CHAPTER 10 -- THE COALING DOCKS
Chapter 10: THE COALING DOCKS
The “Imperial Dockyards Wilhelmshaven” have not always been “Imperial”.
From the beginning, the Jade Bight had been valued as the best deep water anchorage on the North Sea coast. The wide expanse of water could shelter any number of ships from the unpredictable storms of the North Sea, and remained ice-free in winter. These simple attributes guaranteed early Saxon peoples good fishing, and easy access to navigable rivers leading inland brought good trade. Over the centuries, the strategically located anchorage would also be eagerly sought as a naval base.
Siebethsburg Castle was the first known stronghold on the shores of the Jade – sometime prior to 1383. But it turned to the “dark side of The Force” and was infamous as a pirate lair. The shrewd and efficient traders of the Hanseatic League joined forces in 1433 and destroyed both the pirates and their castle.
Some four centuries later, the Kingdom Of Prussia had grown into a heavyweight player dominating much of the North German Plain. During the First Schleswig War of 1848 – 1851, Freidrich Wilhelm IV, King of Prussia, learned to his great regret that a strong army was no protection at sea. Lacking any sort of navy, Prussia’s seaborne trade was swept from the seas by the Danes. (First rule of seapower – protect your commerce.) Freidrich Wilhelm immediately began buying and building a navy and quickly saw the strategic advantage of a base in the Jade Bight.
By 1853, Prince Adalbert of Prussia concluded the Jade Treaty with the Grand Duchy of Oldenburg and secured land on the west shore of the bay to build a naval base. The nascent Prussian Navy consisted of one wooden sailing frigate and one wooden steam frigate, so the small, isolated base quickly acquired its’ first coaling dock. (The associated town of Wilhelmshaven would not be established until 1869.) Prince Adalbert went on to ably command the developing navy and came to be known as the “Father of the German Navy”.
Over the next four decades, Prussia established, expanded, and modernized the town, fortress, and naval base into the “Imperial Dockyards Wilhelmshaven”. As time passed, the warships grew larger and more modern – and with prospering industry and trade – they grew much more numerous. The demands of the growing fleet quickly outstripped the capabilities of the old coaling facilities, so a sprawling, modern complex was gradually created to fuel the coal-hungry battleships. The result of much construction and the expenditure of many Marks resulted in what you see below.
The complex is bordered on the west by “The Coal Basin” and on the south by the “Coal Basin Channel” – both dredged out during various expansion and modernization programs. The waterways were carefully measured to ensure sufficient sea room for maneuvering battleships into and out of the coaling docks. At the top of the “Basin”, and again at the bottom left of the complex, are the tugboat stations dedicated to handling the never-ending stream of traffic. Three coaling docks on the west and south sides had to be carefully placed to provide enough room for each ship – and – to match-up with the viaducts and rail lines serving them. Needless to say, I made several attempts before the spacing was just right – and a lot more time to get those frustrating curved viaducts in place and the rail lines connected. Once that was achieved, the left boundary of the “handling” and “storage” facilities was established, and the remainder of the complex was built left to right, and then “up”.
This is a closer look at “Coaling Dock #1” – built over the original pilings of that first coal pier so many years before. To the left is the second tugboat station, and along the harbor seawall to the right are various warehouses, workshops, offices, and equipment associated with the coaling operation. There is little space wasted and the rail lines and viaducts are squeezed into a careful alignment. SMS Nassau is tied up taking on coal.
Nassau was the first ship of the Westfalen Class to be completed in 1909 after approximately 27 months under construction. They were designed in record haste to counter the innovative concepts of HMS Dreadnought (Laid down October, 1905, and completed October, 1906). But the Westfalens were not even laid down until mid-1907, and took between two and three years to complete. It was a clear demonstration of the shipbuilding advantage held by Britain in the coming naval arms race.
I would have preferred a system of tall loading hoppers fed by coal cars like those pictured at Pearl Harbor (previous chapter). That would have allowed loading hoppers at the front of the pier to feed coal to the ships through loading chutes. Rail cars running directly beneath hoppers would be faster, more efficient, and eliminate large piles of coal. But I was unable to find suitable lots or props to cobble together a workable solution. It’s really rather odd. Several people have made coal hoppers to load coal – but always into trucks or rail cars. No one seems to have given a thought to visibly loading coal into a ship. Therefore – I had to resort to old-fashioned coal piles and cranes.
The coaling dock is in two modules; a 5x4, re-lotted from the PEG “SNM Battleship Pier” and a 5x3 made from scratch for the rear coal piles. I cut the battleship pier down to size and rearranged the platforms on the front end to position the ramp in the center with the crane platforms out on the ends. The cranes were borrowed from the "PEG" Garbage Docks and the “loading control” tower came from a Maxis airfield. To the rear of the coal handling area are the concrete retaining walls of the “Coal Tip”. The coal is emptied out of the cars at the top, and slides down the concrete walls into the piles below. The bucket cranes and bulldozers go to work pushing it forward into piles aligned along both sides of the lot to feed the cranes at the front of the pier.
Just as there is no in-game method for loading coal into a ship, neither is there any method for unloading a rail car. Without specially “batted” lots and props, my solution is the “Coal Tip”. My idea uses an elevated platform with dump chutes beneath the track – gravity does all the work. The bottom doors of the car open, the coal drops through openings in the track, into the chutes, and slides down the concrete retaining walls to the piles below. With the props and lots available in the game, it is the most complete and functional system I could devise. This allows the trains to unload quickly, with no manual labor involved, and is similar to actual systems used by numerous coaling stations.
