Ship reporting service

The ship reporting service collects information about ship movements, cargo, berths in the entire area of ​​the German Bight, on the Elbe and Weser , in the Kiel Canal and in numerous ports along the northern European sea and waterways including Rotterdam around the clock.

history

The ship reporting service was created during the Napoleonic continental blockade (1806–1814). Information was collected on all ships calling at the German North Sea ports. Later, daily ship lists were published in Bremen and Hamburg , which indicated the location of the emerging ships and their exact arrival time. At first, reporting tabs were used for the transmission of messages, later the advanced technology of optical telegraphy was used. Today this information is made available on the Internet for a fee. Since 1998 there has been an obligation to register (electronically) the transport of dangerous goods on ships. Service providers for this include a. Ship reporting services. In addition, statistical information on the export of goods can be provided here as a service . Up until the introduction of VHF radio, Morse code was used to communicate with the passing ships through searchlights.

Elbe

On March 18, 1838, an optical telegraph connection was set up between Hamburg and Cuxhaven ( Hamburg optical telegraph ), which was replaced on July 15, 1848 by a connection using Morse code . Friedrich Clemens Gerke (1801–1876) played a major role in improving the Morse code .

Weser

Signal tower in front of the north lock

Technical transmission devices were first used on the Weser in 1846, when the optical telegraph was put into operation. In Brake , the semaphore tower, which was built in 1846 for the ship's reporting service and is now used as a shipping museum, can still be viewed. Over the decades, the reporting service was looked after by a wide variety of state and private bodies before the Reichspost stopped reporting to private parties in September 1944. In 1946, the Weser port authority established by the Americans re-established the ship reporting service in the signal tower of the Navy built in 1941 . In 1956, the service, now run by the Hanseatic City of Bremen , was privatized and given to Braun, Reinemuth & Co. In May 1961, the new signal tower on the pier head in front of the north lock was moved.

Web links

• Schiffsmeldedienst GmbH, Hamburg
• Bremen ship reporting service
• Documentation from the Bremen Chamber of Commerce (p. 6) ( Memento from April 23, 2004 in the Internet Archive )

Individual evidence

1. ^ Arnold Kludas : Bremer Schiffsmeldedienst , in: Lars U. Scholl (Hg.): Bremerhaven - a port history guide . Deutsches Schiffahrtsmuseum / Ditzen, Bremerhaven 1980, p. 144.