Blue Funnel H-Class
.jpg) The Jason
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The H-Class (English: "H" class or "H" Boats) of the British Blue Funnel Line was built in four units from 1949. The H-class ships were built at two different shipyards and were developed for the shipping company's Australian service. The term H-Class was derived from some ship names beginning with the letter "H".
Use of the ships
The résumés of the ships were relatively calm. The christening of Hector was made in July 1949 by British Prime Minister Clement Attlee . When the Helenus took the cargo for her maiden voyage on board in Gladstone Dock in Liverpool on November 9, 1949 , a fire broke out in the dock, whereupon she began her first departure on the 12th of the month with only a partial load. The Jason transported the Australian riding team with their horses from Sydney to Liverpool in 1960, from where they traveled on to the Olympic Games in Rome. A training area for the horses was created on board. The Ixion was nicknamed nine to one on in Australia because of its name, which could be broken down into Roman numerals .
The ships of the Far East and Australian services were tied into a very strict timetable and therefore mostly transported urgent goods at relatively high freight rates . Accordingly, the shipping company paid great attention to the care and maintenance of the ships and sent them to a specially rented dry dock at the Barclay shipyard , Curle in Glasgow at the end of the tour .
In the years 1961/62 one gave up the passenger transport, since the majority of the passenger volume shifted to the air traffic.
technical description
The H-class ships were conventional general cargo ships . The design was a further development of the A-class ships, the design of which was based on the Glenearn-class ships built between 1938 and 1942 for the subsidiary Glen Line , but developed by Holt . The ships had a carrying capacity of a good 11,000 tons, seven holds with tween decks, refrigerated holds and sweet oil tanks. The cargo was handled with conventional loading gear . The H-class ships were largely identical to those of the P-class , but had a different division of cargo holds and tanks, as well as a significantly larger cold store capacity.
Due to the high speed required on the Far East route, the drive was provided by three steam turbines acting on a single screw via a reduction gear. The superstructure arranged amidships had 35 passenger seats.
The ships
| Ship name | Shipyard / construction number | IMO number | Commissioning | Later names and whereabouts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Helenus | Harland & Wolff / | 5146603 | October 1949 | scrapped from July 11, 1978 at Li Chong Steel & Iron Corporation in Kaohsiung |
| Jason | Swan, Hunter / | 5170551 | January 1950 | scrapped from May 23, 1972 at the Jui Feng Steel Corporation in Kaohsiung |
| Hector | Harland & Wolff / | - | 1950 | scrapped in Kaohsiung from July 5, 1972 |
| Ixion | Harland & Wolff / | 5166029 | January 1951 | scrapped from March 12, 1972 at Salvamiento y Demolici in Villaneuva y Geltru |
literature
- Andrew Bell: Blue Funnel's 'P' and 'H' Classes Fast Cargo Liners of 1949-1951 . In: Ships monthly . Vol. 34, No. 1 , January 1999, p. 42-45 .
- Haws, Duncan: Blue Funnel Line . 1st edition. TCL Publications, Torquay 1984, ISBN 0-946378-01-0 .