East Prussia type
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The Ostpreussen type was a series of two identical tankers. The ships were built in 1921 by the Friedrich Krupp Germania shipyard from the hulls of submarines .
history
During the First World War, the Germania shipyard was heavily involved in the construction of submarines. After the end of the war, most of the remaining submarine parts were scrapped on the basis of the Versailles Treaty . However, the shipyard managed to save the four hulls of the not yet completed U-cruisers U183, U184, U187 and U188 from Project 46 A from destruction.
On behalf of Hugo Stinnes AG for shipping and overseas trade in Hamburg, the shipyard combined two submarine hulls as tanks to form a hull, thus creating the two tankers East Prussia and Upper Silesia . The latter was because the two U-boat hulls in the wrong direction on the slipway had been drawn to the Steven advance by the stack . The two tankers were delivered to the client in August and September. From October 28 to November 6, 1922, Upper Silesia was held in Houston by US authorities because the crew had alcohol on board.
In 1923 the two tankers were transferred to Hugo Stinnes-Riebeck Montan- und Oelwerke AG without being renamed . After the separation of Stinnes and the Riebeck'schen Montanwerke, the two tankers were again transferred to the A. Riebeck'schen Montanwerke in 1926 without being renamed. The Upper Silesia collided on 30 January 1927 before Brunsbüttel with the British steamer City of Salisbury and was then set to ground.
In 1928 both ships were sold to shipping companies in Genoa . The East Prussia was acquired by the Nereide Società di Navigazione and renamed Caucaso , the Upper Silesia went to the Nautilus Società di Navigazione, which it renamed Nautilus . In 1942 the Nautilus was requisitioned by the Navy and renamed the Languste .
Both units fell victim to attacks in World War II . The lobster was sunk on October 13, 1942 on a journey from La Maddalena to Civitavecchia about four nautical miles from Capo Figari by torpedoes of the British submarine HMS Utmost . The Caucaso was sunk by an Allied air raid in Tunis on December 14, 1942 , lifted again in 1947 and then scrapped.
technology
The ships were designed as pure oil tankers in a single hull construction. The aft deckhouse was arranged above the engine room, the forward deck structure with the wheelhouse was in the forward third of the ship. The unusual exterior of the ships was determined by the former submarine hulls, which protruded far beyond the side plating, but was otherwise based on the designs common at the time. In the unloaded state, the submarine hulls were completely under water and the ships looked as conventionally constructed.
The shipyard used two engines from the unfinished submarines U-129 and U-130 as drive motors. They were MAN six-cylinder four-stroke diesel engines with an output of 1400 hp that delivered their power to two fixed propellers and enabled a speed of around 10 knots . The ships were already equipped with electrical lighting and radio systems.
The ships
| East Prussia type | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Building name | Build number | Commissioning | Renaming and whereabouts | |||||
| East Prussia | 412 | August 1921 | 1928 Caucaso , sunk on December 14, 1942, lifted and scrapped in 1947 | |||||
| Upper Silesia | 413 | September 1921 | 1928 Nautilus , sunk on October 13, 1942 | |||||
literature
- Kurt von Sanden: Highlights on the technical development in shipbuilding and mechanical engineering at Fried. Krupp Germaniawerft A.-G., Kiel-Gaarden . Germania shipyard news office, Kiel 1937.
Web links
- Entry on East Prussia at histarmar.com (English)