MS München
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MS München was a German LASH carrier of Hapag-Lloyd that sunk with all hands for unknown reasons in a severe storm in December 1978.
The most accepted theory is that one or more freak waves hit München and damaged her so, that she drifted for 33 hours with a list of 50 degrees without electricity or propulsion.
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[edit] Last journey and search operations
In the night of December 12, 1978 to December 13 München was underway from Bremerhaven to Savannah, Georgia (her usual route) with a load of steel products stored in 83 lighters and a crew of 28.
[edit] December 12
Between 00:05—00:07 (all times GMT) München's radio officer Jörg Ernst noticed during a short radio communication on a "chat" frequency bad weather and some damages to his colleague Heinz Löhmann aboard MS Caribe, a German cruise ship 2400 nautical miles away. Ernst also transmits München's last known position as . The quality of the transmission was bad, so that not everything was understood by Löhmann. Since it was a standard communication, the information was not relayed back to the ship's owner until December 17.
Around three hours later (03:10-03:20), SOS calls were received by the Greek freighter Marion, an unknown ship which relayed it to the Soviet freighter Marya Yermolava and the German tug boat Titan. MS München gave her position as , which was probably around 100 nautical miles off her real position. The messages were transmitted via morse code and only parts of them were received. One fragment of them was 50 degrees starboard, which could be interpreted as a 50 degrees list to starboard.
Automatic emergency signals were received by multiple radio stations starting at 04:43. No further calls were recorded after 07:34, probably because US stations stopped listening on the frequency 2182 kHz.
At 17:30 international search and rescue operations were initiated, initially controlled by HM Coastguard at Land's End. Wind speeds of 11—12 were reported in the area of search.
[edit] December 13
The next day three aircraft and six ships were searching for the München. At 09:06 Michael F. Sinnot, a Belgian radio amateur in Brussels, received a voice transmission on the unusual frequency 8238.4 kHz, which is usually used by the German ground station Norddeich Radio, which was clear but interrupted by some noise and contained fragments of München's name and callsign. Later in court Sinnot reported the voice was calm and spoke in English but with a distinct German accent. Since Sinnot only had a receiver for this frequency, he relayed the message via telex to a radio station in Ostende.
Between 17:00—19:14 ten weak Mayday calls were received by the US Naval Station Rota, Spain at regular intervals, mentioning "28 persons on board". The messages may have been recorded and sent automatically, also München's call sign (DEAT) sent in morse code was received three times on the same frequency.
[edit] December 14
On December 14 wind speeds dropped to 9, now 4 aircraft and 17 ships participated in the search operation. Signals of München's emergency buoy were received. At 19:00 the British freighter King George picked up an empty life raft at . The same day, Hapag-LLoyd's freigher Erlangen found and identified three of München's lighters.
[edit] December 15
The following day, a British Hawker-Siddeley Nimrod patrol aircraft discovered two orange objects of buoy shape at and the salvage tug Titan recovered a second life raft. A third one was located at the next day by MS Badenstein, all were empty. That day also a yellow barrel was sighted.
[edit] December 17
December 17, at 13:00 Düsseldorf Express salvaged München's emergency buoy, wind speeds dropped to 3. The freighter Starlight found two life belts, at the Sealand Consumer picked up a fourth empty life raft. Also three life vests were sighted, two of them by Starlight and another one by Evelyn.
[edit] December 20 and later
With the evening of December 20 the international search operation officially ended, the West German government and Hapag-Lloyd decided to search for two more days, British and American forces supported them.
Altogether 13 aircraft from United Kingdom, United States of America, Portugal and Germany and nearly 80 ships searched for München or her crew.
On February 16 the car transporter Don Carlos salvaged a lifeboat from the starboard side of München, the last object discovered from her.
[edit] The ship
- Length: 261,40m
- Beam: 32.20m
- Draft: 11.28m
- Height: 18.29m
- Propulsion: 9 cylinder Sulzer diesel-engine, 9 RND 90, 26.100hp @ 122rpm, driving 5-bladed propeller
- Cargo capacity: 44 600 long tons
MS München was launched May 12, 1972 at the shipyards of Cockerill, Hoboken and delivered September 22, 1972. The München was a LASH ship and was the only ship of its kind under German flag.
Her sistership MS Bilderdijk was built for the Holland America Line at the Boelwerf Temse Shipyard in Belgium (Yard number 859). She sailed under the Dutch flag until 1986 when she was renamed Rhine Forest. This ship is still (2006) operating between the United States and Europe.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- Seefunkstelle Lashcarrier München/DEAT (in German)
