DH Wätjen and Co.
D. H. Wätjen and Co. was the world's largest private sailing ship company .
Founding by Diedrich Heinrich Wätjen (1821)
Diedrich Heinrich Wätjen (1785–1858), a farmer's son from Ochtmannien near Vilsen, was a partner in the company A. Fr. Schaer & Co. from 1818 , which was soon known as Schaer & Wätjen , from 1821 as D. H. Wätjen and from 1829 as DH Wätjen and Co. traded. From the beginning with a sailing ship with a load of 180 tons (1821), with which he imported tobacco, sugar, coffee and wine from Bordeaux, he developed the shipping company into an important Bremen sailing ship company. With larger sailing ships for crossing the Atlantic (420 tons load) he started the American trade, was involved in the West India service and in the transport of emigrants. He participated in whaling and in conquering the Indian, Indonesian and Australian markets and shipping areas. In 1837 he was elected Senator for Bremen; with foresight he provided financial support for the construction of a new harbor basin in Bremerhaven and the construction of the Bremen – Hanover railway line . In 1830 he had a country house built in Blumenthal in a park designed by landscape gardener Isaak Altmann .
Christian Heinrich Wätjen (1858)
In 1858 Christian Heinrich Wätjen took over the shipping company from his father. The shipping company now had 18 sailing ships with a total of 14,200 GRT. Now they were also active in the cotton transport and in the petroleum trade. From 1862 petroleum became a lucrative import good for the Bremen economy. A sailing ship carried between 4,000 and 6,000 barrels, depending on its size. Christian Heinrich Wätjen led the shipping company to the world's largest private sailing ship company, and his ships were successful on all the world's oceans. As a shipowner and entrepreneur, he was one of the co-founders of Germanischer Lloyd and AG Weser . In the 1870s, he also had his new sailors built as iron ships, although iron steamers made fierce competition for the sailing ships, especially when it came to "fast" cargoes. CH Wätjen expanded the country estate in Blumenthal and had the villa known as Wätjen's castle built.
Use of modern screw steamers (1882)
Because of the technical improvements in the drive systems in terms of reliability and the significant reduction in coal consumption, Wätjen also switched to using modern screw steamers. The AG Weser delivered the Asia , Africa and Australia and H. F. Ulrichs in Bremerhaven delivered the Europa . However, due to extremely low freight rates, these ships could not be operated cost-covering in the 1890s and were therefore sold to the Hansa-Linie and Argo steamship company in 1894 .
End of the shipping line
In 1914 the shipping company only had three sailing ships left, two of which were interned during the First World War . After the war the shipping company was not reactivated.
Footnotes
- ↑ Alone at Alex's shipyard . Stephen & Sons in Glasgow ran for him from 1869 to 1878 eleven iron barges from the stack : Armin (842 RT August 1869), Virginia (853 RT September 1870), Anna (842 RT, Dec. 1871), Josefa (815 RT, April 1872), Germania (890 RT, May 1874), Britannia (841 RT, August 1874), Werra (932 RT, April 1876), Fulda (884 RT, May 1876), Visurgis (1142 RT, December 1877), Lesmona (1144 RT, January 1878) and Goethe (1209 RT, August 1878). ( Hansa, Deutsche Nautische Zeitschrift, 16th year, p. 75 ).
literature
- Hans Wätjen: White W in the blue field. The Bremen shipping company and overseas trade D. H. Wätjen & Co. 1821–1921 . Niedersachsen-Druck, Wolfsburg 1983, ISBN 3-568-93245-8 .
- Horst Adamietz: tides of shipping . Publisher H. Saade, Bremen 1984.
