Shipbucket

Great additions as ever.

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Hood's Worklist
English Electric Canberra FD
Interwar RN Capital Ships
Super-Darings
Never-Were British Aircraft

Good evening!

Thanks for the feedback!

The fate of many foreign vessels involved in the trade with the Spanish Republic was being captured by a National patrol ship, declared "good prize" and being seized by the Burgos government with no compensation, even if there was any smuggled war material. Here, two examples:

SS Nagos was a greek steamer owned by Stavros Livanos, from Chios. She was a british built vessel and a survivor of WWI. Nagos was captured in waters of the Gibraltar Strait in April 1938 by the trawler Maria Teresa, armed with a 3 inch gun and two heavy MG. After a swift judicial process in Cadiz, she was declared "good prize" despite being only trading raw minerals with no war material smuggled. She was renamed Huelva and later handed to the state shipping company Elcano and renamed Castillo Monforte.




The Danish firm Holm and Wonsild owned the steamer SS Jan, a medium size cargo ship built in Danish yards in 1919. Jan and her twinship Birte was involved in the transport of coal to several spanish harbours (in that years, coal was used for cooking in almost every spanish kitchen, at least in the cities). In May 1938, SS Jan was intercepted and captured by the nationalist armed trawler Iñasi (one of the weakest trawlers, only equiped with an old 6 pounder Nordenfeldt) in Gibraltar strait, and in a quick judicial process was declared "good prize" and renamed Castillo de Coca.




Cheers.

Good morning guys:

The italian bombing campaign over the Spanish Levantine Coast was a very intense (for the era) strategic campaign to disrupt the republiacan rear, both civilian and military, in a clear prelude of the terribles bombings of WWII. Of course, the main harbours in the republican mediterranean coast were main targets of the italian raids, and int that raids, many foreign ships were sunk.

During the SCW, the italian aid was noted since the early days, the air bridge between Morocco and Andalusia was posible only with the german Junkers 52 and the italian Savoia Marchetti 81. With the instalation of several landing strips and bases in Majorca, the Italian Regia Aeronautica formed a branch for operations over Spain, Aviazione Legionaria, teorical under spanish control (hence the name, nominally the aircraft and men were part of the Spanish Foreign Legion), but in fact operating with independence and frequently, under direct command of Rome.

The bombing force of Aviazione Legionaria was mainly composed first by the 21st Stormo, with 2 air groups (24th and 25th) equiped with Pipistrellos, and later with the 8th Stormo also with two air groups (27th and 28th) equiped with Sparvieros as a day fast bombing force ("bombardamento veloce"), relegating the Pipistrellos to night operations.



Several dozens of Spanish and foreign vessels were sunk, here 4 of them:

The biggest british steamer sunk in Spanish waters during the SCW was SS Saint Winifred, of the Saint Line, the previouslly known Barry Shipping Line. She was bombed and damaged at Alicante in June 1938. The wrecked vessel was sold to the italians and rescued her, she was renamed Capo Vita and was lost during WWII.


SS Oued Mellah was a british built steamer, owned by the well stablished french company Paquet Navegation, from Marseilles. Involved in legal trade (still very profitable) with the republic, she was targeted and sunk in Ocotober 1937 50 miles E from Barcelona.


SS Edith was a steamer of new construction, owned by the well known Danish line J. Lauritzen from Copenhagen. Involved with the citrus trade between Northen Europe and Spain at least since 1905, the line was well known in spanish levantine harbours. Despite being legal, citrus trade was one of the main sources of foreign currency for the Republic, and thus, a target of the Nationalist war efforts. SS Edith was bombed and sunk during the air raids of August 1938, 15 miles from Villanueva Geltru, Barcelona.


NB: The only picture of SS Edith that I found was with the hull painted in black, but several J. Lauritzen ships involved in the southern routes were painted white. So I made both versions, but I really don´t know the real livery during the bombing. My appologies.
NB2: Edith's bombing and sinking is disputed. Legión Cóndor A/S 88 squadron also claimed that sinking, aparently done by Heinkel 59 droping 100 kgs bombs.

SS. Authorpe was a little steamer, made in Quebec during WWI as a minesweeper, but soon after the war, she was sold as a fishery trawler. In 1938 she was bought by J. Negri et Fils, from Marseilles and few months later sold to Marseille Maritime from the same city. The later company was heavily involved in the trade with the Spanish Republic, mainly using small steamers, sailing from the French Midi to Catalonian or Levantine harbours, with french or panamanian flag, chartered by republican government. So profitable were the trips, that many times, only one trip was enough for paying the ship. SS Authorpe was bombed and sunk in the final months of the war, in Alicante, but the author of the sinking is disputed, some sources claimed that she was bombed by He-59 seaplanes from AS88, but others claimed that she was victim of Sparvieros.


