Rechenberg (ship)
|
||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||
.svg){kind=small}
The Rechenberg was a combined passenger and cargo ship and was to be used on Lake Tanganyika in Africa .
history
The Rechenberg was the second of three ships that were specially designed for operation on Lake Tanganyika in the west of the German East Africa colony . The first ship, the Goetzen , had already been built in ten months in 1913 and had been delivered in parts to East Africa in 1914.
The Rechenberg was built in 1914 on behalf of the East African Railway Company at the Meyer shipyard in Papenburg . The name Rechenberg comes from Albrecht von Rechenberg , who was governor of the colony of German East Africa from 1906 to 1912. The previous ship of the Rechenberg , the Goetzen , was also named after a former governor of German East Africa.
The Rechenberg , like the Goetzen and the planned third ship, were steam ships and were intended to transport goods on Lake Tanganyika, which had been connected to the Tanganyika Railway (also known as the Mittellandbahn) since February 1914 . That is why a railway company owned the ships, which expected the operation of the ships from Kigoma , the railway's terminus at the lake, to generate additional profit from shipping and an increase in freight traffic on its railway line.
The ship had seven cabins for first-class passengers (single with sofa bed) and five second-class cabins (2-bed) as well as a first and second class dining and smoking salon. The machine system consisted of two round boilers for generating steam for the two triple expansion machines with an output of 250 PSi each, a carbon dioxide ice and cooling machine in an insulated cold room with a capacity of three kilograms of ice per hour, a lighting and a ventilation system. The ship was designed for a crew of 64 men (60 men and four officers).
The Rechenberg was initially only screwed together so that it could be dismantled again into its individual parts for transport. The Goetzen was packed in 5,000 wooden boxes with a total weight of 800 tons on freight wagons and transported by train to Hamburg . From there, the boxes were transported by ship to Dar es Salaam , the terminus of the Tanganyika Railway on the Indian Ocean. There the boxes were loaded onto the Mittellandbahn and transported to Kigoma, where the Goetzen was reassembled. The practical experience with the ship at sea showed some deficiencies, which could not have been incorporated into the construction of the Rechenberg , but could only have been improved at the shipyard in Kigoma.
The Rechenberg was still under construction at the Papenburg shipyard in August 1914 when the First World War broke out. The construction was shut down as it was not essential to the war effort. After the war, Germany had to cede its colonies to the victorious powers in the Versailles Treaty in 1919, and so the ship could no longer be used as intended. Apparently there was no other use for the Rechenberg either and so it was broken off while it was still lying on the slipway .
Incidentally, as with the Goetzen, a launch in Papenburg was not planned, because the Rechenberg was also to be dismantled while still lying on stacks for transport in individual parts to Africa .
The third ship of the series had the official designation "III", but had not yet been given a name. It was supposed to be built at the same shipyard under construction number 310. However, construction has not started. The experience with the Goetzen in action on Lake Tanganyika would probably have flowed into the construction of this ship . The rest of the process for the third ship in the series, shipping in boxes to Dar es Salaam, shipping via the Tanganyika Railway and assembly in Kigoma, would probably have been the same.
literature
- Erich Gröner : The German warships 1815-1945 Volume 7, Bernard & Graefe, Koblenz 1990, pages 220-221
Footnotes
- ^ Passenger and freight steamer for Lake Tanganyika from shipyard owner Franz Jos. Meyer in: Werft, Reederei, Hafen 1922, p. 99.
- ↑ Evaluation of the ship plan in Werft, Reederei, Hafen 1922, p. 99.
- ↑ The Rechenberg (hull number 310) were still unfinished on the slipway at the beginning of 1919, as is evident from a leaflet by Josef L. Meyer (printed in Hans Jürgen Witthöft: Meyer Werft , p. 66.)