Lima, The German Embassy, 19 July 1948
Engineer Felix Wankel read the preliminary report of the Iquitos survey team with interest. Six weeks ago he and a group of specialists sponsored by the Deutscher Entwicklungsdienst had arrived in response to a request for technical assistance from the Peruvian Government. In frank imitation of the Entwicklungsdienst the Peruvians had already put into operation their scheme of Military Rural Settlement Units, which were doing good work across the country to improve rural health, agriculture, and local economies. No, Peru had asked for technical assistance in harnessing its natural resources to the betterment of the country as a whole, and Wankel had teams examining the possibility of large-scale irrigation works, development of unexploited mineral resources, and the potential for hydro-electric power. Among the most pressing need of the Peruvians was the improvement of communications with the Peruvian upper Amazon, the center of which was the river port of Iquitos.
Iquitos saw the coming and going of much river traffic – including ocean-capable vessels that made the long journey up the Brazilian Amazon from the Atlantic – but the city, cut off from the rest of Peru by high mountains – lacked many of the fundamental requisites of a proper port. To address this, the Peruvians had requested assistance in determining what new port facilities were required and – more to the point – how might such facilities be constructed.
The survey report told its own story – there was not sufficient depth of water in the vicinity of Iquitos to assure the operation of a normal graving dock. With the dint of dredging, however, a place could be found for the operation of a small floating repair dock – sufficient to maintain the smaller steamers that plied the upper Amazon. However, the cost of towing such a piece of infrastructure from Europe, all the way up the river to Iquitos, was prohibitive at best – even if political considerations were set aside.
As a reserve officer of the Kriegsmarine though Wankel believed he knew the solution to the problem. He was quite familiar with the use by the Kriegsmarine of modular pontoons for a variety of purposes during landing operations. By designing a dry dock on modular principles it would be easier to carry the pieces by cargo ship to Iquitos where they might be assembled piece by piece. It would take time to design the modules themselves and the fittings that would be required to assemble them, but he was confident it could be done. He quickly began to sketch his ideas upon a notepad…