Later, in October 1939 she was raised and repaired, first renamed Castillo A, but later she was refited as patrol vessel and called guardacostas Alhucemas with numeral A. In the mid 1940s she was equiped with pumps and a descompression room, and was involved in the rescue of the scuttled C-6 submarine in El Musel-Gijón.


Credits: The Pipistrello was nicelly done by Sheepster, who kindly allowed me to depict his drawing as a bomber in Spain. The equally nice Sparviero was done by Naixoterk. Colombamike helped me with Authorpe/Alhucemas since the inception, giving me useful guidelines and comments. Thanks to all! Cheers.

Another fantastic entry!

Thanks B for your input!

The mine warfare was important for the Rebel Navy since the early days of the SCW. With a very limited number of vessels (including the armed trawlers), and coasts both over the Atlantic Ocean/Bay of Biscay, and the Mediterranean Sea, and effective blocade was almost impossible. So the francoist fleet used the mines in an atempt to limit the navegation to and from republican harbours. Several foreign vessels were sunk with mines, here two of them:

SS Loukia was a greek steam oil tanker, built in Britain by Armstrong Withworth in 1910 for the British Burmah Petroleum Company. She survived WWI and in 1929 she was sold to JG Mavris form Pireus and renamed Loukia. In 1936 SS Loukia was the only vessel of the Mavris & Zadeh company. Involved in the profitable oil transport buisness for the Spanish Republic, Loukia struck a mine off Barcelona, carrying Romanian oil from Constanza, and sunk in March 1937.


The sinking of SS Saint Prosper was one of the most mysterius ones of the SCW. St. Prosper was one of the 4 Sunderland built ships for Societe Navale de l'Ouest after the end of WWI, and were rather big vessels with more than 4000 tonnes. In March 1939 she was sailing between Rouan and Algeria, but she made a detour to Barcelona which was an strange move, because since January 1939 all Catalonia was taken by francoist forces until the french border. Just arriving to the Bay of Roses during a gale, St. Prosper struck a mine and sunk with all hands, March 5th 1939, less than one month before the end of the war.


Cheers!

one of the most interesting threads here! Very nice ships!

Thanks bugsier for your input! Yes, it is really an interesting thread! And when the big naval powers were involved, it was even more interesting.

The first Exodus: The Basque exile.
The Basque Country is a strip of land between the mountains (very rich in minerals mountains indeed) and the Bay of Biscay, split between Spain and France, with a very different lenguage (Euskera, the name of the language, is not related to Latin, Germanic, Slavic, Semitic or North African languages, in fact, it is not related to any known language) and a strong sense of identity, an identity that is based in a deep Catholicism. The prevalent Basque party was PNV, a liberal (in Adam Smith´s sens of liberalism) nationalist party that was searching more autonomy from Madrid, very far ideologically from the Popular Front (much more alike to a "mix" between CEDA -non Falangist/fascist right wing alliance of parties- and Carloists, traditionalist monarchist-catholic party), but as the leftist alliance promised the much desired autonomy, PNV was aligned with the Popular Front, and the Basque population was split between this dichotomy.
After the failure of July´s coup d’état, the main objective of the Rebellion in the North was to separate the republican North from the French border, and later conquest one to one the 3 Basque Provinces, then the Cantabrian region with the city and port of Santander and finally Asturies and her mines. So, the first objective was Irun right over the border conquered in late August 1936, then the city and port of San Sebastian, the main urban center of Gipuzcuoa , and finally the fishery harbours of Pasajes and Zumaya, which fell to the rebels in September 1936.

With the fall of this harbours (San Sebastian, Pasajes and Zumaya), a continuous stream of refugees crossed the French border. But many others went to Bilbao, many of them by sea.

Danak Ondo was a steel drifter with diesel engine, built at Pasajes, and gone to Bilbao in September 1936, the recently created Basque Navy seized the vessel and used it as a training vessel for harbour pilots. Later she fleed to Santander, and then to France. After the end of the war, the owner retrieved her and continued with her fishing work.


Marcos is a fishery drifter, wooden made and with steam reciprocating engine. Built in Zumaya, it was a little vessel, a prevalent model in the Basque coastal fishery fleet. Gone to Bilbao with the fall of Guipuzcoa, she was seized by the Basque Navy and used as a minesweeper with the numeral D17.

