Coasters Guilds

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The Emmanuel Skippers' Guild on its 25th anniversary on January 22nd, 1892

The guilds of the coastal ship , and insurance guild , are groups of independent coastal ship owners for mutual insurance . Some of the guilds still exist today.

History and background

Since conventional comprehensive insurance barely or not at all responded to the special needs of coastal shipping , from around the middle of the 19th century, coastal skipper guilds were founded as cooperative associations of captain owners from different regions in northern Germany, which made it possible to obtain cheaper insurance for marine accidents and damage to the ship. The insurance principle of reciprocity enabled lower premiums to be achieved than with the so-called “large marine insurance”.

The premium to be paid was primarily related to the size and age of the ship. The respective statutes only allowed ships of a certain size and type to be accepted into the guild. In addition, only skippers whose trustworthiness was guaranteed by minimum sea journey times and other evidence were given the opportunity to join a guild. Damage incurred was usually paid out from the regular premiums; larger damage events, such as complete loss of a ship, were covered by an allocation with a personal contribution from the ship concerned.

The size and design of the ships permitted by the statutes was repeatedly adjusted by the guilds in the course of technical developments. On the one hand, the size of the insured ships grew, and on the other, ships with auxiliary engines were also permitted, with the latter having a greater influence on the rapid spread of engines in German coastal shipping, since only statutory ships could benefit from the insurance from a guild. In the years after the Second World War, the size of the permitted ship size rose to 300 gross registered tonnes in 1948 and then to 500 gross registered tonnes in 1956, before being dropped entirely in 1972. In particular, the increased insurance value of the ever larger ships led to the merging of smaller guilds in Geversdorf, Uetersen, Burg and Rendsburg with the larger guilds in Cranz, Drochtersen and Schulau. In 1987 the guilds in Cranz and Schulau became the North German Insurance Association Hamburg-Cranz .

Selection of some guilds

  • the association “Unity” - founded in 1856 by 117 boatmen from the Dornbusch / Drochtersen region
  • the guild "Emmanuel" - 1867 in the area of Uetersen founded
  • the association "Felicitas" - since 1870 in Burg / Dithmarschen (from 1911: "Justice")
  • the insurance association of coasters in Schulau - founded in 1871 by 51 boatmen from Schulau , Haseldorf , Uetersen and Elmshorn
  • The Assecuranz Association for coastal sailors in Cranz - founded in 1881 by 28 ship owners from the parishes of Grünendeich , Borstel , Estebrügge and Neuenfelde (today Assekuranz-Verein Hamburg-Cranz , Hamburg)
  • the "Oste" association - founded in 1884 by boatmen from the Geversdorf region
  • the Stralsund Ship Insurance Association in Stralsund (later in Rendsburg)
  • the boatmen's guild "Eintracht" in Wilster
  • the insurance company "Mercur" in Bremen

literature

  • Heinrich Jäger: Insurance of coasters - from guilds to insurance associations . In: Hansa - central body for shipping, shipbuilding, port . Vol. 114, No. July 13 , 1977, p. 1223/1224 .
  • Ulrich Schaefer: Gaff schooner in the North and Baltic Seas: German coastal shipping under sails . Ernst Kabel Verlag, Hamburg 1990, ISBN 3-8225-0124-7 .
  • Gert Uwe Detlefsen: From Ewer to Container Ship: The Development of German Coasters . Koehlers Verlagsgesellschaft, Herford 1983, ISBN 3-7822-0321-6 .

References and comments

  1. ↑ without claim to completeness