Tankdampfer WILHELMSBURG (ex PETRAKIS NOMIKOS, ex APACHE, ex BELRIDGE)

[Dimitris Galon]

Im Rahmen des ,,Tenedos Tauchprojekts"* haben wir am 22 September 2017 zwischen den Inseln Imbros (türkisch ,,Gökceada") und Tenedos (türkisch ,,Bozcaada") ein Schiffswrack betaucht, welches wir als den deutschen Tankdampfer WILHELMSBURG (ex PETRAKIS NOMIKOS, ex APACHE, ex BELRIDGE) provisorisch identifizierten. Die WILHELMSBURG wurde am 7 Juli 1943 von dem britischen U-Boot HMS RORQUAL (Lt. L.W. Napier, RN) torpediert und versenkt.

Hier der englische Bericht über die Entdeckung:     

Steam Tanker WILHELMSBURG (ex PETRAKIS NOMIKOS, ex APACHE, ex BELRIDGE)

On 22 September 2017, our team dived, examined and documented a shipwreck between the islands of Tenedos (Turkish Bozcaada) and Imvros (Turkish Gökceada), which lays at 80 meters of water. Although the wreck is badly damaged and partly collapsed, we were able to examine a part of it and due to our results we assume that we discovered the German steam tanker WILHELMSBURG (ex PETRAKIS NOMIKOS, ex APACHE, ex BELRIDGE), which sank after a torpedo attack carried out by the British submarine HMS RORQUAL (Lt. L.W. Napier, RN) on 7 July 1943.

Name: WILHELMSBURG (ex PETRAKIS NOMIKOS, ex APACHE, ex BELRIDGE)
Flag: German
Size (GRT): 7020
Size (NRT): 4420
Length (m): 129,5
Width (m): 17,3
Depth (m): 10
Construction: Sir J. Laing & Sons, Sunderland, Great Britain
Yard No.: 647
Completion: 1914
Engine: Three-cylinder reciprocating steam engine
Engine manufacturer: G. Clark Ltd, Sunderland, Great Britain
Output: 592 NHP
Propeller: 1
Speed (kn): 10
Last owner: Mittelmeer Reederei GmbH, Hamburg, Germany

The German steam tanker WILHELMSBURG was built as yard no. 647 in 1914 by Sir Tohn Laing & Sons, Deptford Yard, Sunderland, England, for the "Wilhelm Wilhelmsen Line", Tønsberg, Norway. The vessel was launched with the name BELRIDGE on 29 April 1914 and has been completed on 6 June 1914. In 1935 she became property of M. Konow & Co., Oslo, Norway, and renamed APACHE. In 1936 she was sold for 34.000 sovereigns to Markos P. Nomikos, Piraeus, Greece, and renamed PETRAKIS NOMIKOS. On 17 April 1941 she was bombed by the German Luftwaffe in the port of Piraeus and was towed to Ambelakia Bay (Island of Salamis) where she has been abandoned. After the occupation of Greece by the German Army on 27.04.1941, the vessel was confiscated, recovered and set in duty for the German Wehrmacht as PETRAKIS NOMIKOS. On 22 May 1943 the ship was took over by the German company Hans Tank GmbH (Atlantic Reederei F.u.W.Joch), Hamburg, and renamed WILHELMSBURG.

On 7 July 1943 while steaming in convoy with the steamer GERDA TOFT, escorted by the Italian vessels D/D TURBINE and T/B MONZAMBANO as well as the German submarine chasers UJ-2102 and UJ-2104, she was torpedoed and sank by the British submarine HMS RORQUAL (Lt. L.W. Napier, RN) at the NW of Tenedos.

Sources:

Port Register Piraeus
Lloyds Register of Shipping
Kriegstagebuch des Admirals Südost – Marinegruppenkommando Süd (NARA)
Kriegstagebuch des kommandierenden Admirals Ägäis (NARA)
Kriegstagebuch der 21. UJ-Flottille
ADM 236/5 (The National Archives, Kew Garden)
Lupinacci, Pier Filippo, (compilatore) / Tognelli, Vittorio (revisore): La difesa del traffico l´Albania, la Grecia e l´Egeo, La Marina italiana nella seconde Guerra mondiale, Ufficio Storico della Marina Militare, Vol. IX, Roma 1965
Projekt ASA, Allied Submarine Attacks, Historisches Marinearchiv
Rohwer, Jürgen: Allied Submarine Attacks of World War Two, Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Maryland 1997

*) Das "Tenedos Dive Project" ist ein internationales Projekt, das als Ziel hat, sowohl die noch unbekannten historischen Wracks der Insel Tenedos (türkisch "Bozcaada", nordöstliche Ägäis) zu orten, zu betauchen, zu untersuchen und zu dokumentieren, als auch die verschiedenen Aspekte der Marinegeschichte während der beiden Weltkriege in dieser Gegend zu hervorheben. Die Projektteilnehmer, die lange Erfahrung in der Archiv- und Feldforschung, Dokumentation und tiefem Wracktauchen vorweisen, sind Selçuk Kolay, Savaş Karakaş, Erol Öztunali, Hasan Tan, Odak Bingöl und Rabia Türk aus der Türkei, Derk Remmers, Jarek Grüber und Markus Kerwath aus Deutschland, sowie Dimitri Galon aus Griechenland. Die Tauchaktivitäten des "Tenedos Dive Project" für das Jahr 2017 fanden statt vom 18. bis 23. September 2017.

[de domenico]

A little  additional info: bomb damage, beached at Ambelaki 17 April 1941, declared a German prize 13.6.1941, refloated and taken to Venice to begin her repairs. In commission as PETRAKIS NOMIKOS in Oct. 1942 with the Kriegsmarine and on 24.5.1943 renamed WILHELMSBURG

Source:
Reinhart Schmelzkopf, cit.