Quiet here...

kotori87

Member
Joined
Sep 19, 2008
Messages
292
Reaction score
1
Location
California
oh gosh, I should know this! I remember reading about the first ship to get a scientifically designed and tested hull while browsing through the naval books at my college library. I think it was a gunboat or trawler or something like that, but I can't recall the details right now.

Am I on the right track?
 

TBR

Member
Joined
Apr 3, 2008
Messages
978
Reaction score
4
Location
Germany
Country
llGermany
Yes :)

New hints:

My last captain enjoyed his command for 24 years.

The name of my class incorporates a peaceful economic activity we were designed to perform after the war.

I am now being retained by an institution that saved several ships and boats of my navy from the scrapyard.
 

TBR

Member
Joined
Apr 3, 2008
Messages
978
Reaction score
4
Location
Germany
Country
llGermany
New hints:

In both the government agency and the navy I was one of the very first units as those were rebuilding after a lost war.

I received my traditional name because the government agency which first acquired me based me on the western coast, the navy would base me on the eastern coast which would have resulted in a slightly different but also traditional name. This name went to a slightly older, smaller and far more "racy" sister instead.

This "racy" sister got sold off even earlier than I, we both had been a cost cutting target of the budget bureau for a long time.
 

TBR

Member
Joined
Apr 3, 2008
Messages
978
Reaction score
4
Location
Germany
Country
llGermany
OK, these'll practically give it away:

I don't blow from either east or west.

Training was my forte, sailing my pleasure.

While the Förde was my home it's now the Jade, where my berth is near that of TBR's avatar.
 

Yang

Member
Joined
May 21, 2008
Messages
484
Reaction score
10
Location
München
Country
llGermany
Oh during my digging i actually came across the "Nordwind" just didn´t consider her a likely candidate enough to look at her service record. I kinda suspected a KfK (= War fishing cutter) but because of the Nordwind´s sails i suspected she was too new. But this makes it pretty clear that you mean her. :)
 
Last edited:

Bontainer

Member
Joined
Jun 27, 2008
Messages
76
Reaction score
0
Location
Siegen
Country
llGermany
Its the Sail training ship Nordwind.

Researching this topic is doubly amazing for me, since my father was "Steuermann" on such a Kriegsfischkutter during WW2.

I still remember how he was always looking for more information on this type of vessel, but before the Internet it was difficult to come bye.

Until today I didn´t even know that such a ship still existed and that I must have seen it (while visiting the museum) without recognizing it.

Kriegsfischkutter were a scary thing for their crew. Just take a small fishing vessel, put as much guns on it as possible (2 cm, 3,7 cm) add a little bit of mine searching equipment, and put it into the english channel, 5 minutes flight time from the nearest Typhoon base, to come for a visit and leave a few cannonshells. My fathes nerves never really recoverd...

Thank you for this very interesting riddle.
 

Zakalwe

Member
Joined
Jul 29, 2006
Messages
665
Reaction score
1
Location
Ecktown, S-H, German
Country
llGermany
hm,

I suspected a KFK but didn`t knew "Nordwind" was one.

I actually sailed a few hours on "Nordwind" around 25 years ago when I took part in the school project "One week at the Bundeswehr" where we visited different Bases etc.

When I was still in school, I worked on a ex-KFK too. "Aldebaran" took out fishermen (the hobby ones, not the pros) to around Langeland, where they could fish all day long. I cleanded up the the ship afterwards in the evenings. In Winter, I helped in doing the repair, painting, changing oil on the main-engine etc.

Was an interesting job, much better then packing stuff in a super-market.

Z.
 

TBR

Member
Joined
Apr 3, 2008
Messages
978
Reaction score
4
Location
Germany
Country
llGermany


Yes, it's SSB (SeemannschaftsSchulBoot) Nordwind, the "little sister" of the Gorch Fock. She was a KFK that a private owner began to turn into a ketch rigged sailing yacht after acquiring her from OMGUS. In the Bundesgrenzschutz See (Borderguard) she was a sail training vessel and served as representative platform for the Bundespräsident, a mission later taken over by Gorch Fock. The federal accounting bureau finally succeeded in 2006 to force the Navy to sell her. Not only her last (civilian) captain had her for a long time but her last new crewman signed on in 1985, 21 years before her decommissioning the crew was complete and remained unchanged!

During the war some KFK's had been rigged as sailing vessels to mask as yachts for agent transfers etc. The KFK's hulls were the first scientifically designed and thouroughly tested hulls for fishing vessels so many of them continued to serve as fishing vessels after the war, some do to this day, admittedly nowadays in the tourist trade though some fished commercially into the early nineties.

