Schwabenland measured 8,188 gross register tons. Built as a cargo steamer in 1925, she was converted in 1934 with a crane and catapult. Her cited 3,600-horsepower machinery was specified for 12 knots, although a 1944 account put her nearer 10 knots. She supported long-distance mail routes carrying roughly 100,000 letters per trip from the Azores toward the United States and between West Africa and Brazil. She then carried 82 men and two Dornier Wal seaplanes for the secretive 1938-39 German Antarctic expedition. Luftwaffe service took her to occupied France and later Norway, where HMS Terrapin attacked her convoy in 1944 and she was run aground before being refloated. The British finally loaded her with chemical munitions and scuttled her in the Skagerrak in 1946.
Chapter · 17:24-22:23
Schwabenland's airmail, Antarctic, and wartime careers
A converted cargo steamer supported airmail flights, the 1938-39 German Antarctic expedition, and Luftwaffe seaplane operations before an unusual postwar disposal.