1947
COLOMBIA
At the Maritime Historical Society, Club Maritim in Göteborg, building a Stena archive through pictures and words is in progress. There is a lot of interest both outside and within the sphere of both older and newer vessels. Lennart Ramsvik and Morgan Rittedal are responsible for archival work. These articles will be exclusive for SfärNytt Online Magazine.
After the war a number of similar small shelter deck cargo ships between 2,000 and 3,000 tons were built at the Swedish shipyards around the coasts. Ekensbergs Shipyard, in the Mälaren part of Stockholm, delivered Colombia in May 1947 to the Swede Hans Elliot with company in Panama. The ship was destined for traffic with cargo in small units and passengers between North and South America for a shipping company run by a branch of the Wallenberg family in New York. After the war was South America thought of as the land of the future, the new United States. The expectations did not materialize and the various forms of trade barriers occurred while tonnage rapidly grew and made more efficient.
IN W. J. HARVEY'S BOOK, FOLLOWING DATA IS LISTED ON COLOMBIA'S DIMENSIONS: | |
Beam | 85.88m |
Width | 11.58m |
Depth to main deck | 6.985m |
Dead weight | 2,235 tons |
Netto weight | 1,070 tons |
Brutto weight | 1,759 tons |
Colombia was bought in late 1960 by Rederi AB Samba, a company in the Stena Sphere, and was taken to a shipyard in Göteborg. The cargo holds were changed to large open units and the main motor, a seven-cylinder Polar diesel, thoroughly renovated. When the renovation was complete, a charter was signed with Adolf Bratt & Co in Göteborg. The chimney was now red with a black top, but the name was retained Colombia. The ship came to be employed for regular traffic between Sweden and the United Kingdom / Ireland in February 1961. The main ports were Göteborg, Cork, Newport-Mon, Swansea, Bristol, Cardiff and Port Talbot. After the charter ended in May 1962, Colombia were employed in stray traffic for another two years. When Stena took delivery of the passenger vessel Poseidon in the middle of 1964, Colombia was sold to a shipping company in the Philippines and was named Don Sulpicio, which in 1969 was changed to Dona Gloria. First, in June 1984 she was sold for scrap, which was effective in Caloocan, on the outskirts of Manila.
Colombia was the first ship delivered with the new Polar diesel engine, which was of the MT type, number of cylinders was 4-9, resulting in a power range between 1,500 and 3,600 ehp. The ship had a speed of over 15 knots at delivery.
Below are some data about Colombia’s main engine:
The engine is a 7-cylinder, 2-stroke, single acting truncated engine, the cylinder diameter of 500 mm, stroke 700 mm, and the average pressure of 5.23 kilos / cm2 at 250 rpm. The effect given to the ihp 3,500 and 2,800 ehp. The technically interested realizes that this means the pressure is very low compared to today’s values, and that the mechanical efficiency is only 80% (2,800 ehp/3,500 ihp).
Upon delivery, the vessel was equipped with unusually long booms, Lindholmens patented truss structure. These were later on replaced with common barriers of tubular construction. On the various photos you can see the ship equipped with both the old truss booms, and with the new tube-type booms.