Forward (ship, 1903)
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The steamer Grete Cords , built in Rostock in 1903, was the first merchant ship in the GDR 47 years later as Vorwärts .
history
The ship was built in 1903 by the Rostocker Actien-Gesellschaft für Schiff- und Maschinenbau , the later Neptun shipyard . The later Vorwärts , built under construction number 214, was delivered in June 1903. The shipping company Cords & Schmidt and later the steamship shipping company August Cords used the ship in the European tramping trip . At the beginning of the First World War , the Grete Cords was interned in Avilés and did not return to Rostock until 1921. In 1926 it was sold to the Erich Ahrens shipping company and renamed Johann Ahrens . At the end of the Second World War , the Johann Ahrens was damaged in Rostock .
It was towed to the Volkswerft Stralsund shipyard in 1950 on behalf of the German Shipping and Handling Operations Center (DSU) for repairs from Wismar . After the repairs and renovations of the living quarters had been completed, she was put into service on October 13th as the first ship of the DSU and began her maiden voyage to Ventspils in Latvia on November 4th 1950 under the command of Captain Willy Beykirch . In 1952 she becomes the first seagoing vessel of the newly founded DSR . In April 1954, after 104 cargo journeys with around 100,000 t of goods, it was decommissioned due to a boiler damage.
It was rebuilt again and became the property of the youth organization "Ernst Thälmann" . From May 15, 1955, she was at her permanent berth on Mühlendamm in Rostock. As a stationary ship, she served there for the next 33 years of the “Young Sailors” working group. The ship made its last voyage to the Baltic Sea in November 1969. It did not run out as a cargo ship, but only to record a DEFA children's film . For this purpose, it was renamed a "French" Orion , was given a new underwater painting in the Warnow shipyard and was briefly at the passenger quay in Warnemünde.
Although the ship was entered in the district monument list of the city of Rostock in 1978 and 1984 and this was confirmed on April 18, 1986, the preservation could not be enforced. The decision to scrap it was announced at the beginning of 1988 and excitedly discussed in the press. As it could not be guaranteed as a museum ship for financial reasons , parts of the ship were salvaged as souvenirs. The rudder bracket , the compass and the machine telegraph were brought into the traditional cabinet of the DSR . There was also a tradition meeting on October 25th. On March 29, 1989, the last voyage from the Rostock city port was towed down the Warnow to the quay of the VEB Metal Processing Rostock in Marienehe . There the ship was scrapped. The last physical witnesses of the old cargo steamer are still being kept by the German shipping company, along with the ship's logs, photos and documents.
technology
The ship was powered by a three-cylinder triple expansion piston steam engine with 338 kW output at a speed of 90 revolutions per minute, also manufactured by the Rostocker Actien-Gesellschaft für Schiff- und Maschinenbau. The machine achieved maximum output with 106 revolutions from a standstill with 503 hp. Two conventionally hand-fed coal-fired two-flame tube boilers with 12 atmospheres were available for steam generation .
The hull was riveted , had 5 watertight compartments and 4 transverse bulkheads.
The two holds had a volume of 1530 m³ and were closed sea-tight with conventional shear sticks , covers and tarpaulins . The loading gear consisted of three loading arms for 3 tons each.
The entire crew lived (after 1945) in the midship deck house, including six one-man and three two-man chambers.
literature
- Pfeiffer, Ingo: Commissioning of the GDR's first merchant ship on October 13, 1950: FORWARD . In: Köhler's fleet calendar . Koehlers Verlagsgesellschaft, Herford 1994, p. 68-71 .
- Neumann, Manfred; Strobel, Dietrich: From the cutter to the container ship . Ships from GDR shipyards in text and images. 1st edition. VEB Verlag Technik, Berlin 1981.
- Hückstädt, Harald; Larsen, Erik; Melting head, Reinhart; Wentzel, Hans-Günther: From Rostock to See . The history of Rostock steam navigation from 1850 to 1945. Ed .: Lars U. Scholl. 1st edition. Oceanum Verlag, Wiefelstede 2011, ISBN 978-3-86927-074-6 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Joachim Stübner: "Scrapped - but not forgotten. An addendum to the history of the steamship Vorwärts ", in: Panorama maritim 26 (1991), p. 6, 7
- ↑ Joachim Stübner: "Scrapped - but not forgotten. An addendum to the history of the steamship Vorwärts ", in: Panorama maritim 26 (1991), p. 8
Web links
- Miramar Ship Index , IDNo: 5602051, (English)