Goliath (ship)

Goliath

Museum tug Goliath in Hamburg

Ship data flag  Germany Ship type Salvage tug Shipyard Deschimag , Seebeck plant , Wesermünde Launch April 30, 1941 Whereabouts scrapped in spring 2011

Ship dimensions and crew length 29.13 m ( Lüa ) width 7.03 m Draft Max. 2.14 m measurement 126 GT / 38 NRZ   crew 6th

Machine system machine • 2 machines (Mercedes-Maybach) each with 425  hp • 1 auxiliary diesel ( Cummins Engine ) • 1 auxiliary diesel ( Deutz AG ) Machine performance 850 hp Top speed 10 kn (19 km / h) propeller two propellers with three rudder blades each

Others Passenger seats 42

The Wadden recovery tug BMS "Goliath" was a German museum ship . The launch was on 30 April 1941 at the Deschimag belonging work Seebeck in Wesermünde . On October 22nd of the same year the ship was handed over to the Bugsier-, Reederei und Bergungs-AG in Hamburg .

commitment

The tug "Goliath" at the Seebäderkaje in Bremerhaven . The stern is covered with a tarpaulin.

The ship had a pulling force of nine tons, its recovery winch on the deck even 32 tons. The hold had a maximum capacity of five tons. Due to its hull shape, which resembles a flat-bottomed ship , the tugboat is particularly suitable for the shallow waters of the Wadden Sea in the mouth of the Weser.

In the early years, “Goliath” served the Navy in rescue and emergency operations and then after the Second World War as a supplier of two lifting vessels that lifted numerous wrecks in the North Sea and especially in river mouths. In 1961 he helped salvage the US freighter "Hoosier State", which had been pushed ashore on March 21 of that year as a result of a severe storm surge off Bremerhaven . Five years later the old two-stroke six-cylinder engines were exchanged for six-cylinder four-stroke engines.

However, the tug was not only used in German waters: in 1974 and 1975 it was ordered to the Suez Canal to help salvage ships that had sunk there in the Six Day War of 1967.

Museum ship

The cargo space below deck, which has been converted into the Green Salon

In the 1990s the tractor was decommissioned. It was restored with the support of the Schuchmann shipping company, which had since taken it over. In the course of this work, the draft increased from 1.65 meters to 2.14 meters. Since December 1994 the “Goliath” has been in the service of the “Schiffahrts-Compagnie Bremerhaven e. V. ”and was part of a small fleet of museum ships, which also includes the steam icebreaker“ Wal ”and the launch “ Quarantine ”.

Since 1999 the "Goliath" has been used for regular tourist trips to the Roter Sand lighthouse . During the crossing, passengers were free to enter any room on the ship, including the engine room, the bridge, the kitchen and the cargo hold that had been redesigned into the green salon . The stern of the ship could be covered with a tarpaulin in bad weather (see photo). The recovery winch that was no longer in use was still on the deck.

During a visit to the shipyard at the end of 2010, it was found that the driving safety of the tug was no longer guaranteed. For this reason, the ship was decommissioned in April 2011 and the trips to the Roter Sand lighthouse were canceled for 2011. The ship was finally scrapped in May 2011 at the Lloyd shipyard in Bremerhaven.

Web links

• Website of the “Schiffahrts-Compagnie Bremerhaven e. V. "

Individual evidence

1. ↑ 2011 no guest trips to the Roter Sand lighthouse - press release of the German Foundation for Monument Protection, April 14, 2011 ( Memento from September 12, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
2. ↑ Mark Schröder: No rescue for the tug “Goliath”  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.   , Nordsee-Zeitung , April 17, 2011
3. ↑ Gert-Ulrich Hensellek: Whale runs out of air , Nordsee-Zeitung, June 23, 2011