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Chapter 53: The Photo Tour 09
Dreadnought posted a City Journal entry in IMPERIAL DOCKYARDS: CUXHAVEN
IMPERIAL DOCKYARDS: CUXHAVEN By: Dreadnought & AP Chapter 53: THE PHOTO TOUR 09 THE REFUELING DOCK Coal was still “King” in the early days of the 20th Century. It was used to power factories, run electric power plants, and heated most homes or “flats” (apartments). Mass transportation could not have existed without coal: locomotives thrived on it and ships of all sizes devoured it. But the discovery of “Crude Oil” in Pennsylvania in 1859, and Azerbaijan (Russia) somewhat later, was the beginning of what we now consider the modern petroleum industry. The ability to refine crude oil into kerosene, gasoline, and the heavier “fuel oil” changed the face of the modern world by making the internal combustion engine possible. All the “industrialized” nations were aware of the advantages of liquid fuels, but the British were the first to take it seriously. If London was going to be full of the noise and fumes of “auto-mobiles”, they needed to secure a reliable source of oil. In 1901, a millionaire London socialite, William Knox D’Arcy (something of a “wildcatting entrepreneur/speculator” from Australia) paid 20,000 Pounds to the Shaw of Iran for a 60 year lease to prospect for oil in the whole of the country. (Having received what would now be about 2.7 million Pounds, the Shaw thought he had gotten the better end of the deal.) By 1908, D’Arcy’s expedition had drilled hundreds of exploratory wells – all of them dry. Told to fold his tent and disband the crews, geologist George Reynolds defied the “stop-work-order” and drilled one last hole. Reynolds struck oil in what was then the largest pool in the world. By 1913 a huge oil refinery had been built at Abadan and it would remain the largest in the word until the 1950’s. At this point, as in many other instances of modern history, Winston Churchill enters the picture. The newly named Anglo-Persian Oil Company was contacted by he British Admiralty soon after their new refinery was fully operational. Churchill, First Lord of The Admiralty, had embarked on a three-year-program to modernize the Royal Navy and was keen to abandon coal-burning warships in favor of oil-burners. Obviously, fuel oil was much easier to handle – no “horrors” of “coaling ship” – and oil had a much higher energy density than coal – providing a greatly extended operating radius. Basically, the British Admiralty bought a 51% controlling interest and became the defacto owners of Anglo-Persian Oil. The British battle fleet was far too large to easily convert from coal-firing to oil-burning, and the easy access to English coal mines became a positive asset when war broke out in 1914. But Churchill’s foresight paid off in December 1914 when HMS Queen Elizabeth, the world’s first oil-fired battleship, was commissioned into the Royal Navy. The Kaiserliche Marine never fully embraced fuel-oil – mainly because they didn’t have any. Germany’s natural abundance of coal was one of the chief reasons the nation had risen to the top of industrial manufacturing in Europe. Without oil as a natural resource, it was only logical for the Imperial Navy and the German shipping industry to rely upon coal. But, as discussed in previous chapters, German coal deposits were largely Bituminous – often referred to as “soft coal”. While ideal for manufacturing work – where furnaces could be huge and easily accessible for “trimming fires” – Bituminous coal did not preform well in the confined spaces of a ship’s boiler. Simply put – Bituminous coal does not burn as hot as Anthracite coal, and leaves a good deal of noncombustible waste in the fire grates of boilers – where it is difficult to remove (“trimming the fire”). The build-up of waste in the boiler fireboxes will reduce the efficiency of the boiler and reduce the speed of the ship. Beginning around 1913, as a means to counter the effects of “soft coal”, the Kaiserliche Marine began using “supplementary oil-firing”. This system consisted of fitting oil sprayers inside the boiler fireboxes (think of the fire prevention sprinklers in an office building). Fuel oil could be sprayed directly on the burning coal to quickly increase the temperature of the fire. This not only kept the boiler fires “hot”, but helped incinerate more of the coal, reducing it to ash, and making it easier to trim the fires. This method made it possible to quickly light-off a cold boiler to raise steam, or to keep the fires hotter during prolonged high-speed steaming, and could even be used to dramatically increase the ship’s speed in an emergency. Supplementary oil firing was retro-fitted to all Imperial capital ships by the end of 1915 and was a design feature of all new construction after 1912. The fuel oil bunker capacity varied somewhat between ships, but was usually no less than 300 tons. (During the Great War, Germany managed to obtain a reliable supply of oil from Romania – but chose to retain coal as the fleet’s primary fuel source.) There were times when moving a 25,000-ton warship to a fueling pier to top-off a couple of hundred tons of oil might be considered an inconvenience. Here you see the oil lighter “Hans Kahler” pulling up to SMS Hindenburg. Once secured alongside, she will begin transferring oil to the battlecruiser. The handsome model of Hindenburg was scratch-built by @AP. Another shot showing more detail on the small oil lighter. Model courtesy of @Barroco Hispano. The Oil Fuel Replenishment