After the extensive loosening of the shipbuilding restrictions of the Potsdam Agreement , North German Lloyd rebuilt its cargo ship fleet from 1950. Starting with series such as the Rheinstein class and acquisitions, the NDL fleet grew again continuously. In 1956, Norddeutsche Lloyd ordered enlarged and further developed replicas of the Rheinstein class for the Central America service from the Bremer Vulkan and Atlas-Werke shipyards . On May 20, 1957, the shipping company was able to take over the type ship Spreestein from the shipyard. On December 22, 1959, the last ship of the sextet, the Nabstein, was delivered. The Atlas buildings in Nabstein and Lechstein were slightly larger than the four Vulkan buildings and had an additional pair of loading posts on the aft edge of the deckhouse. It is worth mentioning that the North German Lloyd used plastic lifeboats for the first time in this class of ship.
The ships for the Central America service of the NDL were used from Europe to the routes Central America West Coast, South America West Coast via Magellanes, Mexico Gulf, US Gulf, North America East Coast and Canada Great Lakes and back. Around six trips were made annually. The main cargo consisted of general cargo of all kinds, individual heavy cargo was also taken over or one or two passengers were carried. When the NDL merged with HAPAG , the ships were jointly owned by the new Hapag-Lloyd .
Later career
In 1972 Hapag-Lloyd sold the ships to various shipping companies. Four ships were taken over by the shipping company Ocean Tramping from Mogadishu, the other two ships ( Lechstein , Nabstein ) went to subsidiaries of the shipping company Claus-Peter Offen as Holstendeich and Holstenfleet under the Liberian flag. The ships remained in service under different owners and names, sometimes until the 1990s. In 1986 the former Siegstein as Ocean Mercury , Lechstein as Greek Amalinda and Wiedstein as Mintsung were the first to be abandoned.
