Joe Michaels
Diamond
- Joined
- Apr 3, 2004
- Location
- Shandaken, NY, USA
I stumbled on a good youtube about a small German cargo steamship named "Tarpenbek". The name of the youtube is "Frachtdampfer Tarpenbek". The narrative with it is in German, but the photography & content are excellent. My German is marginal, but I got most of the narrative. The ship was built by Orenstein & Koppel. I thought they only made steam locomotives and got into construction machinery (surviving to the present times, I think). The ship is powered with a triple expansion steam engine. What makes it somewhat unique is that the engine uses poppet valves, and the valve cams are worked by a more typical marine valve gear (eccentrics and expansion links).
Even more unique is the fact the engine's exhaust steam passes into a steam turbine which is coupled into the tailshafting with a hydraulic coupling. The narrative describes how this hydraulic coupling works automatically to bring the turbine in and out of engagement. My guess is the turbine worked in the ahead (forward) direction of rotation and declutched when the engine was working astern (reverse), with a bypass of exhaust steam to the condenser.
The film goes into great detail around the engine room, showing and explaining the auxiliary machinery (feed pumps, condenser air pumps, fuel oil service pumps and generator). It also goes into the fire-room and explains the Scotch marine boilers. What is also interesting is that the lighting current on the ship is 110 volts DC. Nothing unusual about it being direct current, but in Europe, 220 volt lighting current seems to have been the standard.
The film begins with the working of cargo, and shows the steam deck winches and explains them, along with the steam anchor windlass. The steam steering engine is also shown and explained.
Sadly, the narrative related that this film was made in the last year of the Tarpenbek's operation, and that she was the last piston-engined steamship to be home-ported in Hamburg (1954, I think it was). It is a nice little youtube, and one does not need to understand German to appreciate the ship and its machinery.
I could not find out much else about the "Tarpenbek". What little I did find out was that she and her sisters were sold to a Greek shipping company, and at least one of those ships was wrecked (driven aground during a storm).
Another similar and equally good youtube is about the steamer "Welle" (German for "wave", but can also mean "shaft" as in a power transmission shaft), and is titled "Doppelschraub Dampfschiffe" (twin screw steam ship) if I remember right. Welle is coal fired, and the film goes into great detail with the raising of steam in Scotch marine boilers, as well as the details of the ship's engines and auxiliaries. "Welle" was a combination purpose vessel- auxiliary ice breaker, tug, and looks she might also have been used as a pilot boat, dating to 1915. Welle, went thru a series of iterations upon her retirement, the usual turn as a floating restaurant, sunk due to neglect of her hull, raised, and eventually given a full restoration. She is back in steam as a historic vessel.
Both youtubes are well made films, made as educational films in Germany. My wife kids me that I almost never watch television, preferring instead to do "research" on the computer at night and stumbling on these sorts of youtubes. Given what the bulk of television programs are about, I do not see that I am missing anything.
Even more unique is the fact the engine's exhaust steam passes into a steam turbine which is coupled into the tailshafting with a hydraulic coupling. The narrative describes how this hydraulic coupling works automatically to bring the turbine in and out of engagement. My guess is the turbine worked in the ahead (forward) direction of rotation and declutched when the engine was working astern (reverse), with a bypass of exhaust steam to the condenser.
The film goes into great detail around the engine room, showing and explaining the auxiliary machinery (feed pumps, condenser air pumps, fuel oil service pumps and generator). It also goes into the fire-room and explains the Scotch marine boilers. What is also interesting is that the lighting current on the ship is 110 volts DC. Nothing unusual about it being direct current, but in Europe, 220 volt lighting current seems to have been the standard.
The film begins with the working of cargo, and shows the steam deck winches and explains them, along with the steam anchor windlass. The steam steering engine is also shown and explained.
Sadly, the narrative related that this film was made in the last year of the Tarpenbek's operation, and that she was the last piston-engined steamship to be home-ported in Hamburg (1954, I think it was). It is a nice little youtube, and one does not need to understand German to appreciate the ship and its machinery.
I could not find out much else about the "Tarpenbek". What little I did find out was that she and her sisters were sold to a Greek shipping company, and at least one of those ships was wrecked (driven aground during a storm).
Another similar and equally good youtube is about the steamer "Welle" (German for "wave", but can also mean "shaft" as in a power transmission shaft), and is titled "Doppelschraub Dampfschiffe" (twin screw steam ship) if I remember right. Welle is coal fired, and the film goes into great detail with the raising of steam in Scotch marine boilers, as well as the details of the ship's engines and auxiliaries. "Welle" was a combination purpose vessel- auxiliary ice breaker, tug, and looks she might also have been used as a pilot boat, dating to 1915. Welle, went thru a series of iterations upon her retirement, the usual turn as a floating restaurant, sunk due to neglect of her hull, raised, and eventually given a full restoration. She is back in steam as a historic vessel.
Both youtubes are well made films, made as educational films in Germany. My wife kids me that I almost never watch television, preferring instead to do "research" on the computer at night and stumbling on these sorts of youtubes. Given what the bulk of television programs are about, I do not see that I am missing anything.