Pier and Tank Farm can be seen in the center of the picture, adjacent to the Coaling Docks. Another view of the Fuel Oil Pier and Tank Farm. In this view of the Fuel Oil Pier and Tank farm, you can see how they were tucked into the smallest possible space. The nearby Munitions Pier can be seen in the upper right, and the Repair Docks in the upper left. Again, in this view you can see how the installations have been laid out as “tightly” as possible, but care was taken to see that traffic from any given system (coaling or oil) did not interfere with the operation of its neighbor. This is a closer look at the actual Fuel Oil Pier. Originally, the only fueling device I could find in the game was “Simmer2’s” floating “Fuel Pontoon” – but a few minutes working with that confirmed it was of no use in this situation. Consequently, I had to construct my own pier from a rather intricate framework. In order to get a close fit between most of the warship models and the dock, the topside portions of the dock had to rest on a 1x1 centreline base – with half of the dock overhanging the base. In order to fill out the dock, I had to repeat the process on the other side. It took some doing, and I was only able to accomplish the feat after some serious consultation and examination by “AP”. I used sections of the upper dock from the “PEG SNM Battleship Docks” to surface the whole thing and then surrounded the outer edges with the “WMP Seawalls” to give the impression of “wooden buffers”. There were a lot of overhanging and “offset” props in the construction process, and it took a great deal of moving and adjusting to get everything to line up properly. The lot size is 27x1 – the longest single lot I ever created. In this detail, you can see the sections of the “battleship docks” arranged to form the surface of the pier – with the “WMP Seawalls” arranged around the outer edges. With the sections of “dock” arranged to overhang both sides of the base tile, a sunken corridor down the middle has been formed. On this “lower level”, various stacks of bagged chemicals (mostly solvents and absorbents) are stacked, and numerous fire-fighting stations are arranged. On the right of the picture you can see the pumping substation for the pier. Along both sides of the pier are the ingenious fueling derricks devised by "AP". We searched high and low, but could find no photographs – or even a written description – of a fueling apparatus from the period. We had to devise some sort of derrick that was practical for its purpose, and looked like it was suited to the early 1900’s. This is a closer look at the fueling derricks. “AP” made two different derricks – one in use (right side of picture), and another closed-down (bottom of picture). The mechanical arms supporting the fueling hoses are simple and utilitarian, and the draped hose running down to the outlets in the derrick base allow the derrick arms to be extended or retracted as needed. I apologize for the feeder hoses running down to the ship’s deck. I got them about the right length, but I had to place the derricks on the pier in a standard pattern to fit large capital ships – sometimes they don’t always match-up with the ship models. And some warships had to be moved a bit further from the dock to even come close. Sometimes you just have to do the best you can and run with it. The following two pictures show the front and the back of the Pumping Control Station for the pier. Below the station, pipes with shut-off valves can be manually operated in an emergency. In the upper level of the building, the control office has a bank of electronic switches to start or stop the flow to each individual derrick, an adjustable flow rate dial, and a gauge recording each hundred tons of fuel pumped across to the ship. This is the rear of the pumping control station. The prop is one of the old Maxis “dirty industry” buildings. After cycling through them a couple of times, I settled on this one because it had a considerable amount of external detail – as opposed to a simple square pump house. And – it was the only one that really looked like it “belonged” on the pier. Consequently, I have used it in several other places along the pipelines as a standard pump station. The two cruisers fueling in this picture are British, and were built between the World Wars. On the left is a Leander Class light cruiser. Two of her sister ships, HMS Ajax and Achilles, helped to fight the KM Admiral Graf Spee off the River Plate in 1939. On the right is the heavy cruiser HMS Devonshire – one of the very successful “County Class” cruisers. Devonshire was tasked with evacuating King Haakon VII, and Crown Prince Olav, from Norway in June 1940. The County Class were impressive ships and saw a good deal of service during WW II. This is an excellent broadside view of Devonshire showing her strong and handsome profile. Two of her sister ships, HMS Norfolk and Suffolk, sighted KM Bismarck in the Denmark Strait when she attempted to breakout into the Atlantic on 23 May 1941. Both cruiser models are courtesy of @Barroco Hispano. (My apologies. I know these ships are WW II era, and certainly not German, but they are fine models and I hated to see them go to waste.) On the far side of the pier, the tugs are nudging a U.S. Navy Cimarron Class Fleet Oiler into position to unload her cargo. I apologize for not having a proper WW I era tanker model, but “AP” was so busy working on other things – we simply did not get around to making one. The Cimarron Class ships were built by the U.S. Navy to specifically