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Sunk  in  spite  of  Non-Smoking  Winter  Garden ,

Red  Carpet & Striped  Walls :

The  Sections  of  Cap  Trafalgar  of  Hamburg-South

Cap Trafalgar – Ship No. 334 (= SMS Cap Trafalgar). Longitudinal section and 8 deck plans in the scale of 1 : 200. (Hamburg, AG Vulcan, 1913.)

5  partly  colored  construction  drawings  in  black  pen

(28 x 69.5-95 and 41 x 93.3 cm resp.), mounted on cloth and folded repeatedly. Bound in h. cloth blotter with title plate (29.5 x 12 cm).

1. Longitudinal section (28 x 95 cm)
2. Top of the Officers’ Quarters. – Upper View. The bridge with chart-house & wheel-house, the captain’s drawing room & bedroom as well as the cabins of the mates. – Boat Deck. On the latter i. a. the winter garden – separated into smoking and non-smoking, with the latter enjoying the oval area with the view ahead – as well as pool & gym (28 x 69.5 cm)
3. Promenade Deck. With the smoking saloon taking the full width together with veranda café of the first class. – Bridge Deck. (II^nd Bridge Deck.) In the fore the dining saloon extending in its height to the promenade deck together with two separate dining rooms of the first, towards aft that of the second class, each taking the full width. On portside passenger cabins of the first class, on starboard those of the cooks, confectioners, butchers, dish-washers and besides the caboose. – I^st Deck (I^st Bridge Deck.) The majority of the cabins of the first class together with some staterooms (41 x 93.3 cm)
4. II^nd Deck. Foremost cabins of the first as well as – in the fore & aft area – the second class. Besides barber & ladies’ hairdresser. – III^rd Deck. Some cabins of the second class. Besides those of the stewards, musicians with bandmaster, barbers, and pantrymen, the printery, foremost, however, the decks of the third class including two for 38 and 40 resp. “unmarried women”. But also provisions cold store and linen store (28 x 92 cm)
5. IV^th Deck. Engine-room and the two boiler rooms as well as coal-bunkers. But also luggage, cargo, and potato stores. – Stowage plan (29 x 92 cm)

Individual areas marked by color as indicated in the legend for the execution by the firms Friese (dining saloons, winter garden, smoking rooms, staircase, staterooms), Kaymann and Fittje & Michahelles (cabins of I^st Deck on portside and starboard resp.), Möhl (gym) as well as Gebr. Reckliess for the captain’s rooms. By this not least

already for a rather small part of the furnishing. – All designations in German.

The room designations for promenade deck to II^nd deck in black ink supplemented by different hand in red ink by the respectively wanted furnishing as for instance “passenger cabins all red carpet”, which then nevertheless was varied cabin-wise in green, blue or even lilac. Likewise different woods – mahogany, ash, cherry & walnut – were to be used for the cabins and the walls kept in various colors uni-colored or striped. Furthermore several additions in pencil, mostly with regard to the teak deck. – At the cloth back of plate V 3-line note in pencil by a craftsman (i. a. “1 step-ladder / 1 ladder”) as well as, below, by later hand in blue ball-pen name of ship and shipyard together with build number, year, and measures. – A slight touch of soiling of the cloth at three folds and isolated narrow dog’s ears aside irrespective of indubitable use of very fine freshness.

Laid  down  1913  at  AG  Vulcan  Hamburg

with  the  build  number  334  and  launched  still  the  same  year ,

the new ship was put into service the other year by the Hamburg-South America Steamship Company as Cap Trafalgar on the South America route to Brazil and Argentina. With 18710 GRT at 613 ft length, 72 ft beam, and 30 ft draft, she reached, driven by two triple-expansion steam engines, 17 knots. 400 passengers could be accommodated in the first class, 275 in the second, and 900 in the third.

At  the  beginning  of  the  war  in  August  1914  moored  in  Uruguay

Cap Trafalgar was immediately requisitioned for the Imperial Navy in correspondence with the plans for the case of war and all passengers as well as non-essential crew disembarked and left neutral Montevideo as Hilfskreuzer B to rendezvous at sea the gunboat SMS Eber to take over her arms – two 4.1 inch guns as well as six 1-pounder pom-poms – together with trained navy personnel. Under now Lieutenant Commander Julius Wirth course was then set to Ilha de Trinidade 700 miles off the Brazilian coast, where the navy had set up a coal depot.

Discovered  there  on  the  morning  of  September  14  still  before  finishing  coaling

by the about equal-sized, yet with eight 4 inch guns distinctly stronger armed British auxiliary cruiser H.M.S. Carmania, both ships steamed into the open sea to obtain sufficient maneuvering space for the inevitable battle. After about 90 minutes and severe damages on both sides – fires and water inrushes, on Carmania in addition the bridge destroyed – the battle was broken off by the German side and the boats lowered. 20 minutes later

Cap Trafalgar  sank  as  supposedly  first  auxiliary  cruiser  sunk  by  another  one ,

while the about 300 surviving members of the crew were rescued by the colliers – among which the Eleonore Woermann – and brought to Montevideo.

Carmania , however , in  hardly  better  state

presumably escaped the same fate only because the captain of German auxiliary cruiser SMS Kronprinz Wilhelm, brought about by radio messages and always operating with greatest care anyway, since remaining without further information on the development of the battle did not want to expose his ship to the risk of an encounter with regular British units and turned about. So the other day Carmania could be escorted by British ships first into Pernambuco and remained, after repairs in Gibraltar, in service till the end of the war. 1920 she returned to passenger liner service for another 12 years.

Passenger steamships might be equipped with guns – whereby it shall be left undecided, how long their structure would have withstood their use ultimately – , however, for serious confrontations even with just their equals they were hardly qualified for. Nevertheless this peculiar battle kept interest and imagination awake up to romantic treatment still in the ’70s as

“ The  Ship  that  hunted  itself ”

according to which Cap Trafalgar even was disguised as Carmania of the Cunard Line, this in turn, however, as Cap Trafalgar. However, for Cap Trafalgar also colors of other British lines are reported. Secured presumably only that during the voyage from Montevideo to Ilha de Trinidade she got a grey color and the third funnel, serving just as ventilator anyhow, was removed. Their number thus indeed corresponding to Carmania.

Built for the service on the South Atlantic route as one of those

as  legendary  as  luxurious  Hamburg-Süd  steamships

the early end of Cap Trafalgar after anyhow only most shortest regular service as passenger liner makes present plans beyond the purely technical aspect inevitably

Offer no. 28,929  /  sold