SMS Cyclop (1916)
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The SMS Cyclop was a submarine lifting ship of the Imperial Navy . It was specially developed and built for the recovery of submarines .
construction
A short time after the Imperial Navy took over its first submarine, U 1, in 1906 , construction of a special ship for the maintenance and recovery of submarines began. This was launched as a volcano on September 28, 1907 , even before the second submarine was completed. With the increase in size of the boats and their increasing number, however, this one ship no longer met the requirements, which is why planning for a second ship was started. This was built by the Imperial Shipyard in Danzig and was launched in 1916 under the name Cyclop . The exact date of the launch is not known. Due to the high utilization of the Danzig shipyard, the unfinished ship was towed to Bremen - Vegesack and completed there by the Bremer Vulkan .
technology
The Cyclop was built as a catamaran and consisted of two parallel hulls. Both were designed as transverse and longitudinal frame steel structures and divided into twelve watertight compartments . The ship's design displacement was 4,010 t , the maximum displacement was 4,872 t. The cyclop was 94 m long in total, with the length of the construction waterline being 86 m. The draft at maximum displacement was 6.31 m forward and 5.1 m aft. Both hulls were 4.75 m wide and connected to one another by the elevator. The dock thus delimited had a width of 10.5 m, which was a significant increase compared to the 6.5 m wide dock of the Vulkan . The lifting force of 1,000 t was also twice as large as in the previous building.
Propulsion system
The Cyclop had two upright three-cylinder composite steam engines , one in each fuselage. Both acted on a screw with a diameter of 2.5 m. Four marine boilers with a total of eight furnaces and 580 m² heating surface were available for steam generation . Two boilers were located in one hull, each with a separate boiler room and its own chimney. The steam boiler generated a pressure of 15 atm . The ship carried a coal supply of 290 t for their lighting. The machine system generated an output of 1,500 PSi and enabled the Cyclop to travel at a maximum of 9 knots . Two rudders were available for steering the ship, which were also divided between the two hulls.
commitment
After the completion of the ship in 1917, test drives were first carried out with the shipyard crew. The first attempts at lifting were made in June 1918. It was not until July 1, 1918 that a military crew came on board the Cyclop to officially put the ship into service. At the same time, the submarine recovery command was formed, which was subordinate to the submarine inspection and was led by the commander of the Cyclop , Corvette Captain John Roß. The diving and diving rescue school was also on board the dock ship. The only noteworthy mission during membership of the Imperial Navy was the lifting of the submarine SM UB 89 , which was sunk on October 21, 1918 by the impact of the small cruiser Frankfurt, in front of the Holtenau lock . Cyclop picked up the boat four days later and hauled it to Kiel for repairs.
Whereabouts
After the end of the war, the Entente demanded the delivery of both dock ships. The Cyclop , which had not been officially decommissioned, therefore first ran to Brunsbüttel on March 17, 1919 . From there, the journey continued on April 4th in the direction of the delivery site in Harwich . The Cyclop was towed by the tugs Wendemuth and Loewer and the Vulkan by Retter and Schelde . The small cruiser Regensburg also accompanied the association from Heligoland . On the morning of April 6th, the volcano sank during an approaching storm. The Cyclop reached Harwich and was handed over to Great Britain on April 9th . The crew of the dock ship was brought back home on board the Regensburg . The Cyclop also returned to Germany in 1923, but only to be scrapped there.
Commanders
| July 1, 1918 to 1919 | Corvette Captain John Ross |
| March to April 1919 | Corvette Captain Hermann Riechers |
literature
- Gröner, Erich : The German warships 1815–1945 . tape 6 : Port operations vehicles (II: excavators, rescue and diving vehicles, icebreakers, tugs, transport vehicles), yachts and notifications, landing units (I) . Bernard & Graefe, Koblenz 1989, ISBN 3-7637-4805-9 , pp. 53-54 .
- Hildebrand, Hans H. / Albert Röhr / Hans-Otto Steinmetz: The German warships . Biographies - a mirror of naval history from 1815 to the present . tape 2 : Ship biographies from Baden to Eber . Mundus Verlag, Ratingen, S. 207 f .