Looking for help with a German WW1 Torpedo boats design

Another common mission would be deploying floating smoke canisters.

Bill

JoeSMG

and have some type of conveyor belt.

Typically just rails, either bulb-top "T" or full round fixed to the deck.

Dedicated minelayers have a "downhill" slope at the end of the track.  So, you roll the device on its wheels to the end, and put it on a stop chain.  Then, when the bridge office indicates, the pelican hook is opened and the device rolls over the stern.  The 15-20 deck apes hunkering about on the Sea Detail, then heave the stack out so the next one is ready in the stops. 

This can alternate port and starboard to need.

Unlike in the movies, where the things are strewn about willy-nilly maybe 300-400 feet apart.  You lay mine fields in a grid about around the length of the target vessel.  So, they are laid around 300-400 yards to around 600-800 yards apart.  The spacing also needs to be wide enough that the devices do not foul each other due to currents & tides, or storms.

The minelayer will get to the end of the line, and turn down the last line run, and make the next grid line.  Floating mines stay attached to their anchor by way of a salt plug to keep the field "safe" until the minelayer can get out.  There is some considerable navigation required to lay the grid lines. 

With the EU over the past years, a lot of German citizens and companies are English speakers.

Try the company and they might know if any records survived the war, or be able to send you in the right direction.  Imperial War Museum/archives might be the best bet

You might get lucky.  I think there are some researchers over there that try to keep track of U-Boats and other wrecks that do speak English.  There might be a translater tie in on their computer, and even if they don't, just getting something in English shoiuld make them curious enoiugh to translate.  You have nothing to lose.

True but I'm hoping to avoid things that may coast money as there is likely very little R.O.I

From Wikipedea:

• V25 to V30, V43 to V48, V69, V71 to V74, V78, and V80 to V82, all built by AG Vulcan at Stettin
• V67, V68, V70, V75, V76, V77, V79, V83 and V85 by AG Vulcan at Hamburg
• G37 to G42, and G85 to G95, built by Germaniawerft at Kiel,
• S31 to S36, and S49 to S66, built by Schichau at Elbing

Guess it wouldn't hurt to ask.

Added -

Per Wikipedea: AG Vulcan went under between the world wars. A new Vulcan shipbuilder took over the old yards but had no connection to the prior Vulcan company other than name and location. Wouldn't begin to know who owns the rights to those old plans now - may poke around German government archive type sites - though mein Deutsch ist verboten!

Who would have designed or built that boat?  Could there still be records of it in Germany?  They had a habit of maintaining all sorts of records for ships and equipment throught he decades.

It's worth a shot.

Thank you both for your replies - I'm now reasonably convinced the device in question was indeed for deploying mines and not depth charges as I originally though. It's shape isn't consistent between photos I have of it, I'm guessing manufacturers varied the design over time. At it's seaward terminus some photos show it rounded others squared, all seemed to be able to rotate to port and starboard and have some type of conveyor belt. Would love to get my hands on a diagram...

Below is my current implementation:

Floating naval mines are strapped to their anchors, which are typically squared off and fitted with flanged trucks like railroad wheels (or in a sheave-like configuration).

WWI mines are not always round, many are cylinders so as to have an air chamber for bouyancy.

Depth charges in WWI are typically launched via a mortar using black powder.  The charges were large, often 250 or 300 KG and the vessels were slightly built, not a good combination for close-aboard underwater detonations.  (Submarines did not operate that deep in WWI, so the explosions were very close to the surface.)

Looks like maybe a few links of chain then transitioning to cable anchor set-up.

If the horned ball shaped mines, I've seen some video of them sliding down a rail system for launching.

Easier to roll depthcharges off the stern if at 90* to centerline.  A couple of pics show longer items on the same axis as the ship.

This is the kind of thing that drives me bannanas...

Look at pic 1 above, look at the lefthand botton of the device in question, rounded right? Now look at its refection in the water below - Flat and square.

How is that possible?

I captured that still from a youTube video, so editing is not likely.

I kind'a wondered the same but wrote it off thinking the big round naval mines I imagine when ww1 naval mines are mentioned, would never fit on that device. After reading your post I decided to google "WW1 German naval mines" and found this image:

That looks very much like the cylinder-ish objects strapped? to the sides of the device I'm trying to model. So it probably is a mine laying device, I'd still would like to see some much better quality pictures on the off chance that anyone has them or knows where some may be online...

I will try googling verieties of: German torpedo boat mine laying equipment

I may have better luck now

Wonder if the first few pics could be mine laying rails rather than depth charge gear.