Donkeyman

Donkeyman was the name of a longshoreman or sailor who the Donkey ( English for "donkey"), the auxiliary steam engine a barge had or a vessel to operate and maintain. On seagoing ships, the auxiliary boiler was supposed to ensure the steam supply when the main boiler was at a standstill and thus mainly served the ship's internal energy requirements as well as the operation of the ballast water pump and the capstan . The Donkey also operated the loading and unloading facilities for smaller merchant ships . In the maritime industry, full-time donkey people were only hired on large ships .

In the port of Hamburg were from the mid-19th century Donkeyschuten used. These were equipped with a steam boiler and a steam winch so that the unpowered barges could mechanically support the unloading and loading work of the showmen . They were mainly used on tall ships , Oberland barges and storage tanks without a bottom winch. The donkeyman was the man at the winch . He was responsible for the upkeep and maintenance of the barge, had to keep the coal fire under the boiler going during operation , control the water level and steam pressure and operate the winch. Since he was standing deep in the barge, he had no insight into the loading process, but instead had to rely on eye contact, hand signals and calls from the crowd for this work.

The work of the Donkey people was replaced at the beginning to the middle of the 20th century by the technical advancement of hoists .

literature

• Harry Braun, Klaus Rahn: The Port of Hamburg. A journey through time in pictures. Sutton Verlag, Erfurt 2008, ISBN 978-3-86680-365-7 .
• Arnold Kludas , Dieter Maass, Susanne Sabisch: Port of Hamburg. The history of the Hamburg free port from the beginning to the present. Hamburg 1988, ISBN 3-8225-0089-5 .