Hitler's yacht

[WhyMe]

This German aviso launched in 1935 was used as a state yacht for nazi government until the WW2 broke out. Generally it was known as "Hitler's yacht".
It was named Grille (which means "cricket") - a traditional name for Prussian royal yachts.
Shown here flying the Fuehrer Standard meaning Adolf is on board

[emperor_andreas]

Very nice work...thanks for posting!

-Matt

[Portsmouth Bill]

Very nice But I doubt if he was ever aboard much; as he seemed to be very uninterested in anything nautical. Still, several carefully placed magnetic mines may have saved everyone a lot of future grief.

[Wilco Vermeer]

Very nice,
The avico "Grille" was around from 1935 until 1951 (yes it survived the war). The furst time the ship was officially used as state yaght was on May 30th, 1936 during a fleet parade to commemorate the Battle of Skagerrak, followed by a cruise to Reijkjavik. Mostly it was used by Blomberg. The ship was also used for U-boat practice (as target ship without actual torpedoes) and for lying minefields. Actually it was the first German ship to lay mines in the Thames estuary on September 3rd, 1939.
In 1942 it became the staffship and fleet headquarter for Admiral Reader and later the Command ship for the U-boat fleet with Dönitz.
On May 1st, 1945 it was on this ship that Dönitz announced the death of Hitler and that he had assumes total command of all German forces.
It became a British prize ship on May 2nd, 1945. August 1946 it was sold to a Canadian and then sold to George Arrida, a Lebanese textile manifacturer. April 1951 it was sold for scrapping.

Records state the ship retained her pre-war yaght colours throughout the war and was not painted grey at any time as some drawings on the internet suggest.

[bezobrazov]

I have a question about the fuehrer standart. I've failed to come across any pictures whatsoever which would show the standat being flown on the main mast gaff. That's a highly unusual positioning of a rank-flag. I know that the Hohenzollern and the Imperial Russian Yacht Shtandart always flew the Imperial flags from the main mast tops. If in port, the gaff should remain empty, if at sea, except for short littoral cruises, it was, however, used to hoist the national flag or naval ensign. Also the foretop should be flying the ranking admiral's pennant, either be it Gross Admiral Raeder's or, say General Admiral Rolf Carls' (The ship being stationed in the Baltic, is why his name is suggested!) - Otherwise a nice rendition of a ship we ought better, perhaps forget!

[WhyMe]

Thanks for your comments.

I totally might have screwed up the flags placement so I'll probably leave just the naval ensign aft and the naval jack fore before uploading the drawing.

[Wilco Vermeer]

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/c ... grille.jpg
This is the best I can do for you.
Onmost photo's I see the large flag aft and two smaller in both the top of the masts.

[bezobrazov]

Yes, Wilco's observations are correct. The foretop flag is the so-called Reichsdienstflagge; a red cloth with a white roundel and the black swastika in the middle (exactly the one you have on her bow! The second appears to be a rank flag, but it's on this mast (the main topmast) where Hitler's personal standard would be hoisted. Since the Grille is laying too, by anchor, the Reichkriegsflagge is flying from her sternpost (exactly the way you have it now). The only contention here is to move the personal standard to the maintopmast, and either put a Reichsdienstflagge or a rank flag on the foretopmast. Voila! That simple!

[WhyMe]

Thanks guys, I'll fix the flags.

[Bombhead]

A beautiful ship.Very nice drawing.One slight improvement would be to give the masts more shade and high light.Just a suggestion.