Union trading and shipping company

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The Union Handels- und Schifffahrtsgesellschaft mbh was a shipping company. It mainly transported tropical fruits from Central America to Bremerhaven and was also involved in the trade in tropical fruits.

The USS Tarazed was delivered to GWF on March 18, 1932 as the banana steamer Chiriqui and joined the Union as Blexen in 1957

history

Fruchthandel Gesellschaft mbH was founded in 1902

When Fruchthandel Gesellschaft mbH was founded in Bremen, Gustav Scipio was appointed managing director. The business purpose was the distribution and import of Canarian bananas, Spanish oranges and Italian lemons. For this purpose, a fruit yard was built in the direct vicinity of Bremen's main and freight station with its own siding, which was inaugurated in 1908. From 1920 the company called itself the fruit trading company Scipio & Fischer .

Jamaica Banana Import Company 1909

In 1909 the Jamaica Banana Import Company was founded in Bremen with branches throughout what was then Reich territory. This company is later renamed Jamaica Banana and Fruit Sales .

Union Handels- und Schifffahrtsgesellschaft mbh 1936

The fruit trader Gustav Scipio founded this shipping company in 1936 as a "transport company for its own goods" and began in 1935 with six refrigerated ships . These six ships mainly transported bananas . One third each of the capital came from Bremen, Hamburg and the United Fruit Company from Boston, today known as Chiquita . The United Fruit Company has expanded its strategy from production to final sale and especially the closed cold chain to Germany.

The first ships in 1936

Four of these reefer vessels, the Vegesack (built in 1911), the Wesermünde (built in 1920), the Brake (built in 1920) and the Bremerhaven (built in 1921), were bought by Elders & Fyffes (GB). Two reefer vessels, the Nordenham and the Oldenburg , were built near Tecklenborg in 1914, delivered to Laeisz ( Pungo , pioneer ) and used in the banana service to Cameroon. The ships had triple expansion steam engines as their main drive. The Oldenburg was known as the auxiliary cruiser Möve or Möwe during the First World War . Both were delivered to England after the First World War, operated by Elders & Fyffes and sold in 1933 to the Deutsche Seeverkehrs-AG “Midgard” in Nordenham. They were taken over by the Union in 1936 . The Union's 1914 banana steamer Nordenham (4592 GRT) served as a transport ship for the wounded in 1944 and was sunk in the Baltic Sea by a Russian submarine on December 7, 1944.

New start in 1955

The lying Snow Flower according to Union Charter (with Union chimney colors)

After the Second World War, two new refrigerated ships, the Bremerhaven and the Nordenham, were delivered from Bremer Vulkan in 1955 . They were the first newbuildings for the Union, as the shipping company was generally called in short. In 1956 the Brake , 1957 the Blumenthal and 1958 the Blexen were bought from Norway . These were all used ships. That was the quintet necessary to make weekly service possible. The Blumenthal and the Blexen (built in 1931) previously drove for the Great White Fleet, at the time the unofficial name of the United Fruit Company's white banana steamer fleet. They had luxurious facilities for 100 passengers and were over 25 years old, an age at which ships are often scrapped. They had a turbo-electric drive and were modernized at the Bremer Vulkan after the passenger facilities had been removed. They drove for the Union until 1969 and were sold to China for scrapping in 1969.

In 1959 and 1964, three new buildings followed again from the Bremer Vulkan, another two new buildings were delivered by the Rickmers shipyard in Bremerhaven. Two of these ships have already been largely automated in the area of ​​the cargo cooling system and the main engine , which has reduced the crew from 40–50 people to 30.

In 1974 the next newbuildings followed from Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft , Hamburg and Norway. These were the last ships under the German flag of this shipping company . They were flagged out in 1981 because the manning costs for ships flying the German flag, which were extremely high in international comparison, meant that German shipowners were no longer competitive.

Charter ships

The Chiquita Scandinavia deletes bananas in Bremerhaven (s. Chimney, the white diamond shows the commonality)

The attempt to reduce crew costs by using highly automated ships and thus reducing the crew to 18–20 people failed. This was shown by two newbuildings from the Lübeck Flender shipyard that were delivered to the E. Jacob shipping company in 1984 . They were chartered by the Union for the weekly banana service. They were precursors to the “ Ship of the Future ” program because they had many elements of this innovative development.

Since 1993 this service has been mainly served by Chiquita's white ships, the Great White Fleet (GWF). The ships known as Chiquita Country Ships were built in Denmark. They do not sail under the US flag, but with their home port Nassau under the flag of the Bahamas. Only two reefer vessels were managed by the Union , they came as new builds from the Schichau-Seebeck shipyard .

Sources and literature