SSG No 20 - Shipgaz

The precursors
of the modern bulk carrier
H
aving a deadweight in
excess of 20,000 tons, the
cargo vessels Amerikaland
and Svealand were the largest
cargo vessels afloat when they were
in 1925 handed over to the Swedish ship
owner Ångfartygs Aktiebolaget Tirfing.
The design featured many new innovations,
and in combination with their
enormous size the vessels were in many
respects forerunners, paving the way for
the pure bulk carrier.
On January 23, 1914, just six months
before the outbreak of World War I, the
Swedish ship owner Dan Broström signed
a contract with the US steel manufacturer
Bethlehem Steel Company on building
two 17,000 DWT steamers. They were to be
employed for 20 years on the iron ore trade
from Cruz Grande, Chile, to the company’s
steel works on the US East coast via the
Panama Canal, which was opened in 1914.
But the war interrupted this interesting
project. It was not until September 1922
that a new contract was signed. Now
the size of the two vessels had grown to
20,600 DWT, and they were due for delivery
in 1925.
Due to the “advantageous rate of
exchange for Swedish currency and the low
quotations received from the German shipyards”
the vessels were ordered from Deutsche
Werft AG in Germany rather than
from Sweden. The possibility to build the
vessels at Götaverken had been thoroughly
investigated. In addition to a higher price
this would also have demanded an extension
of the shipyard, as the newbuildings
were twice as large as the vessels built so far.
The Svealand was handed over to the
Tirfing Steamship Company on April 9,
1925, and the sister Amerikaland on June
29. The 171 m long and 22 m wide vessels
were exceptional in many aspects, not
least their size. They were the largest cargo
vessels built so far and among the first to
be equipped with steel hatch covers. The
hatchways were large to enable rapid cargo
handling. Two Burmeister & Wain-type
diesel engines manufactured in Germany
gave them a service speed of 11 knots fully
loaded with a fuel consumption of 19.5
tons a day. They were no doubt also exceptionally
efficient. A voyage from Chile to
Baltimore could be made in 19 days and
the vessels could be discharged in 16 to 18
hours.
For the Amerikaland World War II
HÅKAN SJÖSTRÖM
ended the fulfilment of the 20-year charter.
During a ballast voyage from Sparrows
Point to Cruz Crande she was sunk by
the German u-boat U 106 on February
2, 1942. Five seamen lost their lives after
spending several days in lifeboats on the
cold and stormy sea.
For the Svealand the charter to Bethlehem
Steel continued until the end of
1948. In 1951 she underwent an extensive
refit at Götaverken in Göteborg, including
installation of new main engines.
The Svealand continued sailing for Broströms
until 1968, when the 43-year-old
vessel was sold to a company in Liberia.
The deal was never closed and instead the
German company Eckhardt & Co bought
her in 1969 for scrap. In the same year
she was sold further to a Panama-registered
company and left Hamburg under
her own power renamed Svea. After that
her fate is unknown, even though it was
reported that she would be broken up.
In a fleet list in the Båtologen magazine
Tomas Johannesson writes that it is not
impossible that she continued sailing in
the Chinese waters or was used as a floating
storage for some further years.
pär-henrik sjöström
86 SCANDINAVIAN SHIPPING GAZETTE • OCTOBER 26, 2007