After the extensive loosening of the shipbuilding restrictions of the Potsdam Agreement , North German Lloyd rebuilt its cargo ship fleet from 1950. Starting with series such as the Rheinstein class and acquisitions, the NDL fleet grew continuously. From 1957, Norddeutsche Lloyd ordered the two newly developed ship types of the Burgenstein class for its Far East service from the Bremer Vulkan and Howaldtswerke shipyards . On October 15, 1958, the shipping company was able to take over the type ship Burgenstein from the shipyard. On November 20, 1960, the last ship of the quintet, the Riederstein , was delivered. The Howaldtswerke buildings in Regenstein and Riederstein were somewhat larger than the three Vulkan buildings and had a somewhat more extensive loading gear and a deckhouse arranged further forward.
Use at the NDL
The ships were used from Europe on the long-distance routes to East Asia, Australia, New Zealand, etc. and back. The main cargo consisted of general cargo of all kinds, individual heavy cargo loads were also accepted and significant numbers of passengers were carried. When the NDL merged with HAPAG , the ships were jointly owned by the new Hapag-Lloyd .
On January 10, 1977, a fire broke out in the cargo on the lead ship Burgenstein in Bremerhaven, killing four seafarers.
Later career
In 1974 Hapag-Lloyd brought the three smaller volcanic buildings under the Panama flag . The two larger ships were sold to Singapore in 1976 . The Buntenstein was taken over in 1980 as Sandra S. by the Mediterranean Shipping Company , the two remaining ships went to shipping companies from Jeddah the following year as Saudi Palm and Saudi Rose . The ships remained in service with their second owners and under their new names until 1983/84 without further sales and were then broken off.
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