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Hamburg Sud shipwrecks off
the coast of Brazil
Among the thousands of
shipwrecks off the coast of Brazil, few of them have one thing in commom: The
fact of belong to the same navigation company.
The german company Hamburg Sud
Amerika Line, founded in 1871, among others that sail ours seas, call our
attention because some of the most visited shipwrecks off the coast of Brazil
use to sail under this flag. Others ships of this very company are still lost
on the sea.
When Hamburg Sud started his
operations, the main routes was Hamburg to Bahia, Rio de Janeiro to Santos
with scale in Lisbon, later extended to River Plate. From 1900, an express
passenger service was open between Hamburg to River Plate and New York to
Brazil.
This article is the first who
intend to obtain informations about this ships and images.
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The ships are:
Brasilóide
Built as Montevideo in
1936.
Sold to Lloyde Brasileiro in 1942.
Torpedoed and sunk by U-518 in 1943.
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Buenos
Aires
Widely know by the
divers of Rio de Janeiro, the Buenos Aires sunk in 1890 after a
collision with Rasa Island. The wreckage are dismantled but there is a
lot to see yet. The depht vary from 12 to 40 meters and the technical
divers have in this ship a great option for dives.
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Cap
Frio
Stranded next to Barra
Lighthouse off Salvador in 1908 due to bad weather. A salvage
operation to save the ship didn´t workout and the shipo was declare
lost. The passengers and cargo was save. The shipwrecks are in dephts
of 13 to 18 meters.
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Cap
Trafalgar
During the first world
war, passenger ships receive armament such as cannons and reclassified
as auxiliary cruisers. These was the case of Cap Trafalgar that in
1914, after five months of duty in the route Hamburg and South America
receive armament of the Dreadnought Eber.
When the Cap Trafalgar
was being refueled in Trindade Island off Vitoria the british
auxiliary cruiser Carmania locate him.
After a fast pursuit,
the both ship engaged in a battle that last for nearly one and a half
hour and ended with the Cap Trafalgar badly wounded. The ship capsize
and sunk by the bow. 279 german survived and 16 died including the
captain of the ship.
The localization of Cap
Trafalgar is not known until the moment e this shipwreck lies probably
in great dephts.The ship who passed guns to the Cap Trafalgar sunk in
1917 off the coast of Bahia.
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Corrientes
Not localized and not known by
the general public. There is no much information about this ship. Built in 1881
with 1790 tons, it sunk off the coast of Ceará in 1890 after hit a sand bar or
a reef. According to Ships list this ship sunk off Ceará and in the Hamburg Sud
book it sunk next Montevideo.
Santa
Catharina
In 1914, during the first world
war, the packet Santa Catharina, in a route between New York and Santos, was
captured by the british cruiser H.M.S Glasgow and scorted to the Abrolhos
Islands. A fire started on the ship and soon it was out of control. The crew of
the H.M.S Glasgow sunk the ship. This ship was not discovered yet.
Uruguay
Also not known by the general
public, yhe Uruguay sunk in the Cape Frio area in 1895 due to dense fog very
common in the area. In that time, the ship was in route from Montevidéo to
Hamburg with general cargo. Research are in progress to identify the location of
this shipwreck.
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Tijuca
/ Baependy
The Tijuca was built in
1899 for the Hamburg Sud and was on duty until 1917 when it was
confiscated in the end of world war one.Later it was transferred to the
Lloyde Brasileiro and renamed Baependy.
In 1942 while in a voyage
to Recife, the baependy was hit by two torpedoes of the U-507 under the
command of captain Harro Schacht. The attack accur 15 to 20 miles off
the coast of Sergipe near the Rio Real Lighthouse.
55 crewmembers and 214
passenger died in the shipwreck.These episode force Brazil into the
world war two. Ship not localized yet. |
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Germania
This was not a Hamburg Sud ship
but he use to make some services to the company. It sunk on the reefs of the
Barra Lighthouse in Salvador in the year of 1876.It in the dephts of 7 to 11
meters and is already very dismantled.
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