Hamburg-Bremen Africa Line

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Flag of the Hamburg-Bremen Africa Line

The Chinese coastal shipping company AG (CKG) was a German shipping company founded in 1887 , from which the Hamburg-Bremer Afrika-Linie AG (HBAL) emerged in 1906 . On January 1, 1926, Norddeutsche Lloyd (NDL) took over the Hamburg-Bremen Africa Line, which it dominated, and added nine ships to its fleet.

The CKG was one of the pioneers of German steam shipping in East Asia. The HBAL turn was on January 1, 1914, a fleet of 13 ships of 42,915 GRT to 15 ter place of the German shipping companies and between the world wars on 1 January 1924, a fleet of nine ships of 25,760 GRT in 18th place of the German shipping companies.

history

Chinese Coastal Shipping Society (CKG)

The company was founded on December 12, 1887 by the Hamburg merchants Agathon Friedrich Woldemar Nissen as representative of the company Siemssen & Co. , Johann Witt, Vincent Heinrich Theodor Pickenpack, William Robertson, August Christoph Cordes, Robert Eduard Julius Mestern as representative of the company A. Tesdorpf & Co. and the private citizen Friedrich Wilhelm Galles founded. The start-up capital of the stock corporation was one million marks. In the financial years 1888–96, CKG achieved an average annual return of 3.3%.

The idea generator was probably Agathon Friedrich Woldemar Nissen. As the head of the China houses of Siemssen & Co. , Nissen had been advocating a Hamburg steamship company that specialized in Chinese coastal shipping since 1866. Until the 1860s, Hamburg sailing ships played a major role in this voyage, but when the steamship began, there was a slump.

Agathon Friedrich Woldemar Nissen

Nissen, who joined Siemssen & Co. in Canton in 1852 , had many years of experience in the operation of steamers in coastal waters. In 1862 Siemssen & Co. had the first overseas liner George Gray built in Hamburg by Joh. Ces. Godeffroy & Sohn and used him in the Chinese coastal voyage until 1863. Between 1864 and 1866 they also operated their steamer China .

In 1865 the houses of Siemssen & Co. in the contractual ports of China and the Crown Colony of Hong Kong owned an agency for almost all Hamburg shipowners who went to the Far East. The cooperation with AJ Hertz & Söhne (Hamburg), which Nissen envisaged as a partner for the desired company, was particularly close . After the senior's death, however, the sons decided to give up building and operating steamers. They liquidated from 1886.

Nissen was connected to co-founder Vincent Heinrich Theodor Pickenpack via Pickenpack, Thies & Co. ( Bangkok ). Here Siemssen & Co. loaded rice for shipment to China. Until 1864, Pickenpacks also had a branch in Ningpo .

In the new company, CKG initially used four freight steamers bought by Siemssen & Co. for tramp and cool trips ( Amoy , Jangtze , Ningpo and Beijing ). From 1890 , a liner service from Canton via Hong Kong to Shanghai was started with the cargo and passenger steamer Lyeemoon , which had been built in Great Britain . The sister ship Longmoon strengthened this service in 1896 .

In 1895 the CKG merged with the competing steamship company "Swatow" . It was founded in 1885 by Bernhard Schaar - the owner of Dircks & Co. in Swatow - and his brother Gustav Schaar, who lived in Hamburg. Until the merger, their fleet had grown to seven steamers, including vehicles from the liquidating AJ Hertz Sons . During the merger, the steamers Chusan , Hainan , Swatow , China and Picciola were transferred to CKG . Were Generalagent Siemssen & Co.

At the end of the century, the Hamburg-American Packetfahrt-Actien-Gesellschaft ( HAPAG ) began to penetrate the East Asian trade. In addition, she had taken over the Kingsin line , among others . On the occasion of a new line of competition from HAPAG between Canton, Hong Kong and Shanghai, the Chinese Coastal Shipping Company decided to liquidate it.

