Type PF (D)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The standard ships of the type PF (D) belong to the group of Empire ships . They were built in British shipyards during and for some time after 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 British side. The British government switched the construction of ships in the UK shipbuilding industry to the construction of standard ships soon after the start of the war . The first general cargo ships built in series were the types "X" and "Y" . After the type "Y" had served as the basis for the development of the Ocean type in the course of the British Merchant Shipbuilding Mission in 1940 , plans for the first successor type PF (A) emerged in the same year, which, unlike at the time, developed from prepared sections should (the PF stands for pre fabricated ). In the wake of the defeat of France, however, some shipyards that should have built this type were otherwise claimed. In addition, the transport of the planned heavy sections turned out to be a problem for the smaller shipyards, which led to a further revision of the plans and the draft of the type PF (B) . Building on this, the type PF (C) and finally the type PF (D) were developed in 1942 .

Like the previous types, the design of the TY PF (D) was based on the then common British trampoline ships with a carrying capacity of around 10,000 tons. In contrast to the type PF (B), the type D also had the larger hatches and the more extensive cargo gear , which was supposed to facilitate the handling of larger packages , as well as the superstructures arranged amidships , which were no longer divided in the middle by a hatch to hold 3. In the PF (D), too, the hull no longer had a crack , just a kink in the foredeck and stern area and ended aft with a triangular transom . The differences to the direct predecessor PF (C) lay in the differently constructed aft section, the poop of which was full deck height instead of half the deck height of the PF (C). The ships were equipped with a three-cylinder steam engine as a propulsion system.

literature

  • Mitchell, WH; Sawyer, LA: Empire Ships of World War II . Sea Breezes, Liverpool 1965.
  • English war-standard cargo ships in: Die Seekiste 8/1951, p. 266/67