Alliance Model Works designs accessories for building shipyard dioramas. Among them, cranes of different origins and configurations.
At first, there weren't cranes. There were davits...
Mare Island 1870:
Sir William Armstrong constructed the first hydraulic crane in 1838, marking the beginning of modern cranes. Half a century later, the following specimens were constructed according to modified Armstrong designs. The Venice crane sadly only one survived till today.
. La Spezia (1876) . Bombay (1877) . Liverpool (1881) . Malta (1883) . Taranto and Venice (1885) . Pozzuoli (1887) . Japan (1892 and 1905)
Earliest modern cranes were built to load cargo, that changed when ships with steel hull started to appear, and with it, the demand for heavy construction cranes.
A crane needs to lift and reach. Lifting wasn't so hard once there were steel cables, but reach was difficult to obtain. This was why there were floating cranes before giant cantilevers.
One of the earlest floating cranes was the "Langer Heinrich" built by the Duisburg company Bechem & Keetman in 1906. It wasn't very tall, and did not have much reach. Nevertheless, it could move around ships and was able to hoist heavy items onto deck. Langer Heinrich went through a series of restoration and rehabilitation in the 1980s and 90s, and is still operating today.
Another German company, Benrather Maschinenfabrik AG started marketing their 150t designs the same year. Britain, building dreadnoughts at the time, became immediately interested, and made several purchases in the years followed. One by Harland & Wolff was used to construct the Olympic-class ocean liners.
Gantries also started to appear around this time. Still no sign of cantilevers. A few Armstrong cranes were still operational.
