The four ships of the Stuttgart Express series of the Lübeck Flender shipyard were built in 1977/78 for the Hamburg shipping company Hapag-Lloyd. The container ships were used in the North Atlantic container service between Northern Europe and the east coast of North America, where they replaced the ships of the Elbe Express class . The sister ships of the Stuttgart Express were the Köln Express , Nürnberg Express and Düsseldorf Express .
The type ship of the series was the Stuttgart Express . It was built on March 11, 1977 after being baptized by Waltrude Schleyer as construction no. 615 was launched from the Flender shipyard and handed over to the shipping company on September 29 of that year. The approximately 210 meters long and 32.30 meters wide ships were measured with about 33,000 GRT and had a carrying capacity of almost 32,500 tdw. The initial capacity was 1758 TEU, of which 732 TEU can be stowed on deck and 1026 TEU in the ten hatches . There were around 150 refrigerated container connections. A MAN two-stroke diesel engine of the type K 10 SZ 90/160 A with 10 cylinders, which developed around 33,000 hp and helped the ship to a speed of around 21.5 knots, served as the drive. The main engine, auxiliary diesel and the emergency diesel generator, as well as the rest of the machine operation, were automated and could be driven from the bridge without a watch. The berthing and casting off maneuvers are supported by a bow thruster . Furthermore stood fin stabilizers are available.
Only individual chambers were available to accommodate the crew.
In the period from July 26 to December 12, 1985, all four ships in the Stuttgart Express class were lengthened by around 30 meters at Blohm + Voss in Hamburg. The measurement increased to 39,981 GRT and the carrying capacity to 40,849 tdw. The 240.52 meter long ships had a container capacity of 2594 TEU after the extension.
In 1992/93, Hapag-Lloyd sold the ships to other shipping companies. After further years of operation and several renaming, the ships were finally sold to India and Pakistan for scrapping in 2009/10 .
Construction list
Stuttgart Express class
Delivery / year of construction
IMO number
Build number
Shipping company
Building name
Renaming and whereabouts
1977
7502904
615
Hapag-Lloyd
Stuttgart Express
Maersk Algeciras (1992) → New York Express (1996) → Zim Eilat I (1998) → MSC Serena (2002) → canceled in India in 2009
1978
7502916
616
Hapag-Lloyd
Düsseldorf Express
Rotterdam Express (1997) → Houston Express (2000) → MSC Austria (2003) → canceled in Pakistan in 2009
1978
7502904
617
Hapag-Lloyd
Nuremberg Express
Nuernberg Atlantic (1987) → Nürnberg Express (1993) → Genua Express (2000) → MSC Germany (2003) → canceled in India in 2009
1978
7502930
618
Hapag-Lloyd
Cologne Express
Koeln Atlantic (1987) → Köln Express (1993) → MSC Mexico (2003) → Maxi (2010) → canceled from June 2010 in Alang
