Ship Camel

A ship camel (Dutch Scheepskameel ) was a wooden float which was temporarily connected to a ship to reduce its depth. Because of the increasing siltation of estuaries along the Dutch coast were larger sailing ships calling at ports only lightened. With similar problems to low-lying ships faced, who wanted to start or leave the lagoon city of Venice - here came ship camels used.

The ship camel was an invention of the Dutchman Meeuwis Meindertsz Bakker, for the first time in April 1690 began this construction to draw the big warship Princes Maria on the shoals of Pampus. For his invention, which was one of the most important inventions of the Dutch shipbuilding industry of the time, Bakker received from the Admiralty of Amsterdam one year's salary as a reward. Already Cornelis van Yk, shipwright of the Dutch East India Company, treated this instrument in 1697 gestelt in his work De Nederlandsche Scheeps - bouw - const open. Before use, the camels, the ships were only lightened or lifted slightly with air -filled water barrels. About the shallows of Enkhuizer sand and the Pampus the ships were towed by surface ships (Water Schepen type Wijdschip ) from brands. The income for this service was greater for their Schipper than normal Light or other transport tasks. Ship camels were also used in Russia St. Petersburg and Venice.

Operation

Under a ship camel one has a split in the length floating dock with a length of about 40 to 50 m imagine, whose two halves were connected by chains. The width had to be slightly larger than the width of the ship, which was to be raised from the camels. Their name from the pontoons of the fact that the two pontoon remembered with the eingeschwommenen and to be lifted ship to the beast of burden camel with two humps. Both halves were designed as waterproof float that could be flooded or pumped out. To lift a ship of this was floated between two pontoons. The camels were attached to the starboard and port side of the cargo sailing ship and lowered by flooding the departments. To raise the ship then strong ropes were pulled under the ship through or were bar inserted through port-holes, where then the ropes were attached. Subsequently, the departments of the camels were emptied by hand pumps, similar to modern floating docks. Due to the resulting buoyancy pontoons and then ship could enter the harbor even in shallow water without the great ship had to be partially discharged. Once we had passed the shoal, the floats were flooded again and the ship floated free. The shape of the hulls was adapted to the ship's hull.

The ship camels were used in the Golden Age (Dutch Gouden eeuw ) to bring low-lying merchant ships of Pampus the Amsterdam harbor. In place of the ship camels continued to a smaller sailing ships that were attached to both sides of the cargo glider with chains, their ballast water quenched and thus lifted the ship, and so sailed with a favorable wind in the harbor.

Ship camels were in the Netherlands to 1825 in operation. To solve the problem with the fixed ships in the Zuiderzee permanently, you started at the beginning of the 19th century with the construction of Noordhollandsch kanaals.

Similar to the ship camels beginning of the 20th century were led by the big ships AG Vulcan Stettin with the help of side-mounted lifting pontoons through the mouth of the Oder into the open sea. This process was no longer necessary after the shipyard founded a new subsidiary in Hamburg, where the ships without problems could reach the sea.

Are Pampus

If the water depth decreased even more, and the wind is not blowing from the east, no longer helped the ship camels. Then the ships were useless for days before Pampus. Therefore, the expression is: before = Pampus are unable to do anything.

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Operation of a ship camel ( hook size )