AG Vulcan Stettin

Aktien-Gesellschaft Vulcan Stettin (short AG Vulcan Stettin) was a German shipbuilding and locomotive building company. Founded in 1851, it was located near the city of Stettin, today Polish Szczecin. Because of the limited facilities in Stettin, in 1907 an additional yard was built in Hamburg. The now named Vulcan-Werke Hamburg und Stettin Actiengesellschaft constructed some of the most famous civilian German ships and it played a significant role in both World Wars, building warships for the Kaiserliche Marine and the Kriegsmarine later.

Both yards became members of the Deschimag in the 1920s. The Stettin shipyard was closed in 1928, opened again in 1939. During World War II it exploited slave workers, and after the war, was taken over by the Polish government, while the Hamburg yard was sold to Howaldtswerke AG in 1930 and the Locomotive Department was sold to in Berlin.

History

A.G. Vulcan Stettin was founded 1851 as Schiffswerft und Maschinenfabrik Früchtenicht & Brock by the two young engineers Franz F. D. Früchtenicht and Franz W. Brock in the little village Bredow, which later became suburb of the eastern German city of Stettin. Its first ship was the small iron paddle steamer, named Die Dievenow for the service between the cities of Stettin and Swinemünde. Several small vessels followed, while the yard continuously was enlarged.

When the yard went into financial problems, in 1857 the company was taken over by some entrepreneurs and politicians from Stettin and Berlin which founded the new company Stettiner Maschinenbau Actien-Gesellschaft Vulcan. Ship construction was continued, but the solution of the financial trouble was expected by additionally constructing locomotives.

Automatic transmissions for motor vehicles

Gustav Bauer, director of the marine engine section, supervised the work of Hermann Föttinger on the Fottinger hydraulic transmitter known as Vulcan Coupling and Vulcan Drive or fluid coupling. In 1924, Vulcan's Hermann Rieseler invented one of the first automatic transmissions, which had a two-speed planetary gearbox, torque converter, and lockup clutch; it never entered production.[2] (The less-sophisticated Hydra-Matic, which used a simple fluid coupling, was an available option on Oldsmobiles in 1940.)[2] The original coupling further developed in collaboration with Harold Sinclair of Fluidrive Engineering of Isleworth for Daimler of Coventry and matched with a manually controlled epicyclic gearbox went into production in England in 1929.[3]

New enterprise

1939 a new company - also named Vulcan - was founded on the site of the former Stettin-shipyard. All together 34 construction numbers were started in the following years, including 18 type-VII C submarines. But because of the war only a few ships could be launched and completed. Among these were two submarines, but only one of them (GS U-901) was ever in service while the second one (GS U-902) was destroyed by allied air attacks before. During the war the yard exploited slave workers and had its own prisoner camp, part of the prisoner population engaged in anti-Nazi resistance, successfully sabotaging several constructed ships.[4][5] The Polish resistance also conducted espionage of the company.[6]

After World War II the slave workers were freed and the shipyard was finally taken over by the Polish government and the new Szczecin Shipyard was started at this site. The Szczecin Shipyard named one of its wharfs "Wulkan" and two slipways "Wulkan 1" and "Wulkan Nowa".

Ships built by AG Vulcan Stettin (selection)

1851, Constr.No. 1, Paddle steamer Die Dievenow, first built ship

1873, CNo. 66, SMS Preussen, first ironclad warship build

1877, CNo. 74, SMS Sachsen (1877), ironclad warship

1879, RUSSIAN STEAMBOAT Askold for Shipping Company on the Don, Azov and Black Seas with their tributaries . After 1886 belonged to Russian Steam Navigation and Trading Company[7]

1880, Corvette Olga

1881–1882, CHINESE TURRET SHIP Dingyuan and CHINESE TURRET SHIP Zhenyuan for Chinese Navy

1887, Irene-class cruiser protected cruiser SMS Irene for Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial German Navy); 1922 broken up

1889, Scandia Hamburg America Line liner, sold to U.S. Army Quartermaster Department 1898 serving as U.S. Army Transport Warren until 1922, sold, burned sunk Shanghai 1924

Ships built by AG Vulcan Hamburg (selection)

1911/12, Kaiser-class battleship SMS Friedrich der Grosse (1911) for Kaiserliche Marine

1913/14, Passenger ship SS Imperator

1913/14, König-class battleship SMS Grosser Kurfürst (1913) for Kaiserliche Marine

1913/14, Merchant ship SS Cap Trafalgar

1914, Battleship Salamis for Hellenic Navy, construction stopped with beginning of war, 1932 scrapped in Bremen

1915–1917, All together 69 U-boats of types UE 1, UE 2, UB III, UC I and UC II for Kaiserliche Marine

1916, Modified Mackensen-class battlecruiser SMS Ersatz Yorck (Replacement Yorck), construction stopped and after war broken up

1917, Bayern-class battleship SMS Württemberg (1917) for Kaiserliche Marine, not finished before end of war

1922, Merchant ship Cap Norte

fate	Dismantled after World War II
foundation	1851
defunct	1945
location	Stettin, Germany (now Szczecin, Poland)
industry	Shipbuilding and Locomotive building
num employees	~20,000 (in 1918)

History

Automatic transmissions for motor vehicles

Shutdown

New enterprise

Ships built by AG Vulcan Stettin (selection)

Ships built by AG Vulcan Hamburg (selection)

Ships built by AG Vulcan Stettin (selection)

Civilian ships

Naval ships

Battleships

Cruisers

Battleships

Cruisers

Destroyers

Submarines (U-boats)

Torpedo Boats

Ships still afloat

External links

References

Destroyers

Submarines (U-boats)

Torpedo Boats