Pioneer class

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German EmpireThe German Imperium

Construction data
Ship type Reefer ship
Ship class freighter
Shipyard Joh. C. Tecklenborg , Geestemünde
Build number 258/259
Launch 9.5.1914 / 3.12.1914
Shipping company F. Laeisz
Surname Pungo / pioneer
Commissioning 10/22 1914 / March 30, 2015
Whereabouts Pungo : Sunk in Vadheim am Sognefjord / Norway as Oldenburg by an air raid on April 7, 1945 // Pioneer : sunk by a Russian submarine in the Baltic Sea on December 7, 1944
Technical specifications
Volume 3,600 GRT
displacement
length over all: 123.5 m Lpp: 117.85
width 14.9 m
Draft 6.88 m
Propulsion system
Machine performance 3,200 PSi
speed 14 kn
Driving range 8,700 nautical miles at 12 knots
crew 40 men

In 1914 the shipping company F. Laeisz ordered and delivered the first two banana refrigerated ships Pionier and Pungo with the Pionier class for the subsidiary African Frucht-Compagnie founded in 1912 . However, because of the outbreak of the First World War, they were never used as refrigerated ships for the F. Laeisz shipping company.

background

Due to the lull in shipping in 1907/08 and the competition with steamers , the shipping company became involved in refrigerated shipping. The background was a banana plantation and trading company in Cameroon that was established in 1908 on the advice of a shipowner friend, Ernst Russ . After initial successful attempts with 350 banana saplings from Central America and the Canary Islands , the shipping company F. Laeisz founded the African Fruit Compagnie in 1911. Since the German banana market had previously been in English and American hands, the intention was to combine the German colonies in Africa with German suppliers for the rapidly growing banana market (around 11,000 perennials in 1900, around 1,000,000 perennials in 1914). to generate. In 1912 a chartered steamer with around 1300 tons of building material drove to Tiko to build a sawmill, houses, a field railway and a landing stage.

In 1912 the shipping company F. Laeisz awarded a building contract for two reefer ships (the shipping company's first steamers) to the Tecklenborg shipyard in order to ship fresh, albeit green, bananas in the future, because previously the harvested bananas were dried and called "Fig bananas" shipped to Germany.

history

When the ships Pionier and Pungo were delivered, the First World War had broken out, so these refrigerated ships did not transport bananas for the Laeisz subsidiary, African Fruit Compagnie.

The Pionier was delivered on March 15, 1915, then lay for the Naval Navigation School in Eckernförde and served as a barge for the sea captain Eschenburg and his staff. On April 2, 1919, she was delivered to Great Britain and sailed as a refrigerated ship under the name Miami for the shipping company Elders & Fyffes . In 1934 she was bought by Union Handels- und Schiffahrtsgesellschaft in Bremen and used as a refrigerated ship under the name of Nordenham . During the Second World War she served as a transport ship for the wounded and was sunk in the Baltic Sea by a Russian submarine on December 7, 1944.

The Pungo was used from November 2, 1915 by the Navy as an auxiliary cruiser Möve under the command of Corvette Captain Burggraf and Count Nikolaus zu Dohna-Schlodien. Subsequently, the Möve was used as barrier breaker 10 in the Baltic Sea until the end of the war. In 1919 she was delivered to Great Britain as spoils of war and sailed as a refrigerated ship under the name Greenbrier for the shipping company Elders & Fyffes . In 1933 she was bought by Midgard in Bremen and taken over under the name Oldenburg and in 1936 by Union Handels- und Schiffahrtsgesellschaft and used as a refrigerated ship. On April 7, 1945 she was sunk in the Norwegian Vadheim in the Sognefjord by an Allied air raid. The wreck is said to have been demolished in 1953 - but is actually still at the site of the sinking.

Model of the Pungo

Ship description

The ships had a total length of 123.5 m, a width on frames of 14.94 m, draft of 6.88 m and side height of 9.9 m. They were measured at 3,600 GRT (1,897 NRT ) and had a load capacity of around 4,800 tdw. The cargo space for fruit was 186,940 cbft. The propeller-driven steam engines were built by Tecklenborg, had an indicated output of 3,200 PSi and gave the ships a speed of 14 knots. The steam was generated in 4 cylinder boilers. The ship's dead weight was 3,752 t and the ships were able to bunker 1,800 t of fuel. The home port was Hamburg and the crew consisted of 40 men.

The ships were with CO 2 - chillers equipped from G. Nieneyer whose evaporator was used for brine cooling. The refrigeration machines, condensers and evaporators were placed centrally in the machine room . The actual loading space cooling in the 7 loading spaces then took place via the air coolers in the loading spaces, which were acted upon by the brine. The cold air is well distributed with electrically driven fans. Cork was used as an insulating material.

The ships

The pioneer class reefer ships
Surname Shipyard /
construction number
Launching /
delivery
Gross register tons /
cold store in cubic feet
Renaming and whereabouts
Pungo Joh. C. Tecklenborg / 258 May 9, 1914 /
October 22, 1914
3,600 / 100,000 On November 2, 1915, she was used as the auxiliary cruiser Möve and then as the Sperrbrecher 10 . Delivered to Great Britain in 1919 and operated as a Greenbrier for the shipping company Elders & Fyffes. Bought in 1933 by Midgard in Bremen, new name Oldenburg , taken over by Union Handels- und Schiffahrtsgesellschaft in 1936. Sunk by air raid on April 7, 1945 near Vadheim in the Sognefjord and demolished in 1953.
pioneer Joh. C. Tecklenborg / 259 December 3rd, 1914 /
March 30th, 1915
3,600 / 100,000 From March 15, 1915 residential ship for the Navy, delivered to Great Britain in 1919 and sailed as Miami for the shipping company Elders & Fyffes. Bought in 1933 by Union Handels- und Schiffahrtsgesellschaft in Bremen, renamed Nordenham . Used as a transport ship for wounded during World War II and sunk in the Baltic Sea by a Russian submarine on December 7, 1944.

literature

  • HG Prager: F. Laeisz, from freighter to bulk carrier ; Koehlers Verlagsgesellschaft, ISBN 3 7822 0096 9 .
  • K.-H. High-rise: Deutsche Kühlschiffahrt (1902–1995) ; Verlag HM Hauschild, ISBN 3 931 785 11 4 .

Individual evidence

  1. HG Prager: F. Laeisz, from freight sailors to bulk carriers, p. 69.
  2. HG Prager: F. Laeisz, from freight sailors to bulk carriers, p. 70.
  3. K.-H. High-rise: Deutsche Kühlschiffahrt (1902–1995), p. 76.
  4. HG Prager: F. Laeisz, from freight sailors to bulk carriers, p. 138.
  5. HG Prager: F. Laeisz, from freight sailors to bulk carriers, p. 130.

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