Veterans ship question (need some help Guys)

[trackend]

My dad's ex chief petty officer who he keeps in contact with, wrote asking if I could dig up any info on an ex German Q ship he served on just after the war. Her name was The Serepta (he's 87 so the spelling may be off) she had been fitted with torpedo tubes and had a periscope concealed in one of the boats davits.
I only just got the request today but I thought some of our German friends may have access to vessel records 39-45 any info on armed merchantmen in the Kriegsmarine would be helpful though .
Cheers guys.

 

[Glider]

This doesn't identify the ship you seem to be after but its a good site for the ships in question.
I have also checked out my info re British Q Ships, Armed Merchant Cruisers, boarding vessels etc but have been unable to identify a ship of a similar name.

http://www.scharnhorst-class.dk/miscellaneous/hilfskreuzer/hilfskreuzer_introduction.html

 

[delcyros]

difficult question.
Can You provide the size of the ship?
Was it a 5.000 t. ex merchant? Some 100 +- of them were rebuilded for naval use and carried different arms, including torpedo tubes, light AA and even 4.1" DP guns in single mounts. I haveso far not seen any reliable list of the ships, but they are usually classified as "Sperrbrecher" by the KM.
Here is a list of all auxilary KM cruisers:
Orion - sunk 4.5.1945
Atlantis - sunk 22.11.1941

Widder - scrapped in 1955 (after the war "Ulysses" and in british service)

Thor - exploded in Yokohama 9.10.1942
Pinguin - sunk 8.5.1941
Stier - sunk 27.9.1942
Komet - sunk 14.10.1942
Kormoran - abandoned 19.11.1941
Michel - sunk 17.10.1943
And here are the auxilary ships to be used by KM:

Dithmarschen - scrapped 1962 (RN:"Southmark";USN:"Connecuh")
Nordmark - scrapped 1955 (RN:"Northmark";USN:"Bulwayo")

Uckermark - exploded in Yokohama 30.11.1942
Franken - sunk 8.4.1945
Ermland - sunk 23.9.1943

 

[trackend]

Thanks guys very much I know its a tall order and 60 years can make a bloke forget details Ill have a bash at getting some more info he said that the name had not been changed after if was taken over but Im not so sure. he served on it as chief when it returned to civilian use as a freighter but anyway thanks very much Del Glider for trying .
Im Much obliged.
Lee

 

[delcyros]

It would be fine to know more details. My 2 cents are either on a Sperrbrecher (classified as auxilary ship, not auxilary cruiser) from which I sadly have not enough informations or on an auxilary ship of the imperial german navy (to which the name "Serepta" may fit more, a popular name for yachts in the timeframe 1890-1915). An auxilary cruiser is excluded since all imp. fleet ships were scrapped in the mid 20´s, the latest in the early 30´s. However some minor auxilary ships ("Sperrbrecher" survived well into the 50´s).

 

[redcoat]

My dad's ex chief petty officer who he keeps in contact with, wrote asking if I could dig up any info on an ex German Q ship he served on just after the war. Her name was The Serepta (he's 87 so the spelling may be off) she had been fitted with torpedo tubes and had a periscope concealed in one of the boats davits.

It wasn't a Q ship.
The Serepta was known as the FRIEDA PETERS in German service, and during the period 43-5 she was used as a torpedo testing vessel, before that, she had been a experimental engine testing ship ( 1920-40), then a coal supply ship (1940-3).
Post-war she continued in the torpedo testing role with the RN, until the mid 50's.
She was scrapped in 1958.

She was a ship of around 750 tons with a crew of ten