provide “underway replenishment” in the vast stretches of the Pacific Ocean. They were long and fast for their day, and built to withstand the nasty weather frequently encountered in the central Pacific. Thirty of these ships were built between 1939 and 1945. On the near side of the pier is the “SS Texaco Ohio”. Both tanker models are by “Barroco Hispano”. This is a detail shot of the pier. Note that the tanker Ohio is served by three sets of fuel derricks. This particular berth was laid out as a “tanker berth” to facilitate loading and unloading. The “SS Texaco Ohio” should be well known from the vicious Malta convoy battle of “Operation Pedestal” in August 1942. Ohio was specially strengthened to deal with air attacks and she was later known as...”the ship the Luftwaffe could not sink”. This is a close-up of a “lighter basin” on the north side of the fuel oil pier. This is typical of the largely unused corners of harbors where lighters were randomly dumped while someone decided what to do with them. Most of these lighters are loaded with barrels of oil and other lubricants, while two have bags of chemicals, one has ship’s stores, and others are empty. A Midgard Class tug stands by while two small boats pick through the jumble to hook up a tow. The amount of detail “AP” built into these tiny “barges” is absolutely amazing. Each one is a miniature work of art. Even the cargo in the lighters has been laid-out and worked to appear as individual items, rather than a mass blob of unidentifiable “stuff”. The tugboat, small boats, lighters, and mooring dolphins are the wonderful creations of “AP”. On the opposite side of the fuel oil basin, we find “Langer Heinrich” (“Big Henry”) moored at her permanent berth. In her day, Langer Heinrich was the largest, heavy-lift, floating crane in the world – making it possible to preform heavy repair and construction tasks without the need of a dry dock or “fitting-out” pier. (See Chapter 14 for full details on the crane.) An Odin Class tug is hooking up a tow to move the massive crane to her next job. The tug, small boat, crane, and mooring dolphins are by “AP”. The “rickety pier” on the left is from the old Maxis (“PEG”) Cannery Lot. It was attached to a modified “NBVC Seawall”, and given a small boat coming alongside. This is an overview of the area between the fuel replenishment dock and the tank farm, which contains a whole range of fueling infrastructure. Directly behind the fueling dock are the intermediate storage tanks. These are, basically, “ready use” tanks for feeding fuel into the pipeline connected to the fueling dock. Above them, and to the left, is the rail delivery point. Two main pipelines can be seen connecting the various areas, which are controlled by pumping stations at several different levels. This is the Central Pumping Station, connected to pipeline feeders from the Fuel Pier, the two banks of “ready use” tanks, and the main Tank Farm. Fuel unloaded from tankers at the pier can be directed into the ready-use tanks, or sent directly to the main Tank Farm for storage. By the same token, oil sent to the fueling pier can be taken from the ready-use tanks (standard procedure), or directly from the main Tank Farm in an emergency. The “Mobil Oil” tanks, and both large and small pipelines are by “Simmer2” and proved remarkably flexible and easy to work with. Many of the concrete areas have been filled in with Paeng’s “Grunge Concrete” – and especially the concrete set with overhanging props to fill in angles and spaces beneath the pipelines where needed. The complicated arrangement of the larger features (tanks and pipelines) resulted in unused “blank” spaces, which were filled in with various 1x1 and 1x2 modular custom made lots. You can see on the left end of the tanks where the leftover space was turned into a construction/maintenance yard, with trucks, earth-moving equipment, Quonset Hut workshops, and piping supplies. This is the tank car loading facility. Oil can be shipped in and out of the naval base by rail as needed. The “NBVC Tank Car” delivery system is excellent in all respects, but is obviously too modern for the early 20th Century. We were, however, unable to find any information or pictures of the actual facilities – so I simply went with what was already in the game. You will notice I connected the two structures to the pumping station with an above ground pipeline – borrowed from the “NBVC Tank Farm Set”. In retrospect, I could have exchanged the diesel engines for two steam locomotives – but the thought did not occur to me at the time. Beside the pumping station you can see a water and coaling stop for the steam locomotives (borrowed from various “PEG” railroad lots). The dispatch office is from “SFBT” (I believe.) The various elements were tied together with assorted 1x1 and 1x2 custom-made modular lots and “Paeng Grunge Concrete” pieces. This view shows the connecting pipelines where they enter the main tank farm. The pipeline on the right goes through a pumping station, then into a building where the main line is split into five smaller pipes used to connect to the large storage tanks. The square building was borrowed from the “Simmer2” pipeline sets. The pipeline on the left goes directly into a pumping control station where the pipes are split. The large tank farm and connecting pipes are from the “NBVC Tank Farm” kit. You will notice the pipelines climb a 15 meter hill in two stages, making it easier to raise the oil to the height of the tank farm. The tanks were built on the higher elevation so “Gravity feed” could be used to transfer oil in the event of a power failure. The chain link fences and concrete areas surrounding the tanks were borrowed from the “NBVC Container Seaport” kit. Quite a bit of “NBVC’s” seaport was created with modular lots, making it easy to work with and extremely flexible for creating larger structures. This is an over view of the actual “Tank Farm” where the bulk of the fuel oil is stored. The shot gives a clear view of the raised platform upon which it was built. The large storage tanks are, again, from the “NBVC Tank Farm” kit. They proved to be quite useful as a naval oil storage facility – not least because I saw many such tanks scattered around the Long Beach area in California. (Long Beach was a major U.S. Navy anchorage before the Pacific Fleet was transferred to Pearl Harbor in the late 1930’s.) Another view of the Tank Farm. The area on the far side of the platform is occupied by the administrative offices, repair, maintenance, and supply functions. These are all 1x1 and 1x2 custom-made lots that can be used in a variety of different situations. A final overview. The tank farm platform is composed largely of concrete retaining walls and topped by a huge concrete pad, on which, the storage tanks sit. The concrete pad and fences are composed of 1x1 and 1x2 pieces from the “NBVC Container Port” kit, topped by the “NBVC” Tank Farm set. “NBVC” was a prolific “batter” in his day, and contributed many extensive “kits” – most of them “modular” -- which we still find indispensable. This could be called a wharf, pier, or landing – depending upon the interpretation of the word. “Landing” is, perhaps, the better choice. In any harbor there must be a place where small boats can tie-up without interfering with “official business” or the commercial trade. There are any number of reasons why sailors might come ashore to run errands, or pick up small bits of stores and goods, so “landings” became common fixtures in harbors. “AP” has provided a variety of “landings” in several shapes and sizes. These are simple wooden piers created as overhanging props designed to “plop” in the water alongside the seawall. The trick to using them on a lot is to adjust the height of the landing to sit on top of the seawall while resting on the harbor floor. The landings have “tight LOD’s” and can be dressed-out with a variety of props. A selection of 1x1 custom-made lots were placed behind the landing to create a small working area. The steam launch, and larger steam pinnace moored to the landing are by “Barroco Hispano”. The stacks of bagged goods on the landing were taken from “IRM Industrial Filler” lots. The landing, mooring dolphins, small boats, and other props on the landing are all by “AP”. Moored to dolphins along the seawall are (right) a Passat Class seagoing tug and (left) a pair of sailing “luggers”. For the sake of identification, we have assigned the name “Clara” to the luggers. Clara is actually, a square-rigged, two-masted, Brigantine. As a warship, they would have been referred to as a “Brig”. In merchant service they were often arbitrarily called by the collective term “lugger”. As trading vessels, they were generally 165 feet in length (or smaller) with a maximum displacement of around 500 tons. They were shallow draft for easy use in small harbors and coastal waters. “Luggers” were the “Amazon” delivery trucks of their day – everywhere, delivering everything. The ships were mostly wooden construction with simple, uncomplicated hull lines that were easy to build. Being small, they did not require a large crew to operate and their hull form allowed a fairly large cargo of bags, crates, barrels, or bulk-haul goods. In 1898, the Port of London alone recorded 6,050 arrivals of coal luggers – an estimated fleet of over 600 “luggers”. Just imagine the numbers of luggers working the Continental coastal trade. Luggers were cheap, economical to operate, and would return a huge profit over a 30 year lifespan – which accounts for their continued use into the late 1930’s. In this view, you can see Clara’s wide hull to accommodate cargo. If you look closely, you will see the crews are aloft, preparing the sails for an imminent departure. One of the older steam tugs will tow them out beyond the breakwater, where they will shake out the canvas and set a course. A small boat has come alongside to make a last minute delivery of some small goods in the sternsheets. No doubt a bit of “private business”. (Luggers made excellent smuggling vessels for “duty free” goods.) These beautiful little models are the highly detailed work of “AP”. NEXT TIME…… CUXHAVEN: THE PHOTO TOUR 10 MANY THANKS to @Barroco Hispano for his beautiful warship models. SPECIAL THANKS to my friend and partner, @AP, for his talents, meticulous models, colorful imagination, and extreme dedication. If you enjoyed anything – please punch the “like” button so WE will know. A comment would be even more informative. Comments and critiques requested and gratefully accepted. All questions answered promptly to the best of our ability. THANK YOU for your visit! You may wish to visit these CJ’s as well…… SERIES I: IMPERIAL DOCKYARDS: WILHELMSHAVEN SERIES II: IMPERIAL DOCKYARDS: CUXHAVEN Appearing – Work In Publication SERIES III: IMPERIAL DOCKYARDS: BREMERHAVEN Appearing -- ??? And please feel free to drop in at… THE SIMTROPOLIS SHIPYARD https://community.simtropolis.com/forums/topic/761469-simtropolis-shipyard/?tab=comments#comment-1766496- 2 Comments
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