Rob. M. Sloman

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The shipping company Rob. M. Sloman was founded in Hamburg in 1793 as a ship brokerage business and is the oldest German shipping company .

In 1973 she took over the Neptun shipping company , founded in Bremen in 1873 , which today carries out the actual shipping activities as Sloman Neptun Schiffahrts AG in Bremen. The Sloman companies that still exist (including Rob. M. Sloman & Co. oHG, Rob. M. Sloman jr. Schiffahrts-KG) are still based in the Hamburg Slomanhaus today .

history

Founding of a ship brokerage business (1793)

Captain William Sloman had moved from Great Yarmouth (England) to Hamburg, which was developing into an up-and-coming port city. He received citizenship here in 1791 and founded a shipbroker's business at Stubbenhuk 33 in 1793 . His sons William Palgrave and Robert Miles helped him in founding and running.

After the death of his father, Robert Miles Sloman took over the brokerage, the business with a focus on “handling of ships” went worse , especially due to Napoleon's continental blockade , which paralyzed Hamburg. The trade shifted to Denmark. From 1814 - the continental blockade was over - trade and shipping with colonial goods flourished via England. Soon afterwards, trade relations with North America and South America were also expanded.

He founded the regular liner service "Regulaire Packetschiffahrt between New York and Hamburg", which opened in 1828, as a ship broker, while the captains acted as shipowners . As the name suggests, it is the efforts to deliver regular mail (letters were tied into parcels) that supported his plans.

The beginning emigration was taken into account, which guaranteed regular loads in one direction. Thus, Robert Miles Sloman was considered a pioneer of liner shipping . Up until now, the ships' cargo was often only sufficient for one direction and the captain often looked for cargo in other ports for the return journey. Since this often did not work, he took over cargo for other ports and sometimes only arrived at the home port years later via these detours.

Sloman becomes shipowner (1838)

Since Robert Miles Sloman was not allowed to act as broker and shipowner at the same time, his captains took over the role of shipowners in the North American service. In order to become active as a shipowner himself, he handed over to his son Robert Miles Sloman jr. the brokerage business. Robert Miles Sloman started his own shipping business with five sailors and purposefully expanded it to become the largest shipping company in Hamburg.

Shipping of emigrants

Since 1836, emigration via Hamburg was also officially permitted. Sloman saw it as good business in the liner service from Hamburg to New York, which he operated with sailing ships. Among other things, he had the three-master Leipzig , a cargo sailor 55 meters long and 10 meters wide, converted for the shipping of emigrants to America. For this purpose, the mezzanine and orlop decks were equipped with bunk beds for 544 people. When Leipzig emigrated to New York on November 2, 1867, there were 438 people in the tween deck. 79 adults, 22 children and five babies were accommodated in the lightless orlop deck. For 575 people there were 3800 pounds of bread, 14 tons of beef, five tons of bacon, beans, butter and water on board without refrigeration. Including the leftover food that was not consumed on the previous trip and is nine months old. Sloman accumulates for 70 days, although according to Hamburg regulations supplies would have to be carried for 91 days. Each traveler was only given 0.3 liters of water a day. After 70 days of crossing, 105 of the passengers died of hunger, thirst and cholera, and the survivors were taken to the hospital ship Illinois . A few days earlier, the Sloman sailor Lord Brougham had arrived, on which 75 of 383 passengers had died. Experts described the filthy Leipzig as a "plague cave". The German Society of the City of New York warned the German emigrants against “entrusting themselves to the ships of Mr. RM Sloman in Hamburg”. After investigations by the Hamburg Higher Court, Sloman was not found to be at fault and it was noted that "the victims themselves were to blame for their end". Sloman renamed the Leibnitz Liebig and shipped 536 passengers with her to Québec . 41 of them died on the crossing. There was "Complaint of Illegal Establishment (s), 1869-1870" about the Sloman Ship Palmerston .