In this view, the train unloading coal is on the “outside track. All trains delivering to coal docks run on the outside line. The inside line is reserved for in-coming deliveries to the processing plant. On the backside of the “Coal Tip” are “signal and control” offices to manage arrivals and departures, “dump cycles, and keep them synchronized with others along the line. The two buildings are (I believe) SFBT railway signal towers placed atop a modified section of “vertical” wall. I can’t remember who made the “vertical wall” lots, but they originally supported some very nice street-side parking. NAM viaducts have been used to bridge between the various elevated dumping platforms.
Here you see yard infrastructure between Coal Dock #1 and #2. The tugboat station was recessed into the seawall to clear the traffic path of Coal Dock #1. Had they not been recessed, a ship-handling mistake could easily result in the destruction of a pier and several tugs. In the event of emergency along the rail line, parked dump trucks are on hand to maintain the flow of coal to the docks. Spare bucket cranes and bulldozers are available, and the row of workshops and store houses are there for repair, maintenance, and supply. The appropriately “antique” warehouses are by “Nob”.
Made fast at Coaling Dock #2 is HMS Conqueror, one of four Orion Class dreadnoughts. Delivered to the fleet in 1912, their increased size and larger 13.5 inch guns led to them being dubbed “superdreadnoughts”. The old British 12 inch 50 cal. gun had reached the upper limit of development. Firing a somewhat lighter shell to greater range, tests as well as squadron gunnery practice, showed the shell weight over a distance led to serious inaccuracy. Thus, to arm the Orions, the Ordnance Board recommended the heavier 13.5 inch shell fired from a shorter 45 cal. barrel at lower velocity. The new gun proved a success and became the standard armament for British battleships and battlecruisers until the end of WW I.
Note Conqueror’s graceful lines and simplicity of design, with the superstructure and funnels grouped between the fore turrets and the midships turret.
This picture shows the arrangement of Coaling Dock #2 (bottom) in relation to Coaling Dock #3 (top).
Tied up at Coaling Dock #3, is SMS Kaiser. She was the lead ship, and name ship, of a class of five dreadnoughts that formed the backbone of the Hochsee Fleet. Completed in 1912, this was the first class of battleships to be powered by Parson steam turbines coupled to a three shaft arrangement, producing an average speed of 21.5 knots. Prinzregent Luitpold was designed for an experimental diesel engine on her center shaft for economic cruising speeds, but the engine was never fitted and she remained slightly slower than her classmates. The armor arrangement was far superior to the comparable British Neptune Class and equal to or better than the succeeding British Orion Class. Kaiser saw action at Jutland, receiving two heavy shell hits, and was later scuttled in Scapa Flow on 21 June, 1919.
Compared to British decks, these are clutter free. The superstructure has been reduced to an absolute minimum with a small bridge house tacked onto the front of the armored conning tower as an afterthought. This concept, obviously, reduced the "target area" of the ship, making it more difficult to hit. It also simply reduced the amount of damage that could be done to the "upper works" -- (the part of the ship ABOVE the armor belt). Later battles proved that heavy caliber shells could wreak havoc with the unprotected "upper works", often leaving a ship a smoking, twisted, shambles ablaze from stem to stern. The ship might not sink -- but it was no longer an effective "gun platform".
This virtual mountain of coal takes up fully one third of the storage and processing portion of the coaling station. The size of the thing sticks out like a sore thumb. But it is a necessity for a naval base of this size. It is the “Fleet Reserve”.
The sheer number of battleships and other coal-burning vessels based in the harbor would require no less than 200,000 tons of coal for immediate needs. Any increase in routine activity would, of course, require more. During peaceful periods, a warship might load only 2,000 tons of coal. During periods of “political tension” between the Great Powers, warships could be put on “stand by” status and would take aboard a full “wartime load’ of 4,000 tons or more. Simple prudence would dictate that, at all times, the Fleet Reserve would store several million tons of coal. Hence the “mountain”.
I do not remember who created the original lot, but looking at the style – my guess would be “BLAM”. I originally ruled it out because it has “drawbacks”.
Coal piles from the “Polish Power Plant” were used for the individual docks and other areas because they were very realistic in granular appearance. But I was unable to “stack” the prop piles high enough, or realistically enough, to make an acceptable “mountain”.
The “BLAM” pile has a 1x1 size “plopping” footprint, and rendered in such a manner, it tends to “float” high above the ground surface (well above 60 meters). This looks a bit surreal around the edges, and makes any sort of close-in MMP work impossible. The other problem with the “floating” coal mountain is that it changes position every time you rotate the view. This is a direct result of the elevation. Faced with an unsolvable problem – I compromised.
I dug a hole as deep as possible and plopped the 1x1 lot at the bottom – thus lowering the height. Then I went around the outside of the lot and raised the ground level by 48 meters. That’s why the coal pile is sitting atop a concrete “plateau”. (My “game” excuse is that the “plateau” would allow rainwater to drain, while the concrete surfaces were necessary to support several million tons of coal. Not bad – huh?) It's not perfect – but I managed to get my “mountain” of coal.
Again –I cannot THANK @Barroco Hispano enough for providing accurately detailed and masterfully textured warship models. They are a true joy to behold.
If you enjoyed anything you saw – please punch the “like” button so I will know. A comment would be even more informative.
Comments and critiques requested and gratefully accepted. All questions answered promptly to the best of my ability.
THANK YOU for your visit !
NEXT TIME…...the Coal Handling Plant.
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