Union line
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The Union Line was a German shipping line that mainly served the North Atlantic.
overview
Against the background that Sloman had to withdraw his new steamers from the Australian service in 1885, Carr and Sloman founded the Union line for the North Atlantic service. There was a lack of adequate and inexpensive passage places in the intermediate deck , especially for foreign emigrants . The connection with the emigrant expedition Albert Ballin , who had previously shipped "his" emigrants with the so-called "indirect passenger transport via Hamburg", resulted in a very successful business model.
Emigration Agency Morris & Co
Albert Ballin joined the Hamburg agency for emigrants "Morris & Co" in 1874, his father (Samuel Ballin) was a partner. He became the leader after the death of his father. By 1880 it had become the most successful agency in the business of emigration via England and handled about a third of these emigrants. Up until now, Ballin had sent the emigrants from Hamburg to England in small ships, where they switched to the transatlantic steamers that went to the USA. This indirect emigration was cumbersome, but there was enough space and it was cheaper than with Hapag's Hamburg ships . As the number of emigrants rose extremely sharply due to the depression at the end of the 1870s (1879 = 25,000; 1880 = 69,000; 1881 = 125,000), Ballin looked for a possibility of direct emigration from Hamburg to the USA. In search of suitable ships, he also spoke to Carr, who had commissioned new ships in England. He convinced Carr with guarantees for full tween decks on these ships at a price of 82 marks per passage.
Edward Carr and Albert Ballin - Carr Line - a competition for Hapag (1881)
Edward Carr, a nephew and partner of Sloman, founded the "private shipping company" Edward Carr in 1879 and planned his ships for tramping. In England he had ordered two 2,000 GRT ships from Mitchell in Newcastle, which were to be delivered in 1881. On the basis of Ballin's guarantees, 650-700 passengers per steamer, 82 marks net per passage, he had the intermediate decks of these ships equipped so that they offered space for the corresponding passengers. For each pass that remained unoccupied, Ballin guaranteed a cancellation fee of 20 marks or 35 marks if preparations had already been made. On the first trip, on June 7th, 1881, 581 emigrants were transported. Ballin's promises were fulfilled, the passage seats were almost always fully booked, Carr waived the cancellation fee on the first trip and ordered new ships from Mitchell. Now with 2,700 GRT and 950 and later even with 1,250 seats for tween deck passengers. The ships had two cylinder boilers and an expansion steam engine with a steam pressure of 5.6 bar or 6.3 bar. They ran around 10 knots with the indicated power of 1,200 PSi or 1,500 PSi. In 1885 there were already 5 ships sailing for Carr.
Hapag and Norddeutsche Lloyd (NDL) reacted soon, gradually reducing prices from 120 marks in May (US $ 30.00) 1882 to October 1882 to 90 marks for tween deck passengers, and by June 1883 to 80. - Mark. The French, Dutch (Holland-America Line in Rotterdam), Belgians (Red Star Line in Antwerp) and English also felt the new competition in the emigration business. The price fell to 30 Schilling by February 1884. The number of indirect emigrants via England z. B. decreased significantly, and Hamburg benefited from it. Of course, Carr and Ballin followed suit and, to the advantage of the emigrants, prices fell on the between decks.
After endless negotiations, the shipping companies involved found an agreement in 1885 and a solution that was favorable to Carr. The price was generally set at 100 marks, the reduced rate of 90 marks only applied to the five Carr ships.
Foundation of the Union Line (1886)
In the meantime it became clear to Sloman that he had to give up his Australian service, which he had started in 1881 as "Australia-Sloman-Linien-AG", due to the mail steamer contracts negotiated in 1884/85 . Therefore, in 1885, he had these six steamships with around 2,200 GRT converted to make space for emigrants in the tween deck. He teamed up with Carr and together they formed the Union Line in 1886.
This line had no ships of its own, but used the steamers of Carr and Sloman. From 1886 onwards, with their 12 ships and around 10,000 seats in the tween deck, they represented strong competition. On March 17, 1886, Carr and Morris & Co. announced that there would be a departure every Saturday from May 15. Since the passengers of the Union Line, in contrast to the other shipowners, could use all deck areas, the ships otherwise transported cargo, the ships were very popular. The other shipping companies also carried 1st and 2nd class cabin passengers, for whom the "better" upper and front free decks were of course reserved.
Transport of emigrants in the joint service of Hapag and Union-Linie
The pressure of this strong competition led to a quick agreement with Hapag in the form of a pool contract, in which Hapag made very far-reaching concessions. The agreed future joint service stipulated that Hapag would be allowed 60% and the Union-Linie 40% of the departures. The organization took over the Hapag with Ballin as the new independent head of the passenger business. Ballin was already head of the emigration agency "Morris & Co" at the age of 18, now at the end of May 1886 at the age of 28 he became head of the important passage department of the community service. Ballin's negotiating skills quickly became apparent for the Union-Linie and Hapag, who reduced the competition for indirect emigration via England in the sophisticated swap business. In 1888 the Carr ships were bought by Hapag for 5.2 million marks and in 1895 the Union line was taken over by Hapag.
Sources and literature
- Juliane Stier, Pilar Croÿ: 1793–1993. Sloman Hamburg - 200 years of shipping company . Hamburg 1993.
- A. Kludas: The history of the German passenger shipping. Volume 11994 Weltbild-Verlag.
- S. Wiborg, K. Wiborg: Our field is the world - 150 years of Hapag-Lloyd. Hamburg 1997.
- B. Huldermann: Albert Ballin. Stalling Verlag, Oldenburg i. O., 1921.