In 1845 he opened the line from Hamburg to New Orleans. In 1859 there were already 21 ships in his fleet. In addition to England and North America, his ships also went to ports on the east and west coast of South America. His first steamers went to England in 1841 . The experience encouraged him to supplement his North American service with steamers, especially against the background of the growing competition from the sailing ships of Hapag, which was founded in 1847 .

Trip to Australia (1841–1886)

Since 1841 Sloman was engaged in the trip to Australia. Here steamers were inferior to sailors by three percent (1850) because of the great distances and initially poor efficiency. The coal bunkers would hardly have allowed any cargo and the coal supply was insufficient. That changed quickly. Thanks to technical improvements, the efficiency reached around nine percent by 1890.

In 1881 the Australia-Sloman-Linien-AG was founded and operated with six new steamers built in England (2200 to 2500 GRT), which were also equipped for passengers. The steamers "Catania", "Sorrento" and "Marsala" were the first German ships with cooling systems for transporting frozen meat. After four years, however, this line was discontinued because of the mail steamer laws passed in 1885, as the North German Lloyd (NDL) won the tender for this subsidized mail steamer line.

The first steamer (1850)

The Helena Sloman was the first German steamship to operate overseas

In 1850 his first steamer, the screw steamer Helena Sloman (800 gross register tons, 300 passengers, 40 crew members) sailed from Hamburg to North America and reached New York after 28 days. The return trip even took only 18 days. This was a huge improvement when measured against a sailor's journey of 50 days to 70 days. In November 1850, the ship got into distress off Newfoundland in a severe storm and sank. The crew and passengers were rescued up to nine people. Despite the sinking of this steamer during its third voyage, the screw steamers prevailed. In 1856, the steamers from Europe to America still needed around 16 to 17 days. By 1868 the travel time was shortened to 9 to 10 days.

Robert Miles Sloman died in 1867 and his son Robert Miles Sloman jr. took over the business. Robert Miles Sloman Jr. took on Edward Carr, Carl Alphons Brödermann and 1872 John Alfred Edye as partners in the company.

Mediterranean Line (1872)

Magazine advertisement of the shipping company from 1913

The Rob. M. Sloman & Co. was founded in 1872, both companies operated from now on. The Mediterranean line, which started in Hamburg, was founded in 1872 and extended to Italy. For this purpose, new ships were used, which could also transport tropical fruits due to complex ventilation systems. Until 1900, 22 steamers with a total of 55,000 gross register tons were employed in this service due to the steady growth  . North African ports have now also been called.

Senator Eiffe was chairman of the supervisory board of the Adler line

Adler Line (1872)

The German Transatlantic Steamship Company , known as the Adler Line, was founded alongside Sloman by a large group of banks and business people, as shipping space in the North Atlantic service was often scarce in the prosperous founding years. Eight ships were ordered in England, with Ernst Voss , who later co-founded Blohm & Voss , supervised the construction . After a brief but fierce competition, Hapag took over the Adler line in 1875.

Union Line (1886)

Albert Ballin became General Director of Hapag in 1899

It was similar with the Union Line, which Sloman founded with his nephew Carr in 1886. Sloman brought in his five steamers from the Australian service here. Ballin's emigrants were previously transported across the Atlantic more cheaply with Carr ships than with Hapag ships. The competition with Hapag in the North Atlantic service led to a joint service as early as 1886 in order to avoid rate wars, Albert Ballin became the head of the passenger business. Nine years later it was taken over by Hapag and when Ballin joined Hapag, in 1899 he was general manager. Under Ballin's leadership, Hapag quickly expanded to become the world's largest shipping company.

Resumption of Mediterranean service (1921)

Before the First World War, the Sloman fleet consisted of 22 ships, all but one of which were lost. The rebuilding of the fleet was completed in 1939 and comprised 21 ships with 49,000 gross tons, which again played an important role in the Mediterranean fruit trade. For trips to Central or South America, the ventilation systems were no longer sufficient to guarantee the shelf life of the fruit. In 1939, therefore, refrigerated ships from Scandinavia were bought and put into service.

