SS ''Lichtenfels'' was an early example of a modern

heavy-lift ship A heavy-lift ship is a vessel designed to move very large loads that cannot be handled by normal ships. They are of two types: *''Semi-submersible'' ships that take on water ballast to allow the load—usually another vessel—to be floated o ...

. She was launched in 1929 in Germany for

DDG Hansa DDG Hansa, short for Deutsche Dampfschiffahrts-Gesellschaft Hansa (German Steamship Company Hansa; in modern orthography, Deutsche Dampfschifffahrts-Gesellschaft Hansa) was a major German shipping company specialising in heavy freight and schedul ...

. She was equipped with a boom crane capable of lifting fully assembled railway

locomotive A locomotive or engine is a rail transport vehicle that provides the Power (physics), motive power for a train. If a locomotive is capable of carrying a payload, it is usually rather referred to as a multiple unit, Motor coach (rail), motor ...

s, which were shipped to

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. In 1941 ''Lichtenfels'' was

scuttled Scuttling is the deliberate sinking of a ship. Scuttling may be performed to dispose of an abandoned, old, or captured vessel; to prevent the vessel from becoming a navigation hazard; as an act of self-destruction to prevent the ship from being ...

in the

Red Sea The Red Sea ( ar, البحر الأحمر - بحر القلزم, translit=Modern: al-Baḥr al-ʾAḥmar, Medieval: Baḥr al-Qulzum; or ; Coptic: ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϩⲁϩ ''Phiom Enhah'' or ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϣⲁⲣⲓ ''Phiom ǹšari''; T ...

as a

blockship A blockship is a ship deliberately sunk to prevent a river, channel, or canal from being used. It may either be sunk by a navy defending the waterway to prevent the ingress of attacking enemy forces, as in the case of at Portland Harbour in 1914; ...

. In 1950 her wreck was raised and scrapped.

Building

After the First World War a Norwegian company, Skibs A/S Christen Smiths Rederi, developed heavy-lift ships to carry locomotives from

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

. The company began by having existing ships adapted, but in 1924

Armstrong Whitworth Sir W G Armstrong Whitworth & Co Ltd was a major British manufacturing company of the early years of the 20th century. With headquarters in Elswick, Newcastle upon Tyne, Armstrong Whitworth built armaments, ships, locomotives, automobiles and a ...

completed the first purpose-built heavy-lift ship for Christen Smith. By the end of 1926 Christen Smith had a fleet of several heavy-lift ships. Lichtenfels Schwergutbaum

With ''Lichtenfels'' DDG Hansa began to compete in the heavy-lift market to take fully-assembled locomotives to India.Fisch, Raymond, "The Roots of Heavy Lift Shipping", ''Anchored by Excellence'' (BBC Chartering Group) 1 (2011) pp. 10–13
pdf
p. 10 (based on Holger Patzer

ddg-hansa.de, December 2005 )

Deschimag Deutsche Schiff- und Maschinenbau Aktiengesellschaft (abbreviated Deschimag) was a cooperation of eight German shipyards in the period 1926 to 1945. The leading company was the shipyard AG Weser in Bremen. History The Deschimag was founded in 19 ...

built ''Lichtenfels'' at its "Weser" yard in Bremen. ''Lichtenfels'' was built with a Maierform bow with a convex profile, which was meant to improve both her speed and her handling. She had a three-cylinder

triple-expansion engine A compound steam engine unit is a type of steam engine where steam is expanded in two or more stages. A typical arrangement for a compound engine is that the steam is first expanded in a high-pressure ''(HP)'' cylinder, then having given up h ...

plus a Bauer-Wach low-pressure exhaust

steam turbine A steam turbine is a machine that extracts thermal energy from pressurized steam and uses it to do mechanical work on a rotating output shaft. Its modern manifestation was invented by Charles Parsons in 1884. Fabrication of a modern steam turbin ...

. Exhaust steam from the low-pressure cylinder of the triple-expansion engine powered the turbine. The turbine drove the same shaft as the piston engine by double-reduction gearing and a Föttinger

fluid coupling A fluid coupling or hydraulic coupling is a hydrodynamic or 'hydrokinetic' device used to transmit rotating mechanical power.

. The combined power of her piston engine and turbine was 785

NHP Horsepower (hp) is a unit of measurement of power, or the rate at which work is done, usually in reference to the output of engines or motors. There are many different standards and types of horsepower. Two common definitions used today are the ...

. As demand for locomotives from India continued, DDG Hansa ordered three sister ships from Deschimag: ''Freienfels'' launched in 1929, ''Geierfels'' launched in 1930 and launched in 1931.

Identification

''Lichtenfels''

code letters Code letters or ship's call sign (or callsign) Mtide Taurus - IMO 7626853"> SHIPSPOTTING.COM >> Mtide Taurus - IMO 7626853/ref> were a method of identifying ships before the introduction of modern navigation aids and today also. Later, with the i ...

were QMKB until 1933. In 1934 they were superseded by the

call sign In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally assigne ...

DOFY.

Scuttling

On 25 October 1939, while off the

Port Sudan Port Sudan ( ar, بور سودان, Būr Sūdān) is a port city in eastern Sudan, and the capital of the state of Red Sea. , it has 489,725 residents. Located on the Red Sea, Port Sudan is recognized as Sudan's main seaport and the source of 90% ...

''Lichtenfels'' was ordered to

Massawa Massawa ( ; ti, ምጽዋዕ, məṣṣəwaʿ; gez, ምጽዋ; ar, مصوع; it, Massaua; pt, Maçuá) is a port city in the Northern Red Sea region of Eritrea, located on the Red Sea at the northern end of the Gulf of Zula beside the Dahlak ...

Italian Eritrea Italian Eritrea ( it, Colonia Eritrea, "Colony of Eritrea") was a colony of the Kingdom of Italy in the territory of present-day Eritrea. The first Italian establishment in the area was the purchase of Assab by the Rubattino Shipping Company in ...

. During the East African campaign she stayed here for 18 months with nine other German merchant ships: ''Bertram Rickmers'', ''Coburg'', ''Crefeld'', ''Frauenfels'', ''Gera'', ''Liebenfels'', ''Oder'', ''Oliva'' and ''Wartenfels''. On 4 April 1941 ''Lichtenfels'' and other German and Italian merchant ships were scuttled in an attempt to blockade the harbour. Her wreck was raised and scrapped in 1950.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lichtenfels 1929 ships Heavy lift ships Maritime incidents in April 1941 Scuttled vessels of Germany Ships built in Bremen (state) Steamships of Germany World War II merchant ships of Germany