''Friedrich Karl'' was a cargo ship which was built by

Neptun Werft Neptun Werft (; ') is a German shipbuilding company, headquartered in Rostock. Since 1997, it has been part of the Meyer Neptun Group, together with Meyer Werft in Papenburg. History The company was founded as the "Schiffswerft und Maschinenfab ...

Rostock Rostock (; Polabian language, Polabian: ''Roztoc''), officially the Hanseatic and University City of Rostock (), is the largest city in the German States of Germany, state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and lies in the Mecklenburgian part of the sta ...

in 1938. She was requisitioned by the

Kriegsmarine The (, ) was the navy of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It superseded the Imperial German Navy of the German Empire (1871–1918) and the inter-war (1919–1935) of the Weimar Republic. The was one of three official military branch, branche ...

during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, serving as the '' vorpostenboot'' V 108 ''Friedrich Karl'' and the

sperrbrecher A ''Sperrbrecher'' (German; informally translated as "pathfinder" but literally meaning "mine barrage breaker"), was a German auxiliary ship of the First World War and the Second World War that served as a type of minesweeper, steaming ahead of o ...

''Sperrbrecher 138''. She struck a

mine Mine, mines, miners or mining may refer to: Extraction or digging *Miner, a person engaged in mining or digging *Mining, extraction of mineral resources from the ground through a mine Grammar *Mine, a first-person English possessive pronoun M ...

and sank off

Borkum Borkum (; ) is an island and a municipality in the Leer District in Lower Saxony, northwestern Germany. It is situated east of Rottumeroog and west of Juist. Geography Borkum is bordered to the west by the Westerems strait (which forms the ...

on 23 December 1942.

Description

The ship was long, with a beam of and a depth of . She was assessed at , . She was powered by a

triple expansion steam engine A compound steam engine unit is a type of steam engine where steam is expanded in two or more stages. A typical arrangement for a compound engine is that the steam is first expanded in a high-pressure (HP) cylinder, then having given up heat ...

which had cylinders of , and diameter by stroke. The engine was built by

. It was rated at 167 nhp and drove a single screw propeller. She had a speed of .

History

''Friedrich Karl'' was built in 1938 by Neptun Werft, Rostock for Reederei Wendenhof

GmbH (; ) is a type of Juridical person, legal entity in German-speaking countries. It is equivalent to a (Sàrl) in the Romandy, French-speaking region of Switzerland and to a (Sagl) in the Ticino, Italian-speaking region of Switzerland. It is a ...

Wismar Wismar (; ), officially the Hanseatic City of Wismar () is, with around 43,000 inhabitants, the sixth-largest city of the northeastern German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, and the fourth-largest city of Mecklenburg after Rostock, Schwerin and ...

. The

Code Letters Code letters or ship's call sign (or callsign) Mtide Taurus - IMO 7626853"> SHIPSPOTTING.COM >> Mtide Taurus - IMO 7626853/ref> were a method of identifying ships before the introduction of modern navigation aids. Later, with the introduction of ...

DMXL were allocated. During the

, she was requisitioned by the

to serve as a '' Vorpostenboot''. She was allocated to 1 ''Vorpostenbootflotille'' under the designation V108 ''Friedrich Karl''. She was redesignated as a ''

Sperrbrecher A ''Sperrbrecher'' (German; informally translated as "pathfinder" but literally meaning "mine barrage breaker"), was a German auxiliary ship of the First World War and the Second World War that served as a type of minesweeper, steaming ahead of o ...

'' on 26 September 1941, becoming ''Sperrbrecher 138'' with 1 ''Sperrbrecherflotille''. On 23 December 1942, she struck a

and sank off

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Friedrich Karl (1938) 1938 ships Ships built in Rostock Steamships of Germany Merchant ships of Germany World War II merchant ships of Germany Auxiliary ships of the Kriegsmarine Maritime incidents in December 1942 World War II shipwrecks in the North Sea