Line drawings of the Orion by Alexander van Maanen
Indian ink drawing of the Beemsterdijk and text by RvM
In the Second World War Germany fitted out several auxiliary cruisers including the Kormoran and the Orion. Several times these cruisers or merchant raiders were disguised as Dutch merchant ships.
The Orion was 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. 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.
With a displacement of 15,700 tons or 7,021 GRT were her dimensions 148 x 18,6 x 8,2 metres. Her steam turbines and 4 boilers supplied 6,200 hp allowing a speed of 14,8 knots while she had a range of 18,000 nautical miles. Another source claimed 35,000 nautical miles by a speed of 10 knots. Her crew numbered maximum 356 men. Her armament consisted of 6-15cm guns (originally belonging to the old battleship Schleswig-Holstein), 1-7,5cm gun, 2-3,7cm guns, 4-2cm guns, 6-53,3cm torpedo tubes, 228 EMC mines and she carried with her one Arado AR 196 float plane.
Her mission as a raider was between 30 March 1940 and 23 August 1941. According to the website http://www.bismarck-class.dk/hilfskreuzer/orion.html was she disguised as the Dutch freighter Beemsterdijk belonging to the Nederlandsche Amerikaansche Stoomvaart Maatschappij by removing the false funnel and the dummy gun on the forecastle. From a grey painted two funnel appearance she was changed into a black and white painted one funnel shaped ship.
The Dutch freighter Beemsterdijk was built for the Holland-Amerika Lijn (HAL) in 1922 by the yard Fijenoord at Rotterdam, Netherlands with as dimensions 400’6’x 54’5’ x 36’7” English feet (126,93 x 16,46 x 11,89m) and with a measurement of 6,869 BRT and 4,242 NRT and 3 decks. Her call sign was PCZP and international sign was NGTC. The engines were delivered by Harland&Wolff at Belfast Ireland. Total capacity including bunkers 9,852 tons of 1,015 kg summer mark, capacity permanent bunkers 1,267 tons of 1,016 kg and capacity of cargo holds 477,600 English cubic feet. She struck a mine in the night of 26-27 January 1941 and was lost with 39 victims underway from Glasgow, Scotland towards Wales.
Originally published in G.A.J. Bovens/G.J. Frans Naerebout. Op de Lange Deining.
Sources
De Nederlandsche Koopvaardijvloot 1930.
Arne Zuidhoek. Onze mooiste koopvaardijschepen. Deel 5. Varen voor de vrijheid (I) 1939-1945. Alkmaar, 1995.
http://www.german-navy.de/kriegsmarine/ships/auxcruiser/orion/index.html
