Cap San Diego

• Sangria
• San Diego

The Cap San Diego is a general cargo ship, which is a museum ship in Hamburg harbor. The 1961 -built ship was used in regular service with South America. Like most cargo liners in this trade, it has been increasingly replaced by container ships from the 1980s.

Method of construction

The Cap San Diego is a conventional general cargo ship and as such has over sixteen derricks, two deck cranes and a heavy lift. From five cargo holds, which have up to three intermediate decks, two as a cooling cargo holds were originally furnished. As the ship after its maiden voyage, which was used on the U.S. to Australia and back resulted in the South America trip in 1962, two other smaller cooling load compartments were additionally incorporated. In addition, the ship has six heated cargo tanks for the transport of Süßölen. Two of these tanks could be retrofitted as a removable tanks for the transport of cargo and were referred to as " Luke 6".

History, launched in 1961

The Cap San Diego was built in 1961 by Deutsche Werft AG, Hamburg, for the shipping company Hamburg Süd as the last ship of a series of identical general cargo ships. This was called the cap -san - class or Cap -san series, because the name of each ship with Cap San began. Due to their elegant form, they were dubbed as " The White Swans of the South Atlantic ". Along with her five sister ships operated the Cap San Diego, the route Hamburg- South America. It transported among other machinery, chemicals and automobiles, but also living, pregnant cows to South America and coffee, meat, textiles, sweet oils and fruit juice concentrate in the direction of Hamburg. The charge was often supplemented in Buenos Aires by cowhides that were individually spread and salted in the lower holds. Due to the large quantity of goods loaded and the lengthy before the invention of the container loading processes were hospital stays in Buenos Aires up to fourteen days.

In a time in which the intercontinental transport by air was not, of course, many passengers took the opportunity to travel to and from South America with these freighters. The up to twelve passengers on board were doing almost all the service that otherwise could only offer passenger and combi vessels - from air-conditioned cabins with a private passenger deck with lounge and separate dining room to the outdoor swimming pool with poolside bar.

In the following twenty years after the launch of the Cap San Diego ran a service between Europe and the east coast of South America. A round trip took about sixty days; overall they graduated in that time 120 round trips. In 1981, the Cap San Diego was sold to the Spanish shipping company YBARRA, of which it was used further for one year under the Panamanian flag, Hamburg-Süd charter in South America service. Then the name was changed to San Diego. In 1986 she was sold to the Multi Trade Shipping in Monrovia and renamed Sangria to then sail under the flag of St. Vincent and the Grenadines with home port Kingstown.

Conversion to a museum ship in 1986

Just before the demolition, the Foundation Hamburg Admiralty acquired the sangria. She reached in a very bad state in October 1986 Cuxhaven. It was reconstructed here in a week of many volunteers hastily and ran on October 31, Hamburg. From temporary berth at Kirchenpauerkai they hauled by six weeks after Neumühlen. Here it remains until it moved to its current location at the inner edge of the St. Pauli Landing Bridges 1990. Gradual restoration and conservation work was carried out in order to realize the conversion to a museum ship with spaces for exhibitions and events. In 1987 a major overhaul in the Dock 15 of the German shipyard HDW - (factory Ross). From 1989 began newly unemployed former HDW shipyard workers who were employed by the employment company Ökotech after shipyard closure, excavation work. During this time, the ship received its present inner life, inter alia, by combining the starboard side chambers to the onboard restaurant. With breakthroughs and stairs in the holds and Süßöltanks the interior of the cargo spaces for visitors was more accessible. In addition, have been set up for employees and volunteers staff rooms and offices. In order to bring the ship back on track, were made from 1992 to extensive machine work, pistons and sleeves were pulled, repaired lifeboats and obsolete bilge and ballast systems. After successful repair, the museum ship could actively participate in June 1995 at the 100th anniversary celebrations of the Kiel Canal, where she was a representative of the City of Hamburg part of the ship parade. Been made since then on various occasions regular trips, such as an annual guest for Cuxhaven. Both the single and the outlet port of the birthday parades are led by the Cap San Diego. For the 32nd German Protestant Church in 2009 in Bremen, the Cap San Diego in Hamburg went into the adjacent Hanseatic city, where she served as a venue.

Foundation "Hamburg Admiralty " 1987

For the Cap San Diego Foundation Hamburg Admiralty was founded in 1987 by the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, to act as the owner. She has leased the museum ship for maintenance and management of the Cap San Diego operating company. About twenty employees of the operating company are used in office board, on deck, in the machine, at the box office and in the night-time surveillance. They are supported by some 100 dedicated volunteers on deck, in the machine in the shack and at the shop. Especially at major cultural events, trips or major work assignments, can be made to this team. Around 100,000 national and international visitors visiting the ship now a year and eight hotel rooms for overnight stays on board are very popular with tourists. The Cap San Diego in Hamburg harbor is now a great attraction and is now a museum ship at the Überseebrücke within sight of the Three Masters Rickmers Rickmers and the Hamburg Speicherstadt. Since 1 December 2003, it is a listed building.

The Cap San Diego as a seaworthy museum ship in 1995

The Cap San Diego is the largest seaworthy and operable Museum cargo ship in the world. It represented the culmination of mechanized cargo shipbuilding in Germany, in which a maximum expression of the most developed in the cargo shipping occupations was observed on board. The deck house is equipped for 34 to 40 crew members, including a radio operator, a scrubber, a paymaster, a carpenter and a boatman. Because of the passenger facilities, two cooks, a baker, a chief steward and five stewards were used. Today, all of which are impossible to find these professions to a chef on German cargo ships. Also the separate passenger deck with well appointed passenger cabins, lounge, dining room, bar and outdoor swimming pool with pool bar is on cargo ships no longer used today. These facilities were at that time very popular with South America travelers. Compared with their followers in South America service, the Cap San Diego was universally equipped with its cargo gear and was able to perform the handling of cargo in the South American ports with their own funds. The Cap San Diego thus marked a turning point of the mechanized, hand-operated boat trips to the more automated operated ships dar.

The Museum of the Cap San Diego is next to the ship itself several temporary exhibitions and has rentable event space. In addition to the use as a museum ship, the Cap San Diego also has a small hotel operation for tourists.

Cylinder 7 urgently needed a new liner in 2013

2012, the main engine was now over 50 years old, and the cylinder 7 urgently needed a new liner. In this single chrome-plated jack the permissible wear tolerances were far exceeded and for the 1.8 -meter-high, almost a meter in diameter measured and two -ton jack, there was no more spare the world. Also models for making the mold for new liners were unavailable. The MAN works Rostock and Hamburg made-to- own original production drawings from MAN Diesel & Turbo, a new casting model. With this model, the molds were made ​​in Japan and poured three new cylinder liners made ​​of gray cast iron, machined and the Cap San Diego donated. So cylinder 7 received a new socket. The other two connectors are used to reserve.

Successor ships in South America - line service in 1984

The built in Seebeck Werft in Bremerhaven container ships of the Monte -Class came off in 1984, the general cargo vessel of the first cap -san - class in South America service. They were in turn replaced by the container vessels of the second cap -san - class. Both classes had a very large reefer capacity and were equipped with facilities for porthole containers. The following ships of the class and the Monte Rio class got ports for integral containers, they were at entry when the ships with the world's largest reefer capacity.