The �Grille� was a 135 meters, 3,490 tonnes aviso built in Nazi Germany by Blohm & Voss Hamburg in 1934 for the Kriegsmarine to serve as a state yacht for Adolf Hitler and other leading figures of the Nazi regime.
The ship was lightly armed with three 127mm guns and equipped for use as an auxiliary minesweeper. Completed in 1935, her experimental 22,000hp high-pressure steam turbines, installed to test them before they were used on destroyers, required extensive modifications and the ship finally entered service in 1937. She could reach a speed of 26 knots.
Over the next two years she was used in a variety of roles, including as a training ship and target ship, in addition to her yacht duties.
Adolf Hitler relaxes with Reich Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels and Reich Governor R�ver on the deck of his 377-foot yacht �Aviso Grille�. The �White Swan of the Baltic�, as Hitler called her, entertained the highest echelons of the Nazi administration and army. More than 30 cabins accommodated guests, including Benito Mussolini, Hermann G�ring, Joseph Goebbels, Miklos Horthy, Rudolf Hess and many others from Germany and the Axis countries. Hitler was the most frequent visitor, showing off his ship and usually spending three or four nights on board.
The aviso was present in Kiel during the sailing events of the 1936 Olympic Games.
After the outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939, the Grille was used as a minesweeper and patrol vessel in the Baltic Sea, searching for enemy merchant ships.
Photographic print of the Aviso Grille signed by Karl Donitz.
In January 1940, she collided with a German transport ship, was repaired and resumed her duties as a minesweeper in the North Sea, before being used as a gunnery training ship.
She was briefly assigned to the bomb disposal unit supporting Operation Sea Lion in September, before the planned invasion of Britain was called off, and was reassigned to the Baltic during Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941.
She was then assigned to gunnery training duties from August 1941 until March 1942, when she was reduced to a headquarters ship for the commander of naval forces based in occupied Norway; she served in this capacity until the end of the war.
Type VIIC U-601 approaches the Aviso Grille, a former German state yacht, at Narvik, probably on 28 August 1943, at the end of her sixth war patrol. The Grille was then the command ship (F�hrer und Stabsschiff) of the F�hrer der Unterseeboote Norwegen (F.d.U. Norwegen), Kapit�n zur See Rudolf Peters, who commanded all submarine operations in the Arctic.
U-601 was sunk by depth charges in the Arctic Ocean on 25 February 1944 north-west of Narvik, Norway, by an RAF Catalina at position 70�26?N 12�40?E. Its 51 sailors perished
Many absurdities were later told about the luxury of the Grille, and in 1944 Wilhelm Dege confirmed other accounts denying the ship's luxury.
Wilhelm Dege led a German team collecting meteorological data in Spitsbergen during the Second World War.
Due to the isolation of the ship, it was not recovered until four months after the end of the war and, for this reason, he was one of the last German soldiers to surrender.
Dege wrote in his book �War North of 80: The last German Arctic Weather Station of World War II� , University Press of Colorado, ISBN 10: 087081768X ISBN 13: 9780870817687):
� ... I had received a flattering invitation, as representative of the entire detachment, to a farewell party at the submarine headquarters aboard the Grille.
Naturally I couldn't refuse the invitation, but I had to apologise straight away for my uniform, which was already a bit combat-ready and didn't fit in at all with the simple but festive surroundings of the �F�hrer's little mess� to which a nurse had taken me. As the representative of the submarine commander, who was away on business, the first staff officer, Captain Eckermann, immediately welcomed me and introduced me to the many officers on his staff.
I didn't notice the fabulous luxury you often hear about, except for the silver chandeliers and elegant china.
But I've seen that in other officers' messes. What impressed me, on the other hand, was the extremely modern technical equipment on board, and I was no less impressed by the ceremonial way in which I was welcomed, with the boatswain's whistles and the lantern bearers".
�Le Bar du Monde� aboard Grille.
Seized by British forces as war reparations in 1945, she was then sold either to a Lebanese businessman who intended to use her as a yacht, or to a Lebanese shipping company to use her as a passenger vessel.
