German naval ship Deutschland (A59)

A59 "Deutschland" was a naval ship of the Bundesmarine, the West German navy. She was constructed and used as a training cruiser in peacetime and planned for multi-role missions in the event of war: troop ship, hospital ship, minelayer, and
escort. 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 included. Also civilians served alongside military personnel. For her time "Deutschland" 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 fully sovereign Germany are much larger.) Like most German postwar naval ships she was completely NBC protected. "Deutschland" was the smallest German cruiser since the 4385-ton "Brummer" and "Bremse" of 1915.

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

Career and fate

Ordered in the autumn of 1958, the training cruiser "Deutschland" was laid down by Nobisknegat Rendsburg on 11 September 1959. Launched on 5 November 1960, it was originally intended that she be named "Berlin", but for political reasons this name was dropped and the vessel named for the Nation. The two previous warships of this name were battleships launched in 1904 and 1931, respectively.

Delivered 10 April 1963, "Deutschland" was commissioned on 25 May 1966 at Naval Academy Mürwik near Flensburg. She remained in service until she was decommissioned on 28 June 1990. Sold for scrap in October 1993, she was towed to Alang, India in January 1994 and scrapped.

pecifications

* Length: convert|426|ft|6|in|m waterline, convert|453|ft|6|in|m overall
* Beam: convert|52|ft|9|in|m
* Draft: convert|16|ft|8|in|m
* Dislacement: 4880 tons standard, 5684 tons full load
* Propulsion:
**2 Mercedes-Benz and 2 Maybach diesel engines, both 16-cylinder, 4-stroke, driving 2 propeller shafts in a CODAD-arrangement (one Maybach and one Mercedes-Benz engine per shaft). The Maybach engines were replaced in 1981 with equally powerful Mercedes-Benz engines.
**2 Wahodag boilers feeding 1 set of geared Wahodag steam turbines driving center propeller shaft; convert|16000|hp = convert|22|knot|km/h
**3 four-bladed Escher-Wyss controllable pitch propellers; 2 rudders
**Max speed: convert|22|knot|km/h
* Oil fuel and diesel fuel: 643 tons
* Range: convert|3800|nmi|km at convert|12|knot|km/h
* Sensors: Radar LW-08, SGR-114, SGR-105, SGR-103, M-45; sonar ELAC 1BV
* Armament: 4 100mm/55 (4x1); 6 40mm/70 (2x2, 2x1); 2 fixed 533 mm torpedo tubes in the stern, removed in the mid-1970s; 4 trainable 533 mm anti-submarine torpedo tubes; 2 375mm anti-submarine mortars; mine laying capability
*Other equippement: three motor pinnaces; three motor cutters; 30 life rafts; 2 cranes; 3 anchors (one aft, two fore)
* Complement: 172 officers and men and up to 250 cadets

Other facts

Owing to the cruiser's unusual design, she was nicknamed "Lego-Dampfer" (Lego-Steamer). It was also joked that she was designed by a Rendsburg girl's school class. During her 27-year career "Deutschland" made 35 foreign voyages; visited 120 foreign ports; travelled convert|700000|nmi|km; crossed 23 times the equator, and twice the arctic circle; transited the Suez Canal and Panama Canal each 9 times; rounded Cape Horn and Cape of Good Hope each once; and visited all continents with the exception of Antarctica.

References

* [http://www.deutschland-a59.de/ Verein Schulschiff "Deutschland" 1989 e.V.]
* http://www.richardstokowski.de/schiff1.html
* Robert Gardiner (ed. dir.), Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1947-1982, Part I. London: Conway Maritime Press, Ltd., 1983.