Titan (ship, 1941)
Titan is the current name of a floating crane of the Autoridad del Canal de Panamá (ACP, Panamanian Canal Authority), which is best known by the nickname Herman the German . Originally it was used by the German Navy during World War II as one of four identical cranes. When it was commissioned, the crane was one of the most powerful of its kind. The US Navy used the crane after the end of the war under the designation 350T GERCRANE (YD 171) until 1994.
Technical specifications
Titan has a load capacity of 350 t at its lifting eyes. The tip of the main arm protrudes 114 m above the water surface and this main arm alone weighs 400 t. The total weight of the crane, including the fixed pontoon, is 5000 t. The pontoon measures 62 × 33 × 5 meters with a draft of just over three meters. The crane has a Voith-Schneider drive with three propellers, which enables a speed of eight knots and is designed for operation near the port.
The electricity required by the electro-hydraulic crane is provided by three 900 HP diesel generators. Almost 13 kilometers of cables have been laid in the crane. The crane gets its stability from a 400 t counterweight under the machine system and a 200 t counterweight on the main girder. The entire supporting section of the crane rests on a trailer with a diameter of 18.5 m.
There are quarters for up to 28 people on the floating crane and the crane control is located at a height of 27 meters.
history
In the course of its operating life, the floating crane was dismantled and reassembled at three different locations.
World War II and reparations
The German Navy needed stronger floating cranes in the course of the armament. Therefore, in 1938, a total of four new cranes with higher performance were ordered.
They were built by DEMAG in 1941 and then transferred to the largest naval ports in Germany (including Germania shipyard in Kiel). The name at that time was DEMAG I / 38 - IV38. At least the floating crane I / 38 was also called "The Long Heinrich". This can also be seen on an old postcard from Flensburg (clearly identifiable by means of the steering position and the crane boom and not to be confused with the crane " Der Lange Heinrich " from 1915). The Titan floating crane initially did its job in Kiel . After the end of the Second World War, this crane was dismantled and taken away by the victorious powers as a reparation payment.
YD 171 was dismantled by American troops in Bremerhaven in 1945 and transported across the Atlantic and through the Panama Canal by towing. This was a very risky maneuver in that another crane capsized while trying to tow him across the English Channel . The third crane was sold to the Soviet Union in 1941 , completed after the war and is still in use (as of 2018). The fourth crane was hit by bombs in the port of Hamburg during the war and blown up by the British after the war.
Use in the USA
After traveling across the Atlantic, YD 171 passed the Panama Canal for the first time . At the narrowest point there was only about 7.5 cm of space between the crane pontoon and the canal walls. He then came to his location in the Long Beach Naval Shipyard . There the defective parts of the crane were replaced and it was erected using the ship's crane of the USS Kearsarge . The pontoon was brought into a dry dock and lowered so far that the crane could be completely reassembled at its full height.
When the Hughes H4 Spruce Goose flying boat was to come to the Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum in 1992 , the Titan was used to hoist it ashore for two days and then to move it onto a floating pontoon.
Panama Canal
In the early 1990s, the Long Beach naval yard was closed; the technically still functional floating crane YD 171 was offered for sale. The Defense Reutilization and Marketing Service (DRMS) found the Panama Canal Company as a buyer, because the Panama Canal needed a strong floating crane for lock gate maintenance and the canal expansion project . The sale took place on September 19, 1994 and the itinerary was worked out. Due to a lack of shipyard capacity in Panama, it was not possible to dismantle the crane before transport and to reassemble it on site. That is why he was brought to Panama on the Sea Swan transport ship.
When upright, the crane could not pass under the Puente de las Américas . The possibility of raising the middle section of the bridge and then putting it back on was discarded because of the expected cost of two million US dollars. This left only the option of partial dismantling, in which the crane could be rebuilt with your own resources. It was sufficient to separate the connection of the main girder to the jib and thereby incline it at an angle of 24 ° so that the crane could pass under the bridge. Using an FEM analysis, it was checked whether the dynamic loads occurring during transport would cause damage to the structure and it was therefore reinforced for safety reasons. The company SeaTeam Heavy Lift of Oslo received the transport order and transported the crane on the float-on / float-off ship , the Sea Swan . The crane was loaded on May 19, 1996 and the Sea Swan's voyage began on May 22, 1996. At the end of the same month the crane was unloaded and handed over to the new owners.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d Popular Mechanics: It takes one crane to assemble a bigger one , September 1948 issue , accessed January 5, 2011
- ↑ EX / 35OT GERCRANE (YD 171) ( Memento of the original from January 26, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. in the Naval Vessel Register, accessed January 5, 2011
- ↑ Building a bridge with seven mile boots - The Puente Centenario over the Panama Canal ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. from civil engineering in Germany yearbook 2005/2006 .
- ↑ Freely usable: Gallery - Photo collection - Category: Old photos: Kiel-Ostufer - Image: Gaarden - Krupp-Germaniawerft 1944. In: www.ostufer.net. Retrieved May 12, 2016 .
- ↑ Salvaging the sunken ships. In: www.navalhistory.dk. Retrieved May 12, 2016 .
- ^ AK Flensburg, the long Heinrich, crane. In: Bartko-Reher old postcards. Retrieved May 12, 2016 .
- ↑ Maritime Reporter: Floating Crane Titan delivered to Panama , edition from September 1996 ( Memento of the original from July 4, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed January 5, 2011
- ^ Illustration of the loading on airliners.net
- ↑ ACP selling the Hercules ( Memento of the original from May 16, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , May 10, 2009 article in The Panama News; Retrieved January 8, 2011
- ↑ Authority Beefs Up Fleet To Expand Panama Canal on enr.construction.com of April 26, 2007; Retrieved January 8, 2011
- ↑ a b Titan Crane Analysis ( Memento of the original from May 17, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. at www.argonautics.com, accessed January 3, 2011
- ↑ Panama Canal Spillway December 4, 1998 on www.argonautics.com ( Memento of the original from July 4, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed January 5, 2011
annotation
- ↑ The German name has not been passed down