Nauta shipyard in Gdynia - German anchor

[MarkusL]

Prinz Eugens anchor history seems to be a little obscure.
Ingo Bauernfeinds book on the Heavy Cruiser has on p. 123 a picture of Prinz Eugen with both anchors raised.
To me they look a little bit different than the one shown.
Is it sure that 42 indicates the year of production. Sunk at Gotenhafen/Gdynia was the submarine tender Waldemar Kophamel, 5.600 t, put into service end of 1940. Vessel capzised in the air raid of Dec 18th 1944 at basin VII in the docking pit of C-Dock. Raised and repaired from 1949 on.
Regards
Markus

[ghostw]

According to information gathered here in Gdynia in the basin where it was found there were three docks:
Schwimmdock B - lifting capacity 40 000t
plus two smaller docks - 4000t and 6000t

Bigger vessels like Wilhelm Gustloff went to another basin where Schwimmdock C was moored - lifting capacity 70 000t ( I have aerial picture made by RAF showing Gustloff in the dock).

Can you take a look at this map and tell us where the anchor was found? If you don't know exactly maybe guess as good as you know and tell us the roman number of the dock according to this map.
http://maps.mapywig.org/m/City_plans/Central_Europe/AMPG_hafengebiet_gotenhafen_ca1939-45.jpg
I found something but first I want to double check if it could be true.

Regarding the "Stevenanker":
In "Schwerer Kreuzer Prinz Eugen" Paul Schmalenbach states:

Der Anker in der Stevenklüse ist ab Sommer 1942 zwecks Gewichtersparnis nicht mehr an Bord gewesen.

Prinz Eugen spent 1942 in Brest, Norway and Kiel. It arrived in Gotenhafen in october. In theory it could've picked up a new anchor in Kiel just to drop it 1 month later in Gotenhafen to reduce weight... but this doesn't sound too plausible.

[MarkusL]

Kind of funny as the plan is from Nauticus 1944 so no copyright any longer.
The floating dock at VII is Schwimmdock C, btw rated 60.000t.
The smaller "Destroyer" Docks 4.000t and 6.000t of Deutsche Werke located at basin VI.
Schwimmdock B was moored after transfer of Schwimmdock C from Kiel at jetty at basin VIII. I assume unusable as no docking pit dredged there.
Picture showing Prinz Eugens anchors be found here
https://de.pinterest.com/pin/290130400996377710/
though I'm not on Pinterest.
Anyway just a guess
at Gotenhafen/Gdynia also a Naval Arsenal - Kriegsmarinearsenal was set up.
Could it have been practice to store some spare/replacement anchors there?
Regards
Markus

[SchlPr11]

Hallo,
die Arsenalfrage ist nicht uninteressant, wenn man die nicht fertig gestellten "Dickschiffe" (z. B. Kreuzer SEYDLITZ, GRAF ZEPPELIN) in die Betrachtung mit einbezieht.
Auch kann man darüber nachdenken, ob die Anker für L vormals LÜTZOW auch schon an die Sowjets nach Leningrad geliefert wurden.
Darüber hinaus dürfte die KM eben in ihren Arsenalen einen gewissen Überhang als nötige Reserve gelagert haben.
REINHARD

[MarkusL]

not to mention light cruisers KH 1 and KH 2 captured building at Rotterdam with overoptimistic early plans to complete both vessels in 1942

[Flynavy68]

Anchor was found in the mud during dredging works in Basin VI. In the attachemnt there is a pink * just below words Wilhelm Gustlaff Museum. The floating docks now are in the same place as in 1943/44 - please see the photo - the anchor was somewhere near the dock in the bottom of the photo

[ghostw]

Ah that's good to know.

What I found in the "Kriegstagebuch" of Prinz Eugen:

10.10.44 | Gotenhafen - Hafenbecken IV
[...]
Feinzusatzp K 3 | Anker durchgebrannt. Pumpenteil saß fest. Anker zur Werftinstandsetzung abgegeben.
K 1. Bandagen des Ankers haben sich gelöst.

But it's the wrong basin number. And as I think about it a bit more it doesn't sound like they mean the anchor of the ship but the "Anker" of an electric engine of a pump. So I was on a wrong track.

Anyway those ship logs contain a lot of details. The loss of a 6 tons anchor really should be noted somewhere.
I will scan some more ship logs in the coming days.