During this period she was involved in a collision in March 1947 and in November 1948 was attacked by a Jewish saboteur using mines after Haganah intelligence mistakenly believed the ship was intended to attack the Jewish fleet.
Lebanese-born businessman George Arida Sr. (right) and his son, aboard Adolf Hitler's former yacht, the aviso Grille, in New York, on its arrival from Britain.
Once the repairs were complete, the owner took the ship to the United States in 1949 to try, unsuccessfully, to find a buyer.
He finally sold the Grille for scrap in 1951.
The Bar, one of the few known remains of the Grille.
After Hitler's suicide at the end of April 1945, Karl D�nitz gave his speech from the �Grille�. As part of the war reparations, the ship, disarmed, was offered to the United Kingdom.
Acquired in 1946 by a Canadian shipowner, she was bought two years later by a Lebanese textile industrialist, George Arida, on behalf of the Egyptian King Farouk, who no longer wanted her when she was stationed in New York.
Disarmed in 1951, it was dismantled before reappearing this year with its Art Deco bar, soon to be sold at auction in the United States.
A bar that has remained intact for 70 years.
Estimated at between $150,000 and $250,000, the bar and its five stools (one of which has retained its original fabric) will be offered on 29 October by American auction house Alexander Historical Auctions, reports British tabloid The Daily Mail.
2020: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... years.html
The bar spent seven decades on a farm in Maryland, USA. In the early 1950s, the current seller's father was friends with the owner of Doan Salvage Yard, which was responsible for dismantling the boat, and offered to buy the historic piece. The bar was installed in the basement of a house in rural Maryland, near Elkton. It was sometimes moved into the barn, but remained intact for 70 years.
https://jayseaarchaeology.wordpress.com ... l-chapter/
�Doan's Salvage and its enigmatic owner Harry Doan no longer seem to exist. At one point, Doan's Salvage had merged with the North American Salvage Company of Bordentown, New Jersey, but that company closed in the early 1980s. As a result, it appears that any records the former salvage yard may have had of past demolition projects no longer exist either, adding to the frustration. The search for Doan's Salvage leads to only one thing: his association with Adolf Hitler. Hitler had a personal yacht called the Aviso Grille. �
Another relic is one of Grille's motorboats that remained in England:
http://strangevehicles.greyfalcon.us/AVISO%20GRILLE.htm
Meanwhile, in Hartlepool, the Canot Mb-1, which had become known as Grillet, using the German diminutive, was made available by the Royal Navy for use as a racing lifeboat for the local yacht club.
Grillet moored on the Thames at Penton Hook, near Chertsey, Surrey, during a refit in 2001.
This is the closest marina to Windsor for Motorboot 1, just 10 miles away.
In 1946, when Grille was first sold, Mr Tommy �Tot� Richardson, commodore of the club, acquired Grillet in exchange for a new Austin Ten. Mb-2 was bought by a fisherman who planned to use it for passenger trips on the Moray Firth and Loch Ness. Mb-3 was bought by a farmer from Poole, on the Dorset coast, who sold it in 1969. Extensive investigations have failed to find Mb-2 and Mb-3.
�Tot' Richardson sold Grillet in 1966. She was sold again in 1974, after which she spent several years as a weekend pleasure boat, moored on the River Ouse at York. She then reappeared as a fishing boat in the Humber Estuary. In 1986 it was acquired by Mr Ian Slack, an engineer from Rotherham, for use as a family cruiser. He moored the boat in the village of Heck, near Doncaster, a long way from Hell (via Kiel).
The current owner bought Grillet from Mr and Mrs Slack in 1999 and has since sailed her in the Mediterranean. He completed a refit in 2007 which included a new oak marine keel and the installation of stabilisers and hydraulic steering.
2016: A missing piece of Hitler's ship sought in Hartlepool, which bears the name �Grillet�.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-tees-37043153
The owner of a motorboat that once belonged to Adolf Hitler is hoping to find a missing part in Hartlepool.
The Grillet was one of three boats that accompanied Hitler's yacht, the Aviso Grille, which was seized by the Royal Navy after the Second World War.
