EFC Design 1039: Illustrations
EFC Design 1039: 7500-dwt Steel Barge, Alabama DD & SB Co. Design
Click here for a larger and more complete copy of this plan from the 1920 USSB ship register: Sheet 1
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Seagoing Barges Added to Coaling Equipment. Quoted from the Panama Canal Record, Volume XIV, No. 11, 27 October 1920, pp 142-143 (original-ufdc.uflib.ufl.edu/UF00097368/00012) The placing of two 7,500-ton coal barges in the service of the Panama Railroad Steamship Line between Norfolk and Cristobal will increase considerably the ability of the line to furnish coal to the coaling plants at the Canal. One of the barges, the Darien, has been in service for several months, and the other, the Mamei, is now on her first voyage to the Isthmus. The barges are towed by the colliers Achilles and Ulysses. A photograph of the Mamei is shown on this page. Each of the barges is 352 feet in length, over all, 335 feet on the load waterline, by 52 feet beam, with a molded depth of 33 feet. The construction is a single-deck steel barge, with topside tanks through cargo holds, and continuous steel upper deck, with poop and forecastle decks. The hold is divided by 6 bulkheads, with forward peak tanks, 5 cargo holds, and after peak tank. The deck house aft is of steel and serves as pilot house, galley, etc. The officers and crew are quartered in the poop deck. The barge is equipped with sails, to take advantage of the winds in lightening the tow and to afford some means of making headway if the tow should break loose. The 4 masts carry fore staysail, foresail, mainsail, mizzen sail, jigger sail, and spanker. The steam equipment is for the stearing engine, capstan, windlass, towing machines, pumps, winches, heating system, and electric plant, including a radio outfit. Each of the barges has a capacity of 7,500 tons of 2,240 pounds. The gross tonnage of each is 4,074 and the net tonnage, 3,760 tons. They were built at Mobile, Ala., by the Alabama Dry Dock and Shipbuilding Company, under a contract let by the Emergency Fleet Corporation under date of July 20, 1917. One of the Canal colliers and one of the barges together can carry approximately 19,500 tons of coal; on their present voyage, the collier Achilles is bringing 12,110 tons and the barge Mamei has 7,405 tons. With the barge in tow the time of the voyage from Norfolk to Cristobal is about 8 days, as compared with 6 days without a tow. The time required for passage is increased approximately one-third, while the carrying capacity of the unit is increased approximately three-fifths; the net gain in ability to deliver is about one-fourth. It is anticipated that, with the improvements which have been taking place in railway transportation to the seaboard in the United States, the Canal plants can count on receiving 50,000 or 55,000 tons of coal a month in the near future. |
Image from the Panama Canal Record, 27 October 1920.
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S.S. Ulysses One of the two Panama Canal Company colliers that towed the two Design 1039 barges shown on a trial run from her builder's yard at Sparrows Point, Maryland, on 10 April 1915. For more on these colliers see "The Panama Colliers Achilles and Ulysses," International Marine Engineering, Vol. 11, no. 6. June 1916, pp. 283-288. Photo No. NH 757 Source: U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command |
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S.S. Achilles The Panama Canal Co. sold Ulysses in 1929-30, Mamei and Darien in 1931-32, and Achilles in 1934-35. Achilles was converted by her new owner to a self-unloader. She was photographed as such on 8 June 1944 by a blimp of Squadron ZP-12, based at the Naval Air Station, Lakehurst, New Jersey. Photo No. 80-G-453277 Source: U.S. National Archives, RG-80-G |
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