German submarine Deutschland

History

German Empire
Name:	Deutschland
Port of registry:	Bremen
Ordered:	27 October 1915
Builder:	Flensburger Schiffbau
Launched:	28 March 1916
Fate:	Converted into U-155
History

Name:	U-155
Commissioned:	19 February 1917
Fate:	Surrendered 24 November 1918. Broken up at Morecambe in 1922.
General characteristics
Class and type:	German Type U 151 submarine
Displacement:	1,512 t (1,488 long tons) (surfaced) 1,875 t (1,845 long tons) (submerged) 2,272 t (2,236 long tons) (total)
Length:	65 m (213 ft 3 in) (o/a) 57 m (187 ft) (pressure hull)
Beam:	8.90 m (29 ft 2 in) (o/a) 5.80 m (19 ft 0 in) (pressure hull)
Height:	9.25 m (30 ft 4 in)
Draught:	5.30 m (17 ft 5 in)
Installed power:	800 PS (590 kW; 790 bhp) (surfaced) 800 PS (590 kW; 790 bhp) (submerged)
Propulsion:	2 × shafts, 2 × 1.60 m (5 ft 3 in) propellers
Speed:	12.4 knots (23.0 km/h; 14.3 mph) surfaced 5.2 knots (9.6 km/h; 6.0 mph) submerged
Range:	25,000 nmi (46,000 km; 29,000 mi) at 5.5 knots (10.2 km/h; 6.3 mph) surfaced, 65 nmi (120 km; 75 mi) at 3 knots (5.6 km/h; 3.5 mph) submerged
Test depth:	50 metres (160 ft)
Complement:	6 officers, 50 enlisted
Armament:	6 × 50 cm (20 in) torpedo tubes 18 torpedoes 2 × 15 cm (5.9 in) SK L/40 deck guns with 1688 rounds
Service record
Part of:	Imperial German Navy U-Kreuzer Flotilla 19 February 1917 – 14 November 1918
Commanders:	Kptlt. Karl Meusel 19 February – 5 September 1917 K.Kapt. Erich Eckelmann 6 September 1917 – 31 May 1918 K.Kapt. Ferdinand Studt 1 June 1918 – 14 November 1918
Operations:	3 patrols
Victories:	42 merchant ships sunk 121,328 GRT 1 merchant ship damaged 1,338 GRT

Deutschland was a blockade-breaking German merchant submarine used during World War I. It was developed with private funds and operated by the North German Lloyd Line. She was one of the first of seven U-151 class U-boats built and one of only two used as unarmed cargo submarines.

After making two voyages as an unarmed merchantman, she was taken over by the German Imperial Navy on 19 February 1917 and converted into U-155, armed with six torpedo tubes and two deck guns.

Deutschland was one of seven submarines designed to carry cargo between the United States and Germany, through the naval blockade of the Entente Powers. Mainly enforced by Great Britain's Royal Navy, the blockade had led to great difficulties for German companies in acquiring raw materials which could not be found in quantity within the German sphere of influence, and thus substantially hindered the German war effort.

Deutschland was built together with her sister ship Bremen in 1916 by the Deutsche Ozean-Reederei, a private shipping company created for the enterprise, a subsidiary company of the North German Lloyd shipping company (now Hapag-Lloyd) and the Deutsche Bank. She was constructed without armaments, with a wide beam to provide space for cargo. The cargo capacity was 700 tons (230 tons of rubber could be stored in the free-flooding spaces between the inner and outer hulls), relatively small compared to surface ships.

Britain and France soon protested against the use of submarines as merchant ships, arguing that they could not be stopped and inspected for munitions in the same manner as other cargo vessels. The US, under diplomatic pressure for supposedly showing favoritism while having declared itself neutral, rejected the argument. Even submarines, as long as they were unarmed, were to be regarded as merchant vessels and accordingly would be permitted to trade.

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