The yacht spent part of her time in Hartlepool before being sent to the United States for scrapping.
The dinghy's owner, Ron Cadman, hopes the missing binnacle and compass are still in Hartlepool.
He told BBC Tees: �This is the original brass dashboard with the compass inside. In June 2014 it appeared in an auction, I didn't know about it until earlier this year, the auction house said the person who put it in was from Hartlepool, I hope I can get it back for the boat.�
Mr Cadman, who is currently in the United Arab Emirates, said he was trying to trace a Hartlepool man, David Dixon, who had entered the lot in the Taunton auction. The lot was returned to him after it failed to sell.
Adolf Hitler had planned to use the Grillet to travel up the Thames to Windsor Castle, which was to be his home in the event of a successful invasion of England.
Mr Cadman said it was not the boat's association with Hitler that interested him.
He said: �At the end of the day, this is a historic boat, irrespective of Hitler.
�The boat itself is a German Navy pinnace from 1934. There are very few left, it's just an interesting boat from that period.
After the war, Grillet was used for many years as a lifeboat by Hartlepool Sailing Club before being sold several times to owners around the world.
It is currently out of the water, but Mr Cadman said he hoped to restore it to its original condition.
Photo of the Grille at Hartlepool in 1946, donated by Derek Hinds and Tom Illingworth ( bosco on trip to Genoa):
2020:
The Mb-1 �Grillet� seems to be ending her life as a wooden canoe and, unfortunately, as a �flowerpot�. Between the bar and the canoe, I would have chosen the canoe to restore.
https://www.adrianstoneyachtsurveys.co. ... ers-launch
26 August 2023:
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-tees-66621419
Book about Hitler's yacht raises funds for Hartlepool RNLI
Profits from a book about Adolf Hitler's yacht have been donated to Hartlepool's RNLI.
The Aviso Grille remained in Hartlepool for some time after being seized by the British at the end of the Second World War.
Mick Coverdale, the author of the new book, said it was a tourist attraction in the town, with adults paying a shilling and children sixpence to have a look on board.
The RNLI thanked him for his �425 donation.
Coverdale's book, Hitler's Royal Yacht and the Hartlepool Connection, also tells the story of the Grillet, one of the yacht's three motorboats which also spent time in Hartlepool before being scrapped in the US.
�I'm delighted to support the work of the volunteer lifeboat crew who do an incredible job,� said Coverdale, 78, adding that he wanted to thank everyone who bought a copy and local author John Riddle for his support.
Hartlepool RNLI chairman Malcolm Cook said, �Mick's generous donation will help support volunteers at Ferry Road Lifeboat Station to help save lives at sea.�
More here on the history of the Grille: https://www.benjidog.co.uk/MiscShips/Grille.php
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It should be noted that the Turkish MV Savarona, built in the same German yard in 1931, i.e. 3 years before Grille, closely resembles her, at least in terms of the hull.
https://tr-m-wikipedia-org.translate.go ... r_pto=wapp
Savarona is still sailing, despite an equally eventful history.
The MV Savarona, which was the largest yacht in the world when it was launched in Hamburg on 28 March 1931, was bought by the Turkish government on 23 February 1938, when she was seven years old, and given as a gift to the then president, Mustafa Kemal Atat�rk.
Today, she is one of the largest yachts in the world. It is the presidential yacht after the Turkish yacht Ertu?rul . Atat�rk; Before his death, he spent fifty days on the vessel, holding cabinet meetings on the yacht and hosting important guests during that time.
The owner of the yacht is the State of the Republic of Turkey . The yacht, demolished in 1989 and leased to a businessman after the reactions, was placed under the care of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism in 2013 and transferred to the Naval Forces Command in 2019.
Grille was made at 1/700 scale by Combrig, a model that is difficult to find at the moment:
https://combrig-models.com/index.php/17 ... grille1935
http://www.modelwarships.com/reviews/sh ... grill.html
Here made by Peter Fulgoney:
http://www.modelshipgallery.com/gallery ... index.html
