Braunschweig class (1953)
 The Dortmund on one of their last trips before the sale
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The Braunschweig class was a series of cargo ships on the Hamburg-America Line (HAPAG). With the nine express freighters, HAPAG tied in with the East Asia service that it operated before the Second World War .
history
construction
After the extensive loosening of the shipbuilding restrictions of the Potsdam Agreement , the Hamburg-America Line rebuilt its cargo ship fleet from 1950. In 1952, HAPAG and Norddeutscher Lloyd jointly ordered larger and faster turbine ships for service to the Far East. Nine units went to HAPAG, which completed the class with Mannheim , which was not completed in World War II , and Lloyd received eight ships. The ship class consisted of three different ship types . The similarly designed but slightly different in size cargo ships were built in three shipyards. On June 1, 1953, the shipping company was able to take over the first ship, the Braunschweig, from the shipyard. A good year later, on June 21, 1954, the series was complete. The Weserstein class of Norddeutscher Lloyd consisted of sister ships of the Braunschweig class.
Use at HAPAG
As planned, the ship sextet was deployed on HAPAG's longest route, the East Asia service, while the sister ships of the Weserstein class of North German Lloyd were deployed in jointly operated service. The Heidelberg was used as a training ship for HAPAG and in 1968 was the first of the turbine cargo ships to be sold to Greece. A year later, the Ludwigshafen was so badly damaged in a collision in the Strait of Singapore with the Shell tanker Hindisia that it was scrapped in Singapore. In 1970, when HAPAG merged with NDL, the remaining ships became the joint property of the new Hapag-Lloyd , where they were only part of their service for a short time.
Later career
In the years after the merger, Hapag-Lloyd quickly sold the ships to several shipping companies. After the sale, most of the ships stayed in service for only a few years - they were demolished again between 1972 and 1979.
technology
All ships were designed as conventional general cargo carriers for the line trip. They had a continuous main deck with a forecastle and superstructures arranged amidships with machinery under the deckhouse. All ships were measured as full-deckers. There were three holds with two to three decks in front of the deckhouse and three holds with two decks aft. The versatile loading facilities were remarkable. The ships were equipped with around 20 conventional loading booms. In addition, all ships were equipped with a 50-tonne heavy lift boom to take over heavy lifts. Further cargo facilities were the cargo tanks for various sweet oil cargoes arranged in the fore and aft areas under the dry cargo holds . During construction, the powerful propulsion systems with their geared turbines were a prominent feature - both at HAPAG and at NDL, the ships were often referred to as "the turbine ships" for short. The ships built at Deutsche Werft received AEG turbines, those from Howaldtswerke BBC turbines and those from Flenderwerke were driven by turbines from Siemens-Schuckertwerke.
The ships
Each of the three shipyards involved delivered three sister ships to HAPAG (and other identical ships to the NDL). The Deutsche Werft delivered three ships of the "Essen" type , which included the Braunschweig as the eponymous ship of the entire class (three identical ships for the NDL). In addition, there was Mannheim , which had already started in the Second World War but was launched in the meantime and which the Deutsche Werft completed as Heidelberg in 1953 . With the same basic dimensions, this had a little less loading gear and a slightly higher load capacity. Three ships of the "Düsseldorf" type (three identical ships for the NDL) came from the Hamburg Howaldtswerke . The eponymous ship Düsseldorf had a noticeably sloping chimney that tapered to the rear. The Lübeck Flenderwerke contributed three ships of the "Leipzig" type (two identical ships for the NDL).
| The turbine cargo ships of the Braunschweig class | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Surname | Launch | delivery | IMO number | Shipyard / construction number | measurement | Renaming and whereabouts |
| Braunschweig | March 31, 1953 | June 1, 1953 | 5050787 | German shipyard / 641 | 6794 GRT | 1971 Morias , from March 5, 1975 demolition in Kaohsiung |
| eat | July 27, 1953 | September 26, 1953 | 5106598 | German shipyard / 652 | 6794 GRT | Sold in 1971, Alamos in 1977 , Essen in 1978 , Platon in 1979, demolished in Vinaroz in September 1979 |
| Maximum | January 29, 1954 | April 6, 1954 | 5152016 | German shipyard / 666 | 6794 GRT | 1970 Göttingen , 1972 Salzachtal , 1973 Golden Trinity , from April 27, 1979 demolition in Kaohsiung |
| Dusseldorf | May 30, 1953 | July 30, 1953 | 5095189 | Howaldtswerke / 877 | 6973 GRT | 1971 Lady Clio , December 27, 1974 Machine damage in the Red Sea, from March 25, 1975 demolition in Gadani Beach |
| Darmstadt | April 3, 1953 | May 20, 1953 | 5086566 | Howaldtswerke / 882 | 6,999 GRT | 1972 Turbostar , 1973 Panarrange , burned out on May 18, 1976 on the Rotterdam-Tripoli voyage, declared a total loss in Gibraltar and scrapped in Santander from April 17, 1977 |
| Dortmund | December 15, 1953 | November 11, 1954 | 5093234 | Howaldtswerke / 887 | 6,998 GRT | 1971 Inntal , 1973 Miguel , 1974 Tosca , 1975 Captain B , from September 25, 1979 demolition in Split |
| Leverkusen | June 23, 1953 | September 9, 1953 | 5207263 | Flenderwerke / 434 | 6769 GRT | 1970 Tübingen , 1970 Mainamati , on August 17, 1971 on the Baltimore-Karachi trip, engine room fire, declared a total loss in Bremen and scrapped in Bilbao from February 3, 1972 |
| Ludwigshafen | December 9, 1953 | March 9, 1954 | Flenderwerke / 440 | 6752 GRT | Collided with Shell tanker Hindisia on February 2, 1969 and scrapped in Hong Kong on May 2, 1969 | |
| Leipzig | March 16, 1954 | July 30, 1953 | 5205669 | Flenderwerke / 442 | 6745 GRT | 1970 Harappa , scrapped in Gadani Beach from February 1975 |
| Mannheim * | November 19, 1942 | March 9, 1953 | 5145439 | German shipyard / 656 | 9185 GRT | 1953 Heidelberg , 1968 Eurystheus , 1968 Union Evelyn , 1969 Union Companion , 1973 demolition in Kaohsiung |
| * = Single ship, but used within the class | ||||||
literature
- Witthöft, Hans Jürgen: HAPAG . Hamburg-America Line. Koehlers Verlagsgesellschaft, Hamburg 1973, ISBN 3-7822-0087-X .
- Schwadtke, Karl-Heinz: The new German merchant fleet in the picture . 2nd Edition. Gerhard Stalling Verlag, Oldenburg 1966.
- Haws, Duncan: Merchant Fleets in Profile 4 . The ships of the Hamburg America, Adler and Carr lines. Patrick Stephens, Cambridge 1980, ISBN 0-85059-397-2 .
- Turbine steamer "Düsseldorf" . In: Hansa . Vol. 90, No. 34/35 . Schiffahrts-Verlag "Hansa" C. Schroedter & Co., Hamburg August 1953, p. 1416-1422 .
- G. Stark: Turbine express freighter “Leverkusen” . In: Hansa . Vol. 90, No. 46/47 . Schiffahrts-Verlag "Hansa" C. Schroedter & Co., Hamburg November 1953, p. 1897-1903 .