River type
The standard river-type ships , also called River-Class or A-Class , were built in Australian shipyards during World War II .
details
Against the background of the initially successful German submarine war of World War II, there was a shortage of cargo space on the Allied side. Soon after the outbreak of the war, the shipbuilding industry in the United Kingdom and soon afterwards also that of other warring states switched to the construction of various types of standard ships.
Australia also made standard ships. To this end, the Australian Shipbuilding Board was founded in 1941, under the supervision of which a new building program was launched. When building the A-Class, as the series was originally named, the Australian authorities made use of a tried and tested design. The Scottish Monarch , built in 1938 at the Caledon Shipbuilding & Engineering Company in Dundee , a typical representative of the British tramp ships customary at the time, provided the basis for the design. The approximately 137 meter long shelter decker with a load capacity of around 9000 tons had a raised forecastle , five cargo holds , of which the cargo hold 3 divided the superstructures arranged amidships in the middle. The bridge superstructure was in front of the hatch, the engine room behind it. The ships had a gross measurement of around 5100 GRT (some units a little less) and were driven by a three-cylinder steam engine with an additional exhaust turbine, which acted on a single fixed propeller and allowed a speed of around twelve knots.
Between 1943 and 1946, 13 units of the river-type tramp ship were built . The management of the units, which were completed before the end of the war, was initially carried out by various local shipping companies and was transferred to the Australian Shipping Board for all ships in October 1947 . The better-known term river type or river class is derived from the naming of the individual ships after Australian rivers. Although designed as a shelter decker, the bulkheads of the ships were led up beyond the survey deck to the height of a full decker , in order to ensure greater safety, especially during war operations.
The shipyards were built by Broken Hill Pty. Company in Whyalla, Evans Deakin & Company in Brisbane, Commonwealth Naval Dockyard in Williamstown and the Cockatoo Docks & Engineering Company in Sydney.
The ships
| The standard river-type ships | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Building name | Shipyard construction number |
IMO number | delivery | Client (shipping company) |
Renaming and whereabouts |
| River Clarence | Cockatoo | no | May 1943 | Australian Shipbuilding Board (Adelaide Steamship Co.) |
1960 Golden Alpha , scrapped in Japan in 1968 |
| River Burdekin | Evans Deakin | 5090945 | December 1943 | Australian Shipbuilding Board (Adelaide Steamship Company) |
1959 Djajadwitja , scrapped in Kaoshiung in 1971 |
| River Glenelg | Broken Hill | no | March 16, 1944 | Australian Shipbuilding Board (Howard Smith) |
1960 Bai Feng , sold to the Kawasaki Dockyard Company for demolition in January 1963 and demolished in Tsuneishi |
| River Derwent | Broken Hill | no | September 1944 | Australian Shipbuilding Board (Howard Smith) |
1959 Echunga , 1961 North Point , stranded off Hong Kong by the Typhoon Wanda on East Brothers Island in September 1962 , dismantled and declared a total loss, scrapped in Hong Kong in 1963 |
| River Fitzroy | Evans Deakin | no | November 1944 | Australian Shipbuilding Board (MacDonald Hamilton & Co.) |
sold in March 1963 for demolition to Amakasu Sangyo Kisen KK in Osaka |
| River Loddon | Commonwealth | no | December 20, 1944 | Australian Shipbuilding Board (McIlwraith McEacharn) |
sold to Amakasu Sangyo Kisen KK in Osaka for scrapping in March 1963 |
| River Murchison | Broken Hill | no | February 8, 1945 | Australian Shipbuilding Board (Huddart Parker) |
sold to Amakasu Sangyo Kisen KK for demolition in February 1963, demolition from May 1963 in Yokosuka |
| River Murrumbidgee | Broken Hill | no | July 10, 1945 | Australian Shipbuilding Board (MacDonald Hamilton & Co.) |
Sold to Amakasu Sangyo Kisen KK for scrapping in January 1963, demolition from March 1963 in Osaka |
| River Mitta | Commonwealth | no | November 5, 1945 | Australian Shipbuilding Board (Melbourne Steamship Co.) |
Wrecked in Osaka in 1959 |
| River Murray | Broken Hill | no | November 15, 1945 | Australian Shipbuilding Board (Huddart Parker) |
canceled from December 1959 in Osaka |
| River Hunter | Cockatoo | no | May 1946 | Australian Shipbuilding Board (Burns Philip & Co.) |
1959 Sze Feng , scrapped in Hong Kong in 1960 |
| River Norman | Evans Deakin | no | June 1946 | Australian Shipbuilding Board (James Patrick & Co.) |
1959 Tung Feng , stranded off Hong Kong by Typhoon Wanda on Green Island in September 1962, dismantled and declared a total loss in October 1962, scrapped in Hong Kong in 1962 |
| River Burnett | Evans Deakin | 5297127 | November 1946 | Australian Shipbuilding Board | 1965 Ionic Coast , 1967 Ilissos , held in Saigon in April 1968, towed from Saigon in September 1973 for demolition to Kaohsiung |
| Data: Lloyd's Register | |||||
literature
- English war-standard cargo ships in: Die Seekiste 8/1951, p. 266/67
Web links
- THE AUSTRALIAN "RIVER CLASS" MERCHANT SHIP'S at geocities (English)
- Article about the Australian Shipping Board at Flotilla Australia (English)