Previously had HAPAG the CKG made an offer, the line of steamers Lyeemoon and Long Moon take over. In March 1901 she acquired the ships. The brokerage company Menzell & Co. , founded in Hong Kong and Shanghai in 1895 by the Hamburg merchant Hermann F. Menzell and Partners , acquired the five cargo steamers and the corporate shell of CKG in September 1901 . Under the leadership of Hermann Friedrich Wilhelm Menzell, the company was not dissolved, but expanded and switched to worldwide tramp travel. The ships were then given all names, consisting of first names, followed by the family name Menzell. The Helene Menzell was launched on July 4, 1903 as the first ship of this series to be built by the newly built CKG .

In July 1906, the shipping company ship Bruno Menzell towed the wrecked Venezuelan gunboat Bolivar to Puerto Cabello and secured a salary of around 50,000 marks. It fell equally between the shipping company and the charterer, HAPAG .

Conversion to the Hamburg-Bremen Africa Line

The Herero uprising in German South West Africa brought such a high volume of traffic for the Woermann Line , which dominates the shipping area , that it could not cope with its hold. She chartered additional ships, including those of the Chinese Coastal Cruise and the Bremen steamship company "Triton". Having gained experience in Africa, these companies decided to set up a Hamburg-Bremen Africa route in competition with the Woermann route. The Bremen company finally withdrew and in October 1906 Menzell renamed the Chinese Coastal Cruise to the Hamburg-Bremen Africa Line. The company had ten freighters with a size of 1500 to 3000 GRT. All were built in Germany and no ship was older than three years.

In January 1907, the HBAL began its own service to West Africa and a rate war began that Menzell could not hold out with the HBAL alone. However, he found the support of Norddeutscher Lloyd, which practically took over HBAL. In June the shipping company relocated its headquarters to Bremen and from September the ships were renamed and lost their Menzell names.
But Carl Woermann also got into trouble and had to accept the protection of Hapag, which, however, like Hamburg South American Steamship Company (HSDG) and DDG Kosmos , demanded a joint venture with a 25% stake and Woermann also bought some superfluous ships. The DOAL then also joined this Hamburg community.

Waikouaiti , formerly Irmgard (2), stranded in 1939 , the last new building before the war

From March 1908, the company operated in conjunction with the Hamburg Africa Lines Woermann Line and German East Africa Line as well as with HAPAG in a coordinated timetable on the lines to West Africa . By the start of the war in 1914, the HBAL received eight new ships with sizes between 3300 and 5400 GRT and acquired a small steamer in Norway for coastal service. The largest ship was the Answald with 5401 GRT, delivered in 1909 by the Bremer Vulkan shipyard . However, five of the former Menzell ships were also sold.

War fates

Of the 14 ships on the Hamburg-Bremen Africa Line, only six were abroad when the war began. The first loss in the war was the coastal steamer Eggo (1909, 453 GRT), which was sunk off Duala ( Cameroon ) as a block ship. Then there was the Arnfried (1911, 2899 GRT), which was captured by the British armored cruiser HMS Cumberland on September 27, 1914 in Duala . She was then used by the British as the Hunsdon and sunk by UB 92 on October 18, 1918 .

Four ships that had visited neutral ports were lost as a result of the war: the Walburg ex Lotte Menzell (1905, 3081 BRT) and Gundrun (1909, 4772 BRT) in Brazil , as well as the Ingraban ex Clara Menzell (1905, 3077 BRT) and Ingbert ex Thora Menzell (1906, 2679 GRT) in Portugal . Three HBAL ships were used
to support the imperial navy :
The Answald , the flagship of the shipping company, was taken over at the beginning of the war and converted into the aircraft mother ship F, page 1 and received two large hangars on deck for one, and possibly two, seaplanes each . Briefly in the North Sea and from 1915 in the Baltic Sea she remained in service as an auxiliary ship until the end of the war. The Winfried (1911, 5355 GRT), the first ship delivered by HBAL's later in-house shipyard, the Frerichswerft , was converted into a torpedo boat repair ship at the Reiherstieg shipyard and was in Cuxhaven or on from August 19, 1914 to February 26, 1915 the Schilligreede in action. The Gundomar (1912, 3786 GRT) performed a similar service on the Ems until the summer of 1915. From 1917 the Gundomar was then used as a barrier breaker Surrendered to victorious powers.

