German naval ship Deutschland (A59)

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A59 Deutschland was a naval ship of the Bundesmarine, the West German navy. It was constructed and used as a trainings ship (school ship) in peace times and planned for multi role missions in times of war: troop ship, hospital ship, minelayer and more. For this reason the ship was only lightly armed for its size (no guided missiles), the machinery was rather impractical and diverse, and large teaching rooms were contained. Also civilians served alongside military personnel . For its time it was the largest naval vessel of Germany. Permission to built the ship was granted despite being larger than allowed by tonnage restrictions imposed by the WEU on West Germany then. (The later built Berlin class replenishment ships of the reunited and full sovereign Germany are much larger.)

Deutschland was designed and built by Stülcken, the same shipbuilding company that designed the Hamburg class destroyer and there are many similarities in both designs. Like most German postwar naval ships it was completely NBC protected.

This one-ship class, Type 440 of the German designation system, costed 95 million DM.

Contents 1 Career and fate 2 Specification 3 Trivia 4 References

[edit] Career and fate

• Ordered autumn 1958
• Laid down September 11, 1959
• Launched November 5, 1960
• Delivered April 10, 1963
• Commissioned May 25, 1966 at naval school Mürwick
• Decommissioned June 28, 1990
• Disarmament started March 1994
• Sold for scrap October 1993 (via VEBEG)
• Towed to Alang, India on January 6, 1994, broken up there

[edit] Specification

• Length: 138m
• Beam:16 m
• Draft: 6 m
• Dislacement: 4850metric tonne
• Propulsion:
  • 2 Mercedes-Benz and 2 Maybach diesel engines, both 16 cyl., 4-stroke, 1470kW
  • driving 2 propeller shafts in a CODAD-arrangement (one Maybach and one Mercedes-Benz engine per shaft). The Mercedes-Benz engines were later replaced with equally powerful Maybach engines.
  • 2 WAHODAG boilers (45 atm working pressure)
  • feeding 1 set of geared WAHODAG steam turbines driving center propeller shaft (5890 kW)
  • 3 four-bladed Escher-Wyss controllable pitch propeller, 2.8 m diameter
  • Max speed: 21kts
• Power generation
  • 2 diesel generators, 700 kW
  • 2 gas-turbine driven generators, 645 kW (later replaced by two more 700 kW diesel-generators)
  • 4 diesel generators, 405 kW
• 2 rudders
• Sensors
  • Several radars and sonar
• Armament
  • 4 DCN 100 mm/L55
  • 2 twin 40 mm/L70 guns, Breda Mod 58 II
  • 2 Bofors MEL DS Typ 58
  • 2 fixed 533 mm torpedo tubes in the aft of the ship launching backwards, removed in the 70s
  • 4 trainable 533 mm torpedo tubes
  • 2x4 anti-submarine 375 mm mortars/rocket launchers
  • 2 depth charge rails
  • mine laying capability
• Other equippement:
  • three motor pinnaces
  • three motor cutters
  • 30 life rafts
  • 2 cranes
  • 3 anchors (one aft, two fore)+
  • Complement: 30 officers, 30 petty officers, 90 NCOs, 180 enlisted, 120 cadets, 6 civilians

[edit] Trivia

• The ship was nicknamed Lego-Dampfer (Lego-Steamer)
• And some said it was designed by a Rendsburg girl's school class.
• Originally the Bundesmarine wanted the ship named Berlin but because of political reasons and pressure from the Allies the name was dropped and Deutschland (German for Germany) chosen.
• During its 27 years career Deutschland
  • made 35 journeys abroad
  • visited 120 foreign ports
  • travelled 700,000 nautical miles
  • crossed 23 times the equator, 2 times the north polar circle
  • passed Suez Canal and Panama Canal each 9 times
  • rounded Cape Horn and Cape of Good Hope both once
  • visited all continents with the exception of Antarctica

[edit] References

• Verein Schulschiff "Deutschland" 1989 e.V.
• http://www.richardstokowski.de/schiff1.html