Turret deck ship

This gave some advantages in strength and allowed them to pay lower canal tolls under tonnage measurement rules then in effect.

Turret deck ships were inspired by the visit of the US whaleback vessel Charles W. Wetmore to Liverpool in 1891.

[1] Like others of the type, Wetmore had a hull in the form of a flattened cigar, with a continuous curve above the waterline to where the sides met amidships.

[2] The superstructure atop the hull was in round or oval "turrets", so named because of their resemblance to gunhouses on contemporary warships.

[8] On well deck ships the lack of a continuous line of the deck, one the turret ship design solved with a continuous line and solid structure up to the top of the turret, resulted in weakness with classification societies taking notice by requiring increased strengthening in construction.

There was no gunwale; the vertical side of a turret ship curves inward above the load line to a horizontal plane.

[12] Structurally these elements were part of the hull, not of the superstructure, and the cargo holds of the ship extended up to the true weather deck atop the turret.

[5] The design also called for a cellular double bottom, which was the probable reason for claims of the type's exceptional hull strength, but it also raised the centre of gravity of the cargo.

[16] But loading heavy cargo too high, and failing to properly ballast the bottom tanks, raised the centre of gravity and led to instability.

[15] Several were sold to Canadian interests for use in the latter trades on the Saint Lawrence River and Great Lakes of North America.

Finally sold for demolition in April 1959, Hermann Fritzen arrived for breaking at Eckhardt & Co. in Hamburg in the first quarter of 1960.