About a dozen KFK so seem to be still active sailing yachts. Their stable hull gives them excellent long range capabilities. Read the history of Dolphin, which is currently refitting, for her remarakble Atlantic crossing (force 10 gales!).

http://schoonerdolphin.com/Dolphin_history2.htm

And there is also a KFK history in english on that site:

http://schoonerdolphin.com/Dolphin_history.htm


You're it Yang :)
 
Last edited:

Bullethead

Storm Eagle Studios
Joined
Feb 18, 2006
Messages
3,890
Reaction score
3
Location
Wakefield, LA
Country
llUnited States
Yes, it's SSB (SemannschaftsSchulBoot) Nordwind, the "little sister" of the Gorch Fock.[/quote]

This was a good question. I dug through every example I could think of where shipyards had been overrun with warships on the slips, but it never occurred to me to think of a training ship :clown:
 

TBR

Member
Joined
Apr 3, 2008
Messages
978
Reaction score
4
Location
Germany
Country
llGermany
This was a good question. I dug through every example I could think of where shipyards had been overrun with warships on the slips, but it never occurred to me to think of a training ship :clown:
Yet that's only a postwar modification. She was built to be an armed warship, a coastal minesweeper, patrol boat and subchaser. IMO the KFK design is one of the classics.
 

Yang

Member
Joined
May 21, 2008
Messages
484
Reaction score
10
Location
München
Country
llGermany
Ok, here is the next question. Identify the vessel in the picture and briefly explain the situation. Its a clickable thumbnail, i hope the big picture shows up correctly.



Actually i´m not 100% sure myself and can only make an educated guess for the ship in question. This picture dumbfounded me when i stumbled across it a week or so and i thought it would be a nice addition to our question thread. I´m guessing with the profound knowledge of the forum users someone might have seen this picture in literature and can answer the question?
 

kotori87

Member
Joined
Sep 19, 2008
Messages
292
Reaction score
1
Location
California
First thing that comes to mind is an early experiment with a whitehead torpedo. It looks like the ship launching the torpedo is one of those odd early ironclads, like HMS Warrior, that was a sailing ship plated with armor. Very strange.
 

Bullethead

Storm Eagle Studios
Joined
Feb 18, 2006
Messages
3,890
Reaction score
3
Location
Wakefield, LA
Country
llUnited States
It looks like the ship launching the torpedo is one of those odd early ironclads, like HMS Warrior, that was a sailing ship plated with armor. Very strange.
None of the Black Battlefleet were true 2-deckers like in this pic. No, I'm thinking this is HMS Vernon, or whatever old hulk they named the torpedo testing and training school after. Only this was taken when the hulk was still afloat, before her name was transferred to the shore base.
 

Tegetthoff

Member
Joined
Feb 3, 2009
Messages
58
Reaction score
0
Location
Salzburg
Country
llAustria
I am certainly not the most knowledgeable person in naval matters but a few ideas following on the Whitehead hint:

Robert Whitehead worked for the Austro-Hungarian navy in Fiume (Rijeka), where his factory was loacted

The Whitehead torpedo was first tested in 1866

The Austro-Hungarian navy owned one steam-driven wooden two decker "SMS Kaiser", which took part in the 1866 battle of Lissa, later rebuilt to a casemate ship

The hills in the background would be consistent with the landscape of Dalmatia

I have found no record that a torpedo was ever test-fired from the Kaiser, the test ship was a small gunboat named Gemse.

A picture of SMS Kaiser is on this site:

http://www.cityofart.net/bship/sms_ferdinand_max.html

Cheers

Tegetthoff
 

Yang

Member
Joined
May 21, 2008
Messages
484
Reaction score
10
Location
München
Country
llGermany
The site where i found this picture was only showing german ww1 naval postcards with the exception of two postcards showing japanese ships. The caption was "Torpedotraining on a schoolship" in german thus i figured it might be SMS Renown. This looks a fair bit away from any harbour facilities and i´m not sure if one of the HMS Vernons was towed outside like they did with Renown. SMS Kaiser wasn´t a training ship iirc but the caption doesn´t necessarily be true at all. Hm, Renown was decomissioned in the late 1880s and i´m not sure if they already had torpedoes with twin propellers back then. Does anyone recognize the hatgear from the guy on the lower left maybe?

Anyway i guess there is really no way to know for sure, thus i´m declaring an open round.
 

TBR

Member
Joined
Apr 3, 2008
Messages
978
Reaction score
4
Location
Germany
Country
llGermany
OK, lest this thread sink to the second page of the subforum I'll jump in with a quickie:

This Navy recently reestablished NCO and Warrant officer ranks after they had been abolished for a quarter of a century.
 

TBR

Member
Joined
Apr 3, 2008
Messages
978
Reaction score
4
Location
Germany
Country
llGermany
Whew! I didn't think I'd need to put a hint up here, are you all playing DG1.5 or are you just out of questions?

Here's the hint:

The country of the Navy in question is famous for being somewhat egalitarian though it is a monarchy. It's quite a bugbear for the American right and John Stewart jokes about this all the time :).
 
Top