After the fall of Bilbao, she went to Santoña and during the evacuation of this Cantabrian harbour, she ran aground and was a complete loss.

Sevaral other fishing vessel from Guipuzcoa went to Bilbao in September 1936 and were used as minesweepers:

Mourisca was a british made dirfter from Vigo, of steel contruction and with a reciprocating steam engine. She was at Bilbao at the beginning of the civil war, early in 1937 she was seized and renamed D4. First she was used as a MCMs vessel, but later she was employed as a laison ship between Bilbao and Bayone. With the fall of Bilbao she was interned in Bayone until she was retorned to her owners in 1939.


Eduardito was also a dirfter, wooden made but with a diesel engine, she was made at Pasajes, and registered in San Sebastian. In early 1937 she was seized, militarized and converted in a minesweeper and used to clear the access routes to and from Bilbao. During the bombings of Portugalete (the main base of the Basque Auxiliary Navy) in June 13th 1937, Eduardito was bombed and sunk.

One of the vessels that left San Sebastina in September 1936 was the german built yatch Loli II. A wooden made and diesel powered luxurious boat was owned by Duke of Cubas. She went to Bilbao with gipuzcoan refugees and was seized by the government and renamed Severiano Asarta and alocated as a laisson ship between Bilbao and Bayonne. Later in June 1937 she was again used shipping basque and republican refugees to Santander. And with the fall of this cantabrian harbour, Severiano Asarta went to Bayonne and was interned in that french port until the end of the war.

In 1939 she was returned to her owner, and late in that year sold to the Spanish Navy as state yatch for Generalissimo Franco and renemed Azor. In 1946 she was witness of a critical meeting between Franco and the uncrowned king Don Juan (father of the former king, Juan Carlos I) who was forbiden to step spanish soil, so the meeting was at sea, off San Sebastian, arriving in the ketch Saltillo. In that meeting it was decided that Don Juan´s heir, Juan Carlos, will be trainied in spanish militry academies as probable (and just "probable") Franco´s succesor.


In 1948 she was converted in a fishery patrol boat and renamed V-0, and was used until late December 1982, when she was paid off and sold to a private owner in Galicia and briefly used as floating restaurant. In 2005 she was sold to a dutch owner and now is currently in Holland, being the one and only survivor of all the vessels involved in the SCW.


As the war in the Basque country progressed, the Nationalist fleet made an effective blocade to Bilbao, having several tense situations with the RN, this situation was even worse when the population begun to flee from the besieged city by sea. In May 6th 1936, a luxurious steam yatch, Goizeko Izarra, owned by Mr. Sota, a well known basque industrialist, a firm supporter of the basque nationalism, and main share holder of Sota y Aznar Shipping Line, and also of Euskalduna Shipyards, was put under the International Red Cross ensign and used to transport refugees to Pauillac. The same day, the ocean liner SS Habana sailed from Bilbao with refugees to La Pallice.


Within the 3 miles limit, both vessels were escorted by the armed trawlers Bizkaya (qv) and Gipuzkoa (qv), and in international waters by the battleship HMS Royal Oak and 4 destroyers of the F class, including the leader, HMS Faulknor.



In May 9th 1937, a convoy of 3 french ships, the twins Chateau Palmer and Chateau Margaux from Worms et Cie, and Carimare sailed from Bilbao to La Pallice.

In international waters, the vessels were escorted by a powerful french squadron composed by the battleships Lorraine and Provence, the cruiser Emile Bertin and the destroyers La Fantasque and Terrible.

During June, the francoist land forces were able to breech the Iron Belt, a strong (but wrongly designed: there was no depth enough for an effective defence of the city) fortified line around Bilbao, in June 16th 1937 two of the last ships with refugees fleeing from that harbour, SS Cabo Corona (one of the smallest steamers of Ybarra Lines fleet) and SS Galea broke the blocade and sailed to the west, until reach the safe (for a while) republican port of Santander.


In June 19th, early in the morning the first francoist troops begun the ocupation of Bilbao, and by the end of the afternoon the red and yellow flag replaced the republican tricolour from the City hall balcony.

Two days later, the french steamer SS Tregastel was intercepted by the francoist cruiser Cervera (qv) within the 3 mile limit, and caused an incident with the french aviso Vauqouis. Tregastel was owned by France Navigation, a company owned by the French comunist party and was manned by a comunist crew, and thus very involved in smuggling war material to the republicans. But in this ocation, she was just transporting basque children refugees to Santander, so Tregastel was relesed this time.



