Vervet Monkey (ship, 1944)

Monkey

Ship data flag  Germany Ship type Fishing protection ship Callsign DBFM Owner Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Forests Shipyard Schiffs- und Maschinenbau AG Mannheim Launch 1943 Whereabouts Scrapped in 1981

Ship dimensions and crew length 56.6 m ( Lüa ) width 8.8 m Draft Max. 4.7 m measurement 673 GRT   crew 24

Machine system machine 9-cylinder Halberg-Sulzer two-stroke diesel engine Machine performance 1000 hp at 340 rpm. Top speed 12 kn (22 km / h)

The Vervet Monkey was a fisheries protection ship of the Federal Ministry for Food, Agriculture and Forests .

It was used to monitor fisheries and to look after and take care of the crews of fishing vessels in the North Sea as well as to monitor the weather. Marine biological studies could also be carried out on board.

The monkey was originally designed as a water supplier for the navy and was intended for use at the Pillau naval equipment station . She ran in 1943 as the last of four ships of the class at the shipyard of Schimag in Mannheim from the stack . However, construction was stopped in October 1944, as the mouth of the Rhine was already occupied by the Allies at that time and the ship could therefore not be delivered.

The HAPAG bought the ship in 1947 in order to use it in the island traffic. From December 1949 she was converted into a fishing protection boat at the Mützelfeldtwerft in Cuxhaven and taken over by the Federal Ministry of Transport on May 7, 1950, and then in 1956 by the Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Forestry.

Diving and towing equipment as well as underwater torch cutters and rescue equipment were available for the technical support service . The monkey carried spare parts to be able to repair machines and equipment of fishing vessels on site. On board was a hospital with 32 beds, an operating room, an X-ray machine, a weather station as well as a medical and a research laboratory. The ship's services for the fishing fleet were not chargeable.

On September 14, 1974, the ship was decommissioned. In 1975 it went to Decca Navigation Ltd. under the name Decca Explorer . to Panama. In April 1981 it was scrapped in the Netherlands.

literature

• Otto Mielke : The guardian angel of deep sea fishermen. Fishing protection boat "Meerkatze". Moewig, Munich 1956. (SOS series, volume 85)
• Erich Gröner , Dieter Jung, Martin Maass: The German warships 1815-1945, Volume 5: Auxiliary ships II: Hospital ships, accommodation ships, training ships, research vehicles , port service vehicles , Bernard & Graefe Verlag, Koblenz 1988, ISBN 3-7637-4804-0 .

Footnotes

1. ↑ Gröner, p. 124