December 1944 as a refugee and evacuation ship.
On 9 February 1945, the liner sailed from Pillau (near Königsberg) on the Baltic coast for Swinemünde in western Pomerania. It was officially reported that there were 2,800 bedridden wounded German soldiers; 800 civilians; 100 returning injured soldiers; 270 navy medical personnel (including doctors, nurses and auxiliaries); 12 nurses from Pillau; 64 crew for the ship's anti-aircraft guns, 61 naval personnel, radio operators, signal men, machine operators and administrators, plus 160 merchant navy crewmen: a total of 4,267 people on board. Due to the rapid evacuation ahead of the Red Army's advance, many Eastern German and Baltic refugees also boarded the Steuben without being recorded, putting the total number of those on board at around 5,200.
Just before midnight, on 9 February, the renegade captain of the Soviet submarine S-13, Alexander Marinesko, fired two torpedoes within a 14-second interval at the liner. Both torpedoes hit the Steuben in the starboard bow, just below the bridge, where many of the crew were sleeping. Most were killed by the impact of the torpedoes.
According to survivors, she sank by the bow and listed severely to starboard before taking her final plunge within about 20 minutes of the impact of the torpedoes. An estimated 4,500 people died in the sinking. Thanks to the German torpedo-boat T-196, which hastily pulled up beside Steuben as she sank, about 300 survivors were pulled straight from Steuben's slanting decks and brought to Kolberg in Pomerania. Altogether, a total of 650 people were saved. The rest murdered.
Further reading
- Wartime Disasters at Sea, by David Williams, Patrick Stephens Ltd., near Yeovil, Somerset, England, 1997.
References
- ↑ 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 fire could not be controlled and the ship sank next to the wharf where it had docked. In one of the largest shipping salvage efforts of its time, München was raised, towed to a dry dock, repaired, and returned to service. Shortly afterwards, the ship's owner renamed her General von Steuben.
