Blexen (ship)
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The Blexen was a German fish steamer built in 1903 that disappeared off Iceland in September 1907 . The ship was named after the place Blexen , which is now a district of Nordenham .
The last trip
The Blexen left Aberdeen / Scotland on a fishing trip to Iceland on September 4, 1907 . The ship's command consisted of Captain Gustav Schier, b. January 17, 1876 in Alt-Passarge , later in Braunsberg (East Prussia) , who had been employed by the shipping company since February 1904. The helmsman was Hinrich Dohrmann, b. on February 25, 1864 in Venefehn . The names of the other crew members (two machinists, four sailors , an ordinary seaman , a stoker and a cook ) are not known.
The ship was sighted and approached on September 15 by the fish steamer Prangenhof of the same shipping company 15 to 20 nautical miles southeast of Ingólfshöfði . It is known that the Blexen 350 “basket” had caught fish and intended to start the journey home the next day. The crew of the Prangenhof saw her for the last time around 4 p.m. local time.
The Maritime Administration hearing in Bremerhaven on March 2, 1908
The Maritime Office Bremerhaven had turned in early November 1908 in several newspapers search ads, but brought no new information. The Blexen was therefore declared missing four months after its last sighting.
When Seeamtsverhandlung turned out that the Blexen in trawler circles Unterweser was considered an "exceptionally lithe Ship", "pretty much the rankste among the trawlers of the Unterweser". On the other hand, the ship was considered quite seaworthy. Two captains, who had operated the steamer two years before Captain Schier, had neither had accidents nor complained to the shipping company about the ship's unseaworthiness.
During the negotiation, Captain Kohnert of Prangenhof assumed that the Blexen capsized a good 120 to 190 nautical miles southeast to south of Ingolfshöfde Huk on the morning of September 16, 1907 . He suspected that the cause was that the Blexen had a very unfavorable stability due to the coal consumption and a small fish load. At this point there was a west-northwest storm with wind force 9 to 10.
literature
- Wolfgang Walter: German fish steamer. Technology, development, use, shipping register (publications of the German Maritime Museum. Volume 50), Carlsen / Die Hanse, Hamburg 1999, ISBN 3-551-88517-6 .
- Fish steamer "Blexen" from Geestemünde. Lost. Maritime Office Bremerhaven , March 2, 1908 . In: Reichsamt des Innern (Ed.): Decisions of the Ober-Seeamt and the Maritime Offices of the German Reich , Vol. 18. Hamburg 1910, pp. 321-325.