Winnetou. ©Warshipsresearch.blogspot.com
In a letter dated 13 April 1942 No. 1329 to the O.K.M./1 Abteilung Skl. was the so-called ‘Etappen’-organisation of the navy described. In the attachment were the blockade runners decribed used for this purpose. Motor tanker Winnetou (1) naval auxiliary supply ship for the auxiliary cruiser H.S.K. 36 (Orion)(2) left Las Palmas, Canary Islands, Spain on 9 April 1940, arrived at Kobe, Japan on 1 September 1940. Captain Fritz Steinkrauss was with part of the crew sent to Germany on board of the prize Tropic Sea (3) which was sunk by a British submarine. The crew arrived in Germany.
Notes
1. Built by Howaldtswerke AG, Kiel, Germany as Mohican in September 1913, renamed as Corning, owned by Standard Shipping Co., New Jersey, uSA, 1925 owner Brynmoor, In 1927 sold to the Hansa Tank Reederei GmbH, Hamburg, Germany and renamed Winnetou, purchased by the German Kriegsmarine in 1939, sold in 1940 to the Teikoku Sempaku KK., Kobe, Japan and renamed Teikon Maru and torpedoed an sunk by the American submarine USS Puffer on 12 August 1944.
2. Laid down at the yard of Blohm&Voss at Hamburg, Germany 1930 as the freighter Kurmark for account of the HAPAG-line. She became possession of the German navy in 1939 and was rebuilt as the auxiliary cruiser Orion and commissioned 9 December 1939. In the German administration she was known as the Schiff 36 or HSK-1 while the British Royal Navy called her Raider A. Her mission as a raider was between 30 March 1940 and 23 August 1941. In 1944 she was as an artillery training ship renamed Hektor but again named Orion in January 1945 serving as a refugee transport in the Baltic. Steaming back towards Copenhagen she was sunk by an aircraft attack off Swinemunde 4 May 1945 with just 150 survivors of the more as 4,000 men, woman and children on board. Her hulk was broken up in 1952.
3. Launched as Indien by Nakskov Skibsvaerft, Nakskov, Denmark for A/S Dampskibssselskapet Orient, Copenhagen, Denmark on 26 June 1920, sold to Skibs A/S Tropic, Oslo, Norway and renamed Tropic Sea, resold in 1939 and to be renamed Vindeggem when where war broke out, captured by German auxiliary cruiser Orion near Kermadec Islands on 19 June 1940 and scuttled by Steinkraus when she was intercepted by the British submarine HMS Truant in the Bay of Biscay on 3 September 1940.
Source
Bundesarchiv RM 7/223
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