Fritz (ship)
 As Fritz under the German flag
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The Fritz was the first sea ship with double-acting two-stroke diesel propulsion engines .
Prehistory ( Primus , Secundus and Selandia )
The far-sighted and diplomatic shipowner Albert Ballin , General Director of HAPAG since 1899 , recognized the immense advantages of the engine presented by Rudolf Diesel in 1897 as a future ship propulsion system at the height of the steam engine as a ship propulsion system. Instead of the previous drive system consisting of a steam engine and boiler , only the motor was needed, and it was also more than twice as efficient . He wanted to put the world's first seagoing ship with a diesel engine drive into service and early on not only ordered one, but two ships with a diesel engine drive.
The Primus with two engines based on the patents of Hugo Junkers was ordered from Bremer Werft AG Weser and the Secundus with two diesel engines from the Hamburg shipyard Blohm & Voss . These engines were developed, designed and built as double-acting engines by a study group formed in 1909 by MAN and Blohm & Voss. The Primus with two three-cylinder engines, which were designed as opposed piston engines in tandem, caused the AG Weser a lot of difficulties due to the complicated design with four pistons per cylinder. After extensive trials, test drives and repairs, the engines were removed again and the ship was put into service as a Kribi with two steam engines in 1915 . Blohm & Voss had delivered the Secundus in March 1914 because deadlines were missed due to major technical difficulties in the construction of the double-acting MAN / B&V two-stroke diesel engines with two single-acting diesel engines. Primus and Secundus had to admit defeat to Selandia , which was delivered in February , and Ballin bought the sister ship Fionia in July 1912 , renamed her Christian X (from 1912 to 1947 King of Denmark) and put her into service.
history
The engine designer from Blohm & Voss, chief engineer Fritz Nordhausen , was convinced of his idea of the double-acting diesel engine despite the failure with the Secundus . After consulting Hermann Blohm , Ernst Voss and Herbert Frahm, he managed to get Blohm & Voss to build a cargo ship on their own account. This was intended to demonstrate the advantages of a ship propulsion system with double-acting diesel engines to the shipowners.
The background was the high demands of the designers to generate a high output comparable to steam engines with a double-acting two-stroke diesel engine , because the shipowners demanded that the diesel engine also be built with as few cylinders as possible. However, they forgot that steam ships , unlike motor ships, need two rooms for propulsion: the boiler room and the engine room.
The Fritz was launched on February 24, 1914 and was equipped with two double-acting three-cylinder two-stroke diesel engines, each with 830 hp. The shipyard was only able to deliver the ship after test drives on the Elbe on May 15, 1915, due to the war that had now raged and technical problems with the engine.
At the end of the war, the ship was delivered to Great Britain by a German transfer team, was later converted into a steamer and renamed due to problems with the operation of the engines.
In 1940 the ship belonged as Assyrian to the shipping company Ellerman & Papayanni & Company in London and was on the route from New Orleans (United States) to Sydney (Canada) and Liverpool (United Kingdom) with a cargo of 3,700 tons of grain and nine passengers in the North Atlantic sunk. The Assyrian was in convoy SC 7 and was north of Ireland when the submarine U 101 with Fritz Frauenheim as commander hit the ship with a torpedo on October 18, 1940, causing the Assyrian to break through in the middle and sink. 17 people died and 34 people survived this attack.
description
The Fritz had a length of 100.6 m, a side height of 7.8 m, a draft of 6.8 m, a width of 13.6 m and was measured at 3,085 GRT . She had a load capacity of 4635 tdw and was equipped with facilities for nine passengers. The two engines of 830 hp each worked on two propellers and gave the freighter a speed of 12 knots. The initial problems in engine operation were mainly related to the piston undersides. As long as the engine was only running with the top of the pistons, i.e. single-acting, it worked perfectly. Was the piston bottom switched on, d. H. if fuel was also injected under the piston, there were problems due to very poor combustion, which could be seen on the chimney with extreme smoke development. With much experimentation and patience, the problems were gradually eliminated and operations improved. The difficulties with the stuffing boxes of the piston rods could also be eliminated.
Thereafter, the double-acting two-stroke diesel engine for seagoing ships became more and more popular and was only replaced by single-acting diesel engines from 1960, which, equipped with exhaust gas turbochargers, enabled significantly higher outputs.
More pioneer motor ships
- Selandia
- Loki
- Arthur von Gwinner
- Wotan
- Rolandseck
- Monte Penedo
literature
- Hans Georg Prager: Blohm + Voss, 1977 Koehler; ISBN 3-782201272 .
- NN: Volume 3, The German Warships 1815-1945 , ISBN 3-7637-4802-4
- Hans-Jürgen Abert: The German merchant fleet 1870-1990
- Heinrich Börnsen: two-stroke, four-stroke and turbines. Junge Generation Verlag, Berlin 1940
- Several authors: Dampfer, Diesel und Turbine, 2005 Deutsches Schiffahrtsmuseum and Convent Verlag; ISBN 3-934613-85-3