The largest HBAL construction Wolfram
as NDL freighter Targis

During the war, a new building for HBAL was completed on the Frerichswerft. The Wolfram , launched on March 15, 1915 and delivered in January 1917 , weighed 5887 GRT and was the largest ship ever built for HBAL. Laid up until the end of the war, the ship was delivered in 1919 and was used under the British flag as Netley Abbey (1920) and then from 1921 for the Dutch VNS as Rijperkerk . After a fire in 1923, the lifted and repaired ship was bought by the Roland-Linie in 1925 and came to the NDL as Targis with this line . On July 18, 1930 the ship caught fire on a return voyage from Chile in the Atlantic and sank at position 33.56 N, 50.11 W.

Reconstruction and end

The steamer Winfried

After the World War, the Hamburg-Bremen Africa Line rebuilt its liner service in the old shipping area and procured new ships, all of which were built at Frerichswerft in Einswarden . In 1919 she acquired the Eggo (2) (ex Hermann Heinrich , Mehedya , 1913 Koch, 387 GRT), her first post-war ship, which was, however, chartered out. The small steamship was lost in the Baltic Sea on November 11, 1921 on a trip from Bremen to Tallinn , the only marine casualty that HBAL had during its independence. In October 1920, the Hamburg-Bremen Africa Line was able to take over its first post-war new building from the Frerichswerft with the Winfried (2, 3751 BRT), which completed all eleven post-war new buildings for HBAL. The Winfried began her maiden voyage to Africa on November 30, 1920, which was the first voyage of a new German ship to Africa. After her, Frerichs delivered Ivo (2) and Immo (2) two small coastal steamers of 667 GRT at the turn of the year 1920/1921 , which were sold on to Flensburg as early as 1922. In 1921 the Einswarden shipyard delivered two sister ships to the Winfried : Wigbert (2) and Wolfram (2) . In addition, the shipping company bought back its first Wigbert (1912, 3367 BRT) from Great Britain, which had not found a buyer there, and put it back on the road as Walburg (2). In 1922 the ship was named Henner (2).

The turbine ship Irmgard

From February 1922, Frerichs then delivered a series of five smaller ships of 2300 GRT, which were driven by geared turbines (rated output 1150 hp) from the Germania shipyard. All were given names of pre-war ships. The series was delivered by April 1923. The last new building for HBAL was Ingo (3), manufactured by Frerichs under construction number 396 , which was launched in February 1926. The ship, again powered by a triple expansion engine, was an extended version of the Winfried .

When the ship came into service in May 1926, the Hamburg-Bremer Afrika-Linie AG no longer existed as an independent shipping company. The general meeting of the NDL decided on November 28, 1925 to incorporate HBAL into the NDL on January 1, 1926. A newly founded Hamburg-Bremer Afrika-Linie GmbH, which made ships available to NDL, entered the pool contract. This GmbH represented a pure NDL part, which also owned a considerable share in the virtually merged shipping companies Woermann-Linie and DOAL since 1916, when Woermann left both lines and its shares were transferred to a consortium of Hapag, NDL and Hugo Stinnes sold. In 1921, the Stinnes heirs also withdrew from the African business and the two major shipping companies also acquired these shares.

The state-run decentralization of German shipping led to its withdrawal from the Africa business in 1934 and the transfer of ships to the new Deutsche Afrika-Linien GmbH (DAL). Wigbert (2), Wolfram (2) (the sister ship Winfried went to the DLL as Yalova ) and Ingo (3) to the DAL came from the former HBAL ships still in existence . For this purpose, Tübingen (1920 Furness, 5453 BRT) bought abroad was given to the DAL, where these four ships remained registered in Bremen until 1939. The small Friederun , rebuilt in 1929, served as a feeder ship for the NDL in the South Pacific.

literature

swell

  • Statutes of the Chinese Coastal Shipping Society in Hamburg . JF Richter, Hamburg 1888.
  • Historical newspaper clippings on Agathon Friedrich Woldemar Nissen, Hamburg State Archives, ( online  in the German Digital Library ), accessed on June 24, 2015.

