T/S "Anna Katrin Fritzen"
 
 

T/S "Anna Katrin Fritzen", call sign: DDQG, 11,969 GRT, started in service 11/06/58 in Bremen, ship yard "AG Weser", sold 1973 as "Katrin" to Greece. 02/18/77 broken up in Bilbao/Spain. Seafaring time: 03/03/67 - 04/09/67 and 10/01/69 - 06/16/70

Typical ship's radio station of the DEBEG in the 50's and 60's. Center right the auto alarm receiver, over it the short wave transmitter Telefunken S526, left the medium wave main transmitter Telefunken S519, right the emergency receiver Siemens E66a.

The "Anna Katrin Fritzen" was my third ship as radio operator, a large bulk carrier ship, especially built for the "Great Lakes".  This ship was a turbine ship, which was seldom seen in the German merchant marine.  The ship's travelling noises were greatly reduced to a low piping noise from the turbine, which could not even be heard when outside. For all of that, the conduct of the ship was not intoxicating.  When the ship was full of ore, the center of gravity was tolerably low and the ship acted like a cork, rolling from port side to starboard - it also rolled when light swells prevailed.  The worst time must have been in March 1967 from Port Cartier in Canada to Rotterdam. In the vicinity of Newfoundland came a hurricane with wind strength of 11-12, and the ship rolled 40° side to side until the Captain ordered, "Heave to."  Typing the Ship's Press on the typewriter was impossible because the carriage kept rolling from side to side.  Also the main transmitting antenna tore loose, but I did not attempt to fix it until the weather calmed.  This was a storm that I will long remember.

Left bottom the well known main receiver Siemens E566. Over it the medium wave transmitter Lorenz S509. On the desk a Japanese electronic morse keyer "Dentsu Seiki" which is operational today.

Some of the nicest voyages I made were on the "Anna Katrin Fritzen," to Australia, in the Carribean, (Virgin Islands) the Gulf of Mexico, (Houston, New Orleans, Mobile, Jacksonville) Mexico, (Coatzacoalcos) and across the Pacific to Australia and back to Portland, Oregon. On this ship something caught up with me that was long overdue: The Equatorial Crossing Baptism!  I had not thought much about it because I had several times crossed the equator "Unbaptised."  But more on this on the "Equatorial Crossing Baptism" page.   Here you can see how crowded the radio station is.