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Wilhelm Gustloff

Career
Wilhelm Gustloff as a hospital ship. Danzig, 23 September 1939
Name:	MV Wilhelm Gustloff
Namesake:	Wilhelm Gustloff
Owner:	Deutsche Arbeitsfront
Operator:	Hamburg-South America Line
Port of registry:	Germany
Builder:	Blohm & Voss
Cost:	25 million Reichmarks
Yard number:	511
Laid down:	1 August 1936
Launched:	5 May 1937
Acquired:	15 March 1938
Identification:	Radio ID (DJVZ)
Fate:	Requisitioned into the Kriegsmarine on 1 September 1939
Career (Germany)
Name:	Lazarettschiff D (Hospital Ship D)
Operator:	Kriegsmarine (German Navy)
Acquired:	1 September 1939
Fate:	Converted from hospital ship to floating barracks beginning 20 November 1940, including repainting from hospital ship colors to standard navy grey.
Career (Germany)
Name:	Wilhelm Gustloff
Operator:	Kriegsmarine
Acquired:	20 November 1940
Out of service:	November 1940 – January 1945
Fate:	Torpedoed and sunk 30 January 1945
Notes:	Used as floating barracks for the Second Submarine Training Division until the vessel returned to active service ferrying civilians and military personnel as part of Operation Hannibal
General characteristics
Class and type:	Cruise ship
Tonnage:	25,484 GRT
Length:	208.50 metres (684.1 ft)
Beam:	23.59 metres (77.4 ft)
Height:	56 metres (180 ft) keel to masthead
Decks:	8
Installed power:	Four 8-cylinder MAN diesel engines 9,500 hp
Propulsion:	2 twin-screw propellers (4 blades per prop)
Speed:	15.5 knots (28.7 km/h or 17.8 mph)
Range:	12,000 nm at 15 knots
Capacity:	1,465 passengers (as designed) in 489 cabins: 248 two-bed 241 four-bed
Crew:	417 cruise ship 173 naval

Coordinates: 55°04′N 17°25′E / 55.07°N 17.41°E / 55.07; 17.41

The MV Wilhelm Gustloff was a German KdF passenger ship constructed by the Blohm and Voss shipyards. It sank after being hit by three torpedoes fired by the Soviet submarine S-13 on 30 January 1945 with the loss of around 9,000 lives – the greatest loss of life in a maritime disaster in history.

The ship was named after Wilhelm Gustloff, the assassinated German leader of the Swiss Nazi party. It was requisitioned into the Kriegsmarine (German Navy) on 1 September 1939 and served as a hospital ship during 1939 and 1940. Beginning on 20 November 1940 it was stripped of her medical equipment and repainted from its hospital ship colors (white with a green stripe) to standard naval grey. The Wilhelm Gustloff was then assigned as a floating barracks for naval personnel at the Baltic port of Gdynia (German: Gotenhafen), near Gdansk (German: Danzig), from 1940 onwards.

The Wilhelm Gustloff's final voyage was during Operation Hannibal in January 1945, when it was sunk while participating in the evacuation of civilians and personnel who were surrounded by the Red Army in East Prussia. The Gustloff was hit by three torpedoes from the Soviet submarine S-13 in the Baltic Sea on the night of 30 January 1945 and sank in less than 45 minutes. An estimated 9,400 people were killed in the sinking. If accurate, this would be the largest known loss of life occurring during a single ship sinking in recorded maritime history.

Even more about Wilhelm Gustloff

Wilhelm Gustloff

Wilhelm Gustloff (January 30, 1895 - February 4, 1936) was the German leader of the Swiss NSDAP party; he founded the Swiss branch of the party at Davos in 1932.