Key bin
The Schlüsseltonne ( Low German Slöteltunn ), also known as the Bremer Tonne , is a nautical mark on the North Sea coast north of the Roter Sand shoal in front of Wangerooge (position: 53 ° 56 ′ N , 7 ° 56 ′ E, ), which serves as a guide buoy for approaching the Weser . It has been laid out since 1664 and is probably the oldest floating nautical mark on the German coast outside an estuary.
History of the key bin
The maritime trade and Hanseatic city of Bremen , which relied on safe access to the North Sea via the Weser, had been exercising sovereign rights over the Lower and Outer Weser (at the latest) since the early 15th century , including laying out, setting up and maintaining navigation signs - such as floating buoys and fixed beacons - belonged. Until the end of the 19th century, the Bremen merchants were responsible for the Bremen buoys and beacons , represented by the so-called parents .
On April 20, 1664, the parents in Bremen had a new guide buoy designed to replace a buoy already mentioned in 1642 as the extreme navigation mark of the Weser fairway markings north of Wangerooge at a depth of 11 fathoms . This key bin, which is important for approaching the Weser, was decorated with a key - the symbol of the Bremen coat of arms - as a top sign and was then referred to as the key bin or Bremer bin . In an announcement from 1664 it says:
"Be informed and to know hereby everyone / especially all boatmen and seafarers Leuthen / if the Weser conceivably use it / that there is still a black sea barrel in front of the Weser / which has not been in front of it / and on which there is a pole with a gold-plated key / which serves the skippers and seafarers Leuthen for good news. Bremen April 20th / the one thousand six hundred four and sixtieth years. "
This original Schlüsseltonne consisted dare bulkhead cut, best pristine, knot 6.5 centimeters thick oak , held together with iron rings. A block made of Obernkirchen sandstone was used to anchor it to the bottom of the lake and was connected to the barrel with a chain made of Swedish steel. To make it seawater-resistant, it was given a black tar paint. The top mark, designed as a key, was executed in gold .
Over the years, the key bin has been renewed several times, but always kept the distinctive key as a top symbol. Originally simply attached to a towering pole, it was later attached to a spindle or ball as an attachment. The position of the buoy at the beginning of the fairway to the Westerweser ( New Weser ) has changed only slightly and followed the natural shifts of the red sand .
From 1873 a key spar was laid out in addition to the key bin. This spar barrel was about 100 meters northwest of the key barrel. It was 13 meters long, of which about 6.5 meters protruded from the water. Their largest diameter was 0.85 meters. The key spar was painted black and also had a gold-plated key as a top mark. The key barrel at that time had a total length of 6 meters, plus a 1.4 meter high balloon-shaped structure made of cane over which the 0.87 meter high key was attached. It was anchored with two chains of 36 and 33 meters in length and two stones of 1750 and 1250 kg. Under normal flow conditions, their angle of inclination was 80 °. The black painted bucket bore the inscription “WESER” in white, protruded 5 meters out of the water and was visible for about four nautical miles .
With the laying out of the lightship Weser in 1874, the significance of the navigation mark declined, but it continued to serve as a navigation aid for shipping in the Outer Weser. In 1887 the buoy was painted red in accordance with the uniform marking system in German waters, as it was on the starboard side in the fairway . At the beginning of the Second World War in 1939, the bin was pulled in and initially not set again after the end of the war. A new key bucket was only laid out on September 1, 1964; it was painted red and black with a standing double cross as the official identification of a control bucket . The navigation mark was supplemented by a propane gas powered lantern that generated a common mode fire. Since 1978 the bin has been painted red and white according to the new international system. In 2004 it received an LED light that is fed by a photovoltaic system , and in 2008 it received a new compact solar attachment labeled “ST”.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Rolf Seedorf: The key barrel, a sea mark of the Weser and of a special kind . In: The Engineer of the Waterways and Shipping Administration . No. 1 , 2010.
- ↑ According to a Bremen announcement from January 1880, exhibited in the Maritime Museum of the Oldenburg Lower Weser in Brake .
literature
- Rolf Seedorf: The key barrel - a sea mark of the Weser and of a special kind . In: The Engineer - IWSV . No. 1, March 2010, pp. 8-12.
- Christina Deggim: Blown up and run down. Sea buoys and beacons in sources of the Bremen Chamber of Commerce . In: Historische Gesellschaft Bremen (ed.): Bremisches Jahrbuch , Volume 79. Bremen 2000, ISSN 0341-9622 , pp. 73-115.
Web links
- www.baken-net.de Information about the historical beacons on Wangerooge and the key barrel north of the island.