The Cap Arcona was a German luxury passenger steamer of the Hamburg South America line with a length of 206 m and a cargo capacity of 27,500 Gross Register Tons (GRT). She was named after "Cape Arkona" on the island of Rügen in Mecklenburg-Western_Pomerania.

Launched in 1927 the ship was considered one of the most beautiful of her time. She carried luxury travelers and steerage -class emigrants, predominantly to South America.

On December 3 1928, in Rio de Janeiro, a seaplane was sunk near Cap Arcona with Alberto Santos-Dumont on board. From 1940, the Cap Arcona was taken over by the Kriegsmarine (German navy) and used in the Baltic Sea. From the end of 1944 the Kriegsmarine transferred her back to transport use and she was used to transport refugees from East Prussia to the west of Germany. On April 26 1945, the Cap Arcona was loaded with prisoners from the concentration camp Neuengamme and together with two smaller ships, the Thielbek and the Athen , was brought into the Lübeck Bay with the intention to destroy evidence of what happened at Neuengamme.

On May 3 1945, the Cap Arcona, the Thielbek, the Athen and the passenger liner Deutschland floated unprotected in the Lübeck bay between Neustadt and Scharbeutz and were sunk by allied aircraft. Approximately 7,000 to 8,000 prisoners from the concentration camps (Neuengamme, Stutthof, Mittelbau-Dora) were drowned; any survivors were shot by the SS.

With similar sinkings of the Wilhelm Gustloff and the Goya in the Baltic Sea these were three of the highest losses of life of any sinking in history.

External links

• History of the tragedy
• Disaster on the Baltic Sea
• Inferno
• Appendix A
• Photo-montage with sound
• Photos of the Cap Arcona : [1] [2] [3] [4]