On behalf of the Reichsmarine , the cargo ship was equipped with three Flettner rotors as an additional drive. The Barbara was used by the shipping company in the Mediterranean service during the trials. Through the tests, Captain Walter Lohmann (later made famous through the Lohmann affair ) and the inspector of the shipping company, Bruno Richter, found out that the rotors generated an increase in output of around 440 kW at wind speeds of around 5 Beaufort . Test drives in wind forces 4 to 6 showed a speed of up to 13 knots with fully running engines . With the engine and rotors running, a speed of 9.5 to 10 knots was achieved. With a pure rotor drive, 6 knots were still measured. The rotors were used for 30 to 40% of the voyage, with an average speed increase of 2 to 3 knots. The rotors withstood bad weather at 10 to 12 Beaufort during the test and gave no cause for complaint during maneuvering or loading.
The ship was launched in 1929 because of the global economic crisis and sold to the Bugsier-, Reederei- und Bergungsgesellschaft in 1933 . They renamed the ship Birkenau and had the ship rebuilt and the Flettner rotors removed. In 1947 the Danish companies D / S Ove Skou A / S & D / S af 1937 A / S acquired the ship and renamed it Else Skou . In the year after the purchase, the ship received new engines. In 1961 the ship was transferred to the Ove Skou Rederi, which in turn passed it on to the Greek Libyan Line of the F.Petropoulakos Brothers from Piraeus in 1963 - there it was used as Fotis P. under the Greek flag. In 1967 the Saudi Arabian shipping company Orri Navigation Lines from Jeddah acquired the ship and gave the ship its last name, Star of Riyad . In August 1978 the ship was finally sunk off Jeddah .
Individual evidence
↑ Captain W. Lohmann: Report on the sea trials of the Barbara on the occasion of the 14th German Maritime Day on 14/15. March 1927 in Berlin . In: Werft * Reederei * Hafen 7, 1927, pp. 133–134.
A. Keuffel: The rotor motor ship "Barbara". In: Journal of the Association of German Engineers , Volume 71, No. 4 (January 22, 1927), pp. 118–121.
Anton Flettner: My way to the rotor . Köhler & Amelang, Leipzig 1926.
Otto Mielke : Admired, praised and forgotten. Rotor motor ships "Buckau" and "Barbara" . SOS fates of German ships , No. 77, Munich 1955.
Croseck, Heinrich: From sailing ship to rotor ship . In: Institut für Meereskunde, Berlin (Ed.): Meereskunde . tape16 , no.3 . ES Mittler & Sohn, Berlin 1928.