Adele (1952 ship)

In Winter 1943 Gottlieb Duttweiler and the Migros-Genossenschafts-Bund, Zürich, withdrew from the shipping company Maritime Suisse S.A. originally planned to establish the Merchant Marine of Switzerland during World War II. Nevertheless, the creation of a shipping company with initially three Victory and three Liberty ships, sailing on a regular liner service between the US and the Mediterranean Sea, never was realized. The shipping company Reederei Zürich AG was founded on 26 July 1951, and immediately two fast freighters were ordered from the shipyard H. C. Stülcken, Hamburg: Adele, named after Duttweiler's wife Adele Duttweiler, and Amelia, named after Göner's wife Amelia Göhner. Each unit was valued to 5,0 Mio. DM without the main engines which were ordered separately from Gebrüder Sulzer, Winterthur, for a total price of 3,75 Mio. CHF. The Swiss government financed 75% of the building costs under the terms, that during a crisis situation, the vessels would be immediately put at the government's disposal. Some of the Swiss parliamentarians, but also Swiss news papers were disturbed about the English prefix SUN in the name of a Swiss ship, and other were indignant with the charterers. In February 1966 the time charter of SUNADELE with Saguenay was terminated and later sold; SUNAMELIA remained in the Saguenay charter until 31 December 1968 until she was sold in February 1970. == Career ==

Construction The Zürich-based Swiss Reederei Zürich AG ordered at the H. C. Stülcken Sohn shipyard in Hamburg, Germany, a cargo ship which was built under hull Number 808, being so far the biggest vessel Stülcken shipyard had built after the World War II. and she was registered as official Number 047, call sign HBFL, under Swiss flag with the charter name "SUNADELE". Charter Adele commenced a time charter with Montreal-based Saguenay Terminals Incorporated right after delivery from the shipyard. Therefore, the ship had to adopt the charter name "SUNADELE", as all Saguenay vessels were named with the prefix "SUN". In 1977 she was transferred to Hellenic Lines Ltd in Piraeus, and sailed under Greek flag on different regular lines. In 1980 the vessel was sold for demolition to Mao Chen Iron & Steel Co. Ltd., Kaohsiung, Taiwan: on 25 June 1980 Livorno passed the Panama Canal on her last voyage to Kaohsiung, where she arrived on 8 August 1980. the tween deck cargo vessels mainly carried bauxite to the aluminium plant in Port Alfred, Canada. Sometimes also a full cargo of sugar from Cuba or from Guyana was carried up to Northern America. On a normal voyage usually three to five ports were visited, especially in the West Indies, among others, Georgetown, Mackenzie in Guyana, Port of Spain on Trinidad, ports in Venezuela, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, the ports of Cuba and Haiti and Jamaica, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, and the islands of Barbados, Domenica, Grenada and St. Vincent. However the voyages did change, depending on cargo availability and other operational requirements. In North America, the main ports were Montreal, Port Alfred up the Saguenay River in Quebec, Halifax, Saint John (New Brunswick) and New York. In summer time the ships went to the ports in the St. Lawrence River, but in winter time Sunadele/Sunamelia were diverted to the ice-free ports of Halifax and Saint John. In Europe usually the ships called at Antwerp, Hamburg, Rotterdam, and in the U.K. at Avonmouth, Cardiff, Liverpool, London and Glasgow. == Crew ==

For her maiden tour, the captain, officers and crew first were hired from Denmark, only three seamen from Switzerland were on board. The working contracts were according to Danish regulations, and the wage was paid in Danish Kroner. In 1955 the Reederei Zürich AG took over full control and management of the vessel, and the crew was paid according to Swiss regulations, and about 75% were Swiss at the end of 1956. Later almost all crew members were from Switzerland, except for the captain and the deck officers, who remained mostly German and Dutch nationals. == Technical specifications ==

Cargo equipment The vessel had an increased baking and a midship deckhouse with underlying engine room. The longitudinal-framed hull was ice-reinforced. Built as a closed shelter-decker, Adele had a grain capacity of and an internal volume of ball steerage. Two of the four cargo holds were arranged in front of the bridge structure, two were behind it. The two front rooms were accessible by three hatches, the aft rooms had one hatch each. The cargo consisted of 12 normal light derricks on all hatches and a 25-ton heavy lift on hold 2. The 12 AEG-type winches, manufactured under license by Kampnagel Schaerffe, Hamburg, were designed to lift 3 tons at /min in single gear, or 5 tons at that speed in double gear. Each was driven by an 18.4-kW electric motor. The derricks between the two forward hatches were attached to double post, which served simultaneously as a cargo space ventilation of 20 changes of air per hour, the second front and aft cargo gear was on conventional central derricks. The hatches were fitted with a sliding steel hatch cover, and the main deck was lined with thick Oregon pine to prevent heat radiation, assumably to carry fruits. However, no refrigeration plant was fitted, hence the carriage of any fruit had been restricted to short sea trade, such as from Spain or Canary Islands to North Europe. Besides the shaft tunnel there were cargo tanks. == See also ==

• Kurt Schmid: Steuerbord zehn: Erlebnisse eines jungen Schweizers in den frühen sechziger Jahren auf hoher See. Books on Demand, 2014. . • Margrit und Ernst Baumann: Die Welt sehen: Fotoreportagen 1945-2000. Scheidegger & Spiess, Zürich 2010. . == References ==