Secondary works

  • Reinhold Thiel: North German Lloyd: The Hamburg-Bremen Africa Line. Verlag HM Hauschild, Bremen 2000, ISBN 3-89757-067-X .
  • Arnold Kludas : The ships of the German Africa Lines 1880 to 1945 . Verlag Gerhard Stalling, 1975, ISBN 3-7979-1867-4 .
  • Arnold Kludas: The history of the German passenger shipping volume II: Expansion on all seas 1890-1900 . Ernst Kabel Verlag, 1987.
  • Arnold Kludas: The History of German Passenger Shipping Volume III: Leap growth 1900–1914 . Ernst Kabel Verlag, 1988.
  • Arnold Kludas: The ships of the North German Lloyd 1920 to 1970 . Koehlers Verlagsgesellschaft, 1992, ISBN 3-7822-0534-0 .
  • Reinhardt Schmelzkopf: German merchant shipping 1919–1939 . Verlag Gerhard Stalling, Oldenburg, ISBN 3-7979-1847-X .
  • Susanne and Klaus Wiborg: 1847-1997 Our field is the world. Hapag-Lloyd AG, 1997, DNB 951420666 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ melt head, p. 69.
  2. ↑ melt head, p. 70.
  3. ↑ Handbook of German Stock Companies , 1897–1898, quoted in Digitalis University Cologne, PDF , p. 170.
  4. ^ Maria Möring: Siemssen & Co.: 1846-1971 . (Publications of the Hamburg Research Center for Economic History, Volume 33.) Hanseatischer Merkur, Hamburg 1971. p. 57.
  5. ↑ Gabriele Hoffmann: The house on the Elbchaussee: The story of a shipowner family . Piper, Munich a. a. 2000, p. 231; Maria Möring: Siemssen & Co.: 1846-1971 . (Publications of the Hamburg Research Center for Economic History, Volume 33.) Hanseatischer Merkur, Hamburg 1971. p. 57.
  6. ^ Maria Möring: Siemssen & Co.: 1846-1971 . (Publications of the Hamburg Research Center for Economic History, Volume 33.) Hanseatischer Merkur, Hamburg 1971. p. 57.
  7. ↑ Gabriele Hoffmann: The house on the Elbchaussee: The story of a shipowner family . Piper, Munich a. a. 2000, p. 437.
  8. ^ Maria Möring: Siemssen & Co.: 1846-1971 . (Publications of the Wirtschaftsgeschichtliche Forschungsstelle eV Hamburg, Volume 33.) Hanseatischer Merkur, Hamburg 1971. pp. 40 and 91.
  9. ^ North China Herald , September 20, 1895.
  10. ↑ Kludas, Passenger Shipping, Volume II, p. 38 ff.
  11. ^ Company history
  12. ↑ Kludas, Afrikalinien, pp. 119ff.
  13. ↑ Hansa , 40th year, August 1903, p. 381.
  14. ↑ Reinhold Thiel: North German Lloyd: The Hamburg-Bremen Africa Line. , P. 13.
  15. ↑ Kludas, Afrikalinien, p. 10.
  16. ↑ Kludas, Afrikalinien, p. 11.
  17. ↑ Kludas, Afrikalinien, pp. 119ff.
  18. ↑ Wiborg, p. 130.
  19. ↑ Kludas, Africa Lines, p. 119.
  20. ↑ Kludas, Passenger Shipping, Volume III, pp. 149ff.
  21. ↑ Kludas, Afrikalinien, p. 122ff.
  22. ↑ Kludas, Africa Lines, p. 147.
  23. ^ Kludas, Africa Lines, p. 123.
  24. ↑ Herbert, pp. 141f.
  25. ↑ a b Herbert, p. 152.
  26. ↑ Herbert, pp. 116, 152.
  27. ^ Kludas, Afrikalinien, p. 126.
  28. ↑ a b Kludas, Afrikalinien, p. 148.
  29. ↑ Kludas, Afrikalinien, p. 126f.
  30. ↑ Kludas, Africa Lines, p. 125.
  31. ↑ Kludas, Afrikalinien, p. 129.
  32. ↑ Kludas, Afrikalinien, p. 130.
  33. ^ Wiborg, p. 229.
  34. ↑ Kludas, Africa Lines, p. 12.
  35. ↑ Kludas, Afrikalinien, p. 13.
  36. ↑ melt head, p. 174.