Refrigerated shipping (1881–1979)

From 1881/82 "Catania", "Sorrento" and "Marsala" transported frozen meat from Australia and New Zealand to London. “Sorrento” was the first refrigerated steamer (after refrigerated sailing ships) that brought frozen meat from New Zealand to London. The fruit ship “Alstertor” (formerly “Rose”) left Hamburg on July 4, 1939 to fetch oranges and bananas from Santos. The "Alsterufer" was delivered in September 1939 from the Eriksbergwerft in Gothenburg. The Second World War prevented further use, both ships were lost in the war. In 1952 the second “Alsterufer” and in 1954 the second “Alstertor” were delivered by the German shipyard . These ships were identical in construction to the "Perikles" of the F. Laeisz shipping company . They were used in the fruit journey between Hamburg and Ecuador. The reefer ship built in 1949 by Öresundvarvet as "Glomdal" was taken over in 1956 and renamed "Alsterkamp". The "Alsterblick" from Blohm & Voss followed in 1959. The "Sloman Alsterpark" and "Sloman Alstertor" were the last reefer vessels for Sloman, they were delivered in 1968 by Howaldtswerke Deutsche Werft. In 1979 the shipping company gave up refrigerated shipping. From 1881 to 1979 the shipping company was active in the refrigerated shipping industry with interruptions.

Union of Africa Line (1951)

After the Second World War, like most German shipowners, the shipping company began without its own ships. The Union Afrika-Linie , founded with other shipping companies, began a West African service in 1951 with four newbuildings. In 1954, however, the DAL, together with the Woermann line, resumed their African services. Therefore, there was a merger, and the service was jointly continued in the future under the Woermann flag. Sloman took over the Hamburg line agency .

Resumption of Mediterranean service (1953)

Since 1949 there was a joint service to the Spanish coast in the Mediterranean with the Bremer Dampfschiffahrtsgesellschaft Neptun. In 1953, the traditional shipping area in the Mediterranean was resumed with the British partner United Baltic Corporation (UBC). When the UBC ended the partnership, the service was again under the old name “Rob. M. Sloman Jr.'s Mediterranean Line ”.

Teamline (1966)

In 1966, the company entered into a collaboration with HM Gehrckens and the Swedish shipping company Nordström & Thulin via Mathies Reederei KG, which is part of the company group . Under the name Teamline, a joint liner service from Hamburg via Kiel to Stockholm was operated from the summer of 1967 to the beginning of 1972 , on which two newly built ConRo ships of the Sietas type 52 (MS Hansa and MS Wasa ) were used.

Heavy goods transport (1972)

For the export of particularly large or heavy machines and systems, the shipping company used the ships Starman America and Starman Africa , which were ordered together with the English Blue Star Line .

Sloman Neptun Schiffahrts AG (1974)

In 1973, Sloman took over the majority of the shares in the Bremen shipping company DG Neptun, which was founded in 1873. Since 1974 the company has been called Sloman Neptun Schiffahrts-Aktiengesellschaft . The shipping activities were relocated to Bremen.

Sources and literature

  • Juliane Stier, Pilar Croÿ: 1793–1993. Sloman Hamburg - 200 years of shipping company . Hamburg 1993.
  • Arnold Kludas : The History of German Passenger Shipping . Volume 11994 Weltbild-Verlag.
  • Ernst Hieke, Rob. M. Sloman Jr. Erected in 1793 . Hamburg, Hanseatischer Merkur, 1968.
  • Peter Dittrich, 125 years of German refrigerated shipping. 1881- 2006. Münster 2009, ISBN 978-3-86582-928-3 .

Individual evidence

  1. Cay Rademacher death trip from Hamburg , mare No. 137, p. 41 ff
  2. ^ Hamburg State Archives: Headline on Palmerston
  3. ^ Peter Dittrich: 125 Years of German Refrigerated Shipping 1881-2006 .
  4. ^ Peter Dittrich: 125 Years of German Refrigerated Shipping 1881-2006 .