MS Rio de Janeiro (1914)
MS Rio de Janeiro
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| History | |
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| Name: | Rio de Janeiro |
| Namesake: | Rio de Janeiro |
| Owner: | Hamburg Süd |
| Operator: | Kriegsmarine |
| Port of registry: |
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| Builder: | Bremer Vulkan, Vegesack |
| Launched: | 3 April 1914 |
| Out of service: | 8 April 1940 |
| Fate: | Torpedoed and sunk 8 April 1940 |
| Status: | Wreck located in 2015 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Santa-class |
| Tonnage: | 5261 grt |
| Length: | 122m |
| Beam: | 17m |
| Installed power: | 2300 HP |
| Propulsion: | Triple-expansion engine, Single screw |
| Speed: | 10 kn |
| Crew: | 50 |
MS Rio de Janeiro was a German steam ship and a cargo ship, owned by the shipping company Hamburg Süd and home ported in Stettin. She was launched on 3 April 1914 as Santa Ines and later renamed Rio de Janeiro. Before World War II she carried passengers and freight between Germany and South America.
She was requisitioned by Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine for transportation of troops on 7 March 1940, before Operation Weserübung, the invasion of Norway and Denmark, began on 9 April 1940.
The secret plan for the ship was to arrive at Bergen right after German troops had captured the town. On board Rio de Janeiro there were a total of 50 crew and 330 soldiers. Her cargo consisted of six 2 cm FlaK 30 and four 10.5 cm FlaK 38 anti-aircraft guns, 73 horses, 71 vehicles and 292 tons of provisions, animal feed, fuel and ammunition.
The ship left Stettin on 6 April 1940 at 3 AM. Two days later, at 11.15, only hours before the attack on Norway began, a surfaced submarine was sighted off Lillesand. At first it was thought to be a German submarine, but it turned out to be the Polish submarine ORP Orzeł, serving under British command. It had 85 A written on the tower. The submarine signalled for Rio de Janeiro to stop, and the order was followed. , of the Polish Navy, then ordered the ship to surrender or it would be sunk, but nothing happened. The Polish submarine then torpedoed the ship, and she took in water and began sinking. The crew and soldiers on board began to jump into the sea. At 12.00, an aircraft from the Royal Norwegian Navy Air Service started circling around the sinking ship. At 12.50 the submarine torpedoed the ship a second time, from a submerged position. The torpedo hit the ammunition depot, which caused an explosion. About 180 survived the sinking, and were rescued from the sea and brought by local vessels to Lillesand and Kristiansand; roughly 200 died.
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