I wish my earlier ships had been like that! They were mostly 1940s & 1950s built, steam winches, nothing automatic.

@jackosan: No maintenance of the blocks, all forged, could not be opened on board, replaced in one piece, spares on board.
Btw, two hydraulic tweendecks in every hold as well,
best equipped vessel ever.
@Denis: sistership WESTFALIA (first of series) had even 24 derricks, 2 derricks instead of the crane aft.
Best wishes, Manfred

Rigging of the derricks was done in nearly no-time. These vessels had a fully aiutomatic cargo gear.Meaning every pair of derricks had 2 electric winches for the spanwire , 2 for outside guys and one for the center guy. All controlled from a little box next to the controller for the cargo winches. 1 Person was able to prepare the gear. And yes with the right kind of commodities it worked pretty fast

Yes, it was a lot of maintenance with all those derricks, but there was also maintenance with cranes. When all derricks was ready rigged in position with preventers, discharging and loading went quicker with derricks than ships cranes. It was just impressive to watch how the stevedores handled the winches

But just think of all the maintenance required on the cargo gear (greasing wires, overhauling blocks etc.) plus all the work topping & lowering the derricks - no wonder they had larger crews those days!

22 derricks, 1 Stuelcken heavy lift derrick, 1 mast crane. You're welcome!

What a beauty!!

Best rgds.

Thanks for the comments. Yes, in those days I liked this class of seven beautiful ships.

Yes, a pity about the boxes but still a great-looking ship. Great photo.

The horrible box-time had started, what a pity for this great shot.
Thanks for posting, Manfred

Perfect shot! Thanks for posting.