Credits: When I ran out of information about more spanish vessels, Colombamike gave me the drawings and data of the minor basque/republican vessels, so he was aiding me since the inception of this post. Lots of thanks! Hood and Gollevainen kindly allowed me to use their magnificent drawings of RN ships. I also used Novice well done liner Habana (drawn as Alfonso XIII) with minimal modifications. Lot of thanks! The color of the fishing vessels was obtained from an oil on canvas of the prewar basque fishing fleet at Pasajes, but I don´t know if is the exact livery was alocated to the correct vessel. My appologies. Unfortunatelly, until now I had little or no refferences about the exact appearance of the Marine Nationale squadron at the Bay of Biscay in May - June 1937, I hope to find the correct references and in a near future being able to depict these ships in this post. Cheers!

Good afternoon, guys!

The last blood: Sinking of Castillo Olite.

The SCW begun with a failed coup d´etat in July 1936, and ended with another coup d´etat in March 1939. After the fall of Barcelona in January 1939, and all Catalonia until the french border in February, the Republican forces only controled 1/3 of the spanish territory: the levantine coast including the harbours of Alicante and Valencia, the southern castilian plateau and some parts of Extremadura, Madrid, the Murcian region including the important naval base of Cartagena, and the harbour and city of Almeria in Andalusia. The powerful Ejercito del Centro, had 400,000 soldiers, but the will to resist was low.

Juan Negrin, the left wing of the socialist party and the communist party wanted the continuation of the war, but the Army, the Navy, some anarchists, some republicans, and the moderate wing of the socialist party were favorable of a negotiated (but doubtful, the francoist forces are almost victorious in the field) peace. So, in March 5th 1939 the republican Colonel S. Casado begun a successful in Madrid coup d´etat and replaced Negrin with a "junta", Consejo Nacional de Defensa.

The rebellion against Negrin begun at Cartagena in March 4th, but the military favorable to Casado, were unable to conquest the city and the naval base. As the Fleet had a ambigous position, the loyal faction threated to shell the ships from the numerous batterys around the harbour. So, under menace of the own republican guns, the Navy fleed to Bizerta in Tunisia in March 6th.

Contacts between the "casadistas" and the francoist fleet were made since march 4th, with less than 48 hours preparation, the francoists naval high command sent from Castellón and Málaga a convoy of 16 ships, carrying more than 20,000 troops. The convoy comprised the minelayers Júpiter, Marte and Vulcano; the auxiliary cruisers Lázaro (qv), Jaime I (qv) , Domine (qv) and J.J. Sister (qv) and the transports Castillo Olite, San Sebastián, Castillo Peñafiel, Gibraltar, Castillo Monforte (qv), Castillo Mombeltrán, Cabo Huertas, Castillo Montealegre and Castillo Simancas. In March 7th this invasion fleet, arrived to Cartagena, but in that late date, the rebellion was over and all the batteries (including the powerful 15 inch guns, and a multitude of 6 inch, all modern) and the naval base were once again in republican (Negrin´s side) hands, and repelled with fire to the advancing francoist ships, so most of these ships pull out.

But the transport Castillo Olite, the former soviet cargo Postishev (qv) captured the previous year, had a malfunction of her radio gear and continued advancing until being within the range of the 6 inch guns of Battery Parajola. Under the command of a professional officer, the 3 spanish made but british designed guns, made an accurate and swift fire and Castillo Olite was heavily punished and blew up.



The sinking of Castillo Olite was with heavy loss of life, as the vessel was crowded with 2 infantry batallions, 3 artillery 100 mm batteries, a divisionary headquarters, 2 comunications groups and some naval personnel. Of the 2,112 men aboard, 1,476 were killed, 342 were wounded and only 294 were captured without wounds. This is the greatest loss of life from the sinking of a single ship in Spanish maritime history.

References
1. Michael Alpert. La guerra civil española en el mar.
2. José Cervera. La guerra naval española 1936-1939.

Cheers!

Hi Reytuerto, thanks for your interesting feedback. I know something about the Basks because I am very interested in other cultures since my childhood. I know that they were also hunting whales in earlier times and some scientists say that the Basks are in fact the original Europeans. I also knew that their language is unique and is not related to any known language. And again: Thank you for your fine thread.

Excellent additions, as always!
I understand (from some hints), that - largely due to practical reasons (such as sources, and also the fact that amount of vessels involved was not infinite) - this thread is nearing end?