SMS Vulkan

SMS "Vulkan" was a U-boat salvage tug in the Kaiserliche Marine laid down in 1907 and commissioned 1908. The ship displaced 1595 tons and had a top speed of 12 knots.

The famous U-boat ace Max Valentiner served as salvage officer on "Vulkan" in early 1911. On January 17, 1911, he and the crew saves all 30 men from U-3 by getting them out of the torpedo tube after it was sunk near Kiel harbour in Heikendorfer Bay because of an unclosed valve in the ventilation shaft. Amongst the saved crew was Otto Weddigen, the later commander of U-9 and Paul Clarrendorf, the commander of "U-boot-Abnahme-Kommando" in Kiel which enlisted u-boat crews.

"Vulkan" is also famous for salvaging two U-boats, U-30 on August 27, 1915 and UC-45 on September 17, 1917.

"Vulkan" was taken out of service November 11, 1918 and surrendered to the British forces together with the bigger salvage tug, SMS Cyclop. Being pulled to Harwich it was sunk April 6, 1919 in position coord|54|54|N|06|18|E|scale:10000000.

External links

* [http://www.u-boot-net.de/include.php?path=content/content.php&contentid=70 u-boot-net.de webpage about SMS Vulkan] (in German)
* [http://www.max-valentiner.dk/ max-valentiner.dk webpage about Max Valentiner and salvage of U-3 in 1911] (in Danish)