Bremen (ship, 1939)
 The Bremen 1968 in front of Sankt Thomas
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
The Bremen was a turbine ship of the North German Lloyd used for passenger transport . She was the fifth ship of Lloyd's to carry the name Bremen .
construction
In 1936, the French shipping company Compagnie de Navigation Sud-Atlantique planned to replace the L'Atlantique with the construction of a passenger and freight transport ship for liner service on the South Atlantic routes , which was to compete with the Cap Arcona from the Hamburg Süd shipping company . The new building was on 15 February 1938 on the shipyard Chantiers de Penhoët in Saint-Nazaire from the pile and was named after the scientist Pasteur Louis in the name Pasteur baptized. A fire in March 1939 delayed its completion so that the first test drive only took place shortly before the start of the Second World War in August 1939.
The 29,253 GRT large Pasteur was 212.4 m long and 26.8 m wide. She had 11 decks and had extensive holds. It was set up for 751 passengers. The four- propeller ship could run up to 26 knots , but in general service ran 22 knots. Her draft was 9.3 m.
modification
In 1957, Norddeutsche Lloyd acquired the ship and had the future Bremen completely renovated at the Bremer Vulkan shipyard in Bremen-Vegesack . Their size has now been measured at 32,336 GRT and their carrying capacity at 8,700 tdw . It received new boilers and four turbines with a max. Power of 60,000 PS for a speed of max. 26 knots and 23 knots operating at 53,500 hp. Her three 1,375 KVA - generators have a power output of 6,600 kilowatts . During the renovation, the silhouette of the ship became more elegant, especially due to the teardrop-shaped new chimney. She received two 4.50 m long stabilizers for a smoother ride in very rough seas. Her test drive was in June 1959.
history
The Pasteur's first already fully booked trip could not take place due to the beginning of the Second World War . She stayed in St. Nazaire and Brest . In 1940, 200 tons of French gold reserves were shipped to Canada on it . After the defeat of France, Great Britain took over the ship. It was used as a troop transport and hospital ship between Canada, South Africa , Australia and South America and transported a total of around 300,000 soldiers. After being returned to France, the ship was in French service as a troop transport to Vietnam ( Indochina War ) from 1946 and to Algeria from 1954 to 1957 .
In 1957, North German Lloyd bought the ship for DM 30 million. This sparked violent protests among the French population. The transfer took place in September 1957 from Brest to Bremerhaven . Lloyd had the ship rebuilt at the Bremer Vulkan shipyard for a further DM 65 million and used it under the name Bremen in the North Atlantic service. On July 9, 1959, she set out on her maiden voyage from Bremerhaven via Southampton and Cherbourg to New York . She was considered to be one of the most beautiful passenger ships of her time.
In 1960 the Bremen was able to transport around 14,000 guests from Europe to the USA and just as many guests in the opposite direction. In addition, it was also used in cruise traffic in the Caribbean and South America from 1960. In 1961, too, the occupancy rate was very good at 85 percent. From 1964/65 the capacity utilization and, above all, the economic situation were less satisfactory, as the air traffic became a significantly increasing competition. From 1965/67 onwards, the Bremen had to record increasing losses. The trips were shifted more and more and from 1971 almost exclusively on the cruise. In 1970 Lloyd merged with HAPAG to form the major shipping company Hapag-Lloyd . In October 1971, was Bremen after 175 Atlantic crossings and 117 cruises for DM 40 million by Greece to the shipping company Chandris sold.
She now sailed as Regina Magna in the Mediterranean , but was launched in 1974 in Piraeus . From 1977, she was under the name of Saudi Phil I a hotel ship in Jeddah . In 1980 she was sold as Filipinas-Saudi I to Philsimport International in Hong Kong ; The ship sank in the Indian Ocean on June 6th while it was being towed to Taiwan to be scrapped .
Crew and passengers
The Bremen had a crew of 545 people, 300 of whom were active in the service sector. Around 1,150 passengers could be transported, 216 of them in 1st class.
The following captains led the Bremen :
- Heinrich Lorenz (1959–1960)
- Fritz Leusner (1960)
- Günter Rössing (1960–1965)
- Walter Schott (captain's representation around 1965)
- Heinz Vollmers (1965–1967)
- Heinrich Behnsen (1967–1969)
- Paul Vetter (1966–1972)
- Claus Hamje (1971)
Trivia
The magician duo Siegfried and Roy met in 1960 on the Bremen, as Siegfried worked there as a steward and Roy as a page. The magic show, in which they appeared together for the first time on the ship, was the cornerstone of their later career.
literature
- Harald Focke: Bremen's last liner. The large passenger ships of the North German Lloyd after 1945 . Hauschild Verlag , Bremen 2002, ISBN 3-89757-148-X
- Harald Focke: With Lloyd to New York, memories of the passenger ships Berlin, Bremen and Europe. Hauschild Verlag, Bremen 2004, ISBN 3-89757-251-6
- Harald Focke: In the liner service on the Atlantic . Hauschild Verlag, Bremen 2006, ISBN 3-89757-339-3
- Dirk J. Peters (Ed.): The North German Lloyd . Hauschild Verlag, Bremen 2007, ISBN 978-3-89757-360-4
