Inland shipyard

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Domestic shipyards are located on rivers or canals and have simple slipways for building or slipways for the repair of inland waterway vessels and rare small coastal vessels.

Hand saws, important tools for wooden shipbuilders

history

From the 12th century, most boats or ships in Germany were built on simple drainage points located on suitable river banks . These shipbuilding sites were often used by several shipbuilders, in many towns and cities they were also used for loading and unloading ships and were referred to as Lastadie . Only with the passage of time, with larger and more expensive ships, did shipbuilders come together and shipyards with permanent slipways developed from the simple shipbuilding sites. The slipways, which were created for overhauls, painting and repair work, were equipped with one or more winches. The winches were initially operated with human or animal power, later with steam power , motor power and today mainly electrically.

Dry docks were rarely used in inland shipyards; they were common for repairs in the large shipyards in the port cities. Also floating docks were rarely found in domestic shipyards. Stevendocks, with which only part of the ship can be lifted out of the water, e.g. B. to be able to carry out repairs on propeller or rudder systems, however, can be found relatively often in larger inland shipyards.

Often only one or two professions were involved in building wooden ships. In addition to the shipbuilders, blacksmiths sometimes also worked on the shipbuilding site. Most of the few ironworks were given to the local village blacksmiths, and the ropes and ropes designated as running goods came from the nearest rope mill . This shows that shipbuilding at that time was a regional trade with additional work from the surrounding craftsmen.

That changed with the transition from wood to steel, and shipbuilding became considerably more complex. In this transition period of one or two generations of shipbuilders, many of the shipbuilders gave up and the majority of inland shipping yards ceased to exist, were taken over or merged with others. An exception is the Neptunwerft , which as a sea-going shipyard builds sophisticated river cruise ships in large series and also largely manufactures the hulls itself.

Current situation

The number of shipyards, and especially inland waterway shipyards, has decreased significantly with the transition from wood to steel. Not only did the ships become more complicated, they also got bigger, increased considerably in value and the procurement of the building materials also became more complex. The shipbuilding sheet was procured from steel works or middlemen. The boilers and steam engines , steam pumps and blowers were no longer manufactured by hand, but industrially. These circumstances led to the fact that the remaining inland shipping yards grew to take over the lack of capacity of the closed yards. On the other hand, the own share sank as more and more material was bought in from shipyard suppliers.

In the meantime, Germany has become a high-wage country and new buildings are therefore comparatively expensive. Today, Germany only has a few inland shipping yards that also build new ships. Most of the shipyards are engaged in repair and conversion work. Most of the new buildings remaining in Germany are designed and constructed here and manufactured abroad as a shell. As hulls designated buoyant hulls are then towed to the German shipyards and expanded here by the classification societies removed or in the case of authorization as inland the Vessel Inspection Commission of the Water and Shipping Administration and delivered to the customer.

Differentiation from sea shipyards

The demarcation between the inland shipyards and the sea shipyards is fluid, as both inland shipyards build seagoing vessels from time to time and inland vessels were built by sea shipyards more rarely. Typical for an inland shipyard is the slipway, which is usually designed as a transverse slip system, which enables even large inland vessels with their relatively low longitudinal strength compared to seagoing vessels of the same length to be slipped on without problems.

Typical inland shipyards

• Arminius shipyard , Bodenwerder
• Deggendorfer Werft und Eisenbau GmbH , Deggendorf
• Elbe shipyard , Boizenburg
• Sachsenberg brothers , Rosslau
• Hitzler shipyard , Lauenburg
• Lux shipyard , Mondorf
• Hans Boost shipyard , Trier

See also

• Association for shipbuilding and marine technology
• Shipbuilding in the GDR

literature

• GU Detefsen: From the ewer to the container ship. Koehler, Herford 1983, ISBN 3-7822-0321-6 .
• D. Strobel: Shipbuilding between Elbe and Oder. Koehler, Herford 1993, ISBN 3-7822-0565-0 .
• G. Meyer: Barges between the Elbe and the Oder. Elbe & Spree-Verlag, Hamburg 1994, ISBN 3-931129-01-2 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Willi Mohrs: New stevendock puts on . ( derwesten.de [accessed on October 9, 2018]).