SS Cap Arcona
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The SS Cap Arcona was a 27,500-gross ton German luxury ocean liner of the Hamburg-South America line[1] (http://www.arteprintas.ch/postkarten/caparcona.jpg). The ship was named after Cape Arkona on the island of Rügen in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. Launched in 1927, the ship was considered one of the most beautiful of the time. It carried upper-class travelers and steerage-class emigrants, mostly to South America.
![[1]](http://www.arteprintas.ch/postkarten/caparcona.jpg){kind=link}
On December 3, 1928, a seaplane crashed near Cap Arcona as it approached Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The plane carried a dozen Brazilian scientists who were planning to pay a flying welcome to Alberto Santos-Dumont; the aviation pioneer was returning to Brazil aboard the vessel at the time.
In 1940, Cap Arcona was taken over by the Kriegsmarine (German War Navy) and used in the Baltic Sea. At the end of 1944, the Kriegsmarine transferred the ship back to transport use and it was used to transport refugees from East Prussia to western Germany. On April 26, 1945, Cap Arcona was loaded with prisoners from the concentration camp Neuengamme and together with two smaller ships, Thielbek and Athen, was brought into the Bay of Lubeck with the intention of destroying evidence of what happened at Neuengamme.
A worldwide tragedy
On May 3 1945, the Cap Arcona, the Thielbek, the Athen and the passenger liner Deutschland (converted to a hospital ship but unmarked as such) were sunk in four separate attacks (the first by the 184 Squadron based in Hustedt, the second by the 198 Squadron based in Plantlünne lead by the Group Captain Johnny Baldwin (the pilot who had lead the attack on the Rommel's staff car on 17 July 1944), the third by the 263 Squadron based in Ahlhorn, the fourth by the 197 Squadron based in Ahlhorn) by Royal Air Force Hawker Typhoons using rockets, bombs, and machine-guns. About 7,000 to 8,000 prisoners from the concentration camps (Neuengamme, Stutthof, Mittelbau-Dora) drowned; survivors reaching the shore were shot by the Schutzstaffel, but about 350 managed to escape the massacre.
With similar sinkings of Wilhelm Gustloff and Goya in the Baltic Sea, these were three of the highest losses of life of any sinking in history.
Reference
Roy Nesbit - Cap Arcona: atrocity or accident? - Aeroplane Monthly, June 1984
External links
- History of the tragedy (http://www.rrz.uni-hamburg.de/rz3a035/arcona.html)
- Disaster on the Baltic Sea (http://www.nizkor.org/features/dentist/chapter-17.html)
- Inferno (http://www.nizkor.org/features/dentist/chapter-18.html)
- Appendix A (http://www.nizkor.org/features/dentist/appendix-a.html)
- Photo-montage with sound (http://www.cap-arcona.com/flashsite/cap_arcona.html)
- Photos of the Cap Arcona : [2] (http://www.compunews.com/gus/arcona2.htm) [3] (http://perso.club-internet.fr/dstef/dstef/Album_photos/Pmgc/PMGCeng.htm)
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