Visurgis AG (Bremen)

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The Visurgis AG was an existing 1897-1921 shipping company in Bremen , emerged from the 1825 founded trading company and later a merchant shipping company Gildemeister & Ries.

history

Gildemeister & Ries

August Wilhelm Gildemeister (March 26, 1791 - May 27, 1866), a son of the Bremen merchant and senator Johann Gildemeister (1753-1837), and his friend and partner from Marburg , Wulf Ludwig Ries († July 19, 1668), went as young men went to the USA and founded the company Gildemeister & Ries there in 1817, which mainly traded in textiles.

In 1825 they relocated their company to Bremen and subsequently expanded their range of activities to include the shipping company . First, the company long time operation as correspondent Reeder a shipping partnership with six ships of 300-500 GRT size in the Chinese coastal shipping. When this business was then increasingly taken over by steamships , the company turned to tramp shipping .

Visurgis AG

In the last quarter of the 19th century, the time of the typical merchant shipping companies as partnerships came to an end, also for Gildemeister & Ries. In 1897 the shipping division of the company was spun off and converted into a stock corporation, the shipping company "Visurgis" AG . The parent company Gildemeister & Ries concentrated on the mail order business for silk and woolen goods.

The "Visurgis" was a sailing ship company active in tramp shipping . As wooden ships found less and less employment, the last wooden sailing ship was sold in 1898 to CJ Klingenberg & Co., ship broker and "emigrant transport business" in Bremen. The “Visurgis” now only operated steel ships. In 1900 they had ten tall ships in service, seven full ships and three four-masted boats , with a total of 20,676 GRT . In 1905 there were 19 ships with a total of 20,760 GRT . The light gray painted ships of the shipping company, whose names usually began with the letter "N", were affectionately called "Bremen donkeys" by seafarers and dock workers because of their color. They were mostly on two routes on the go: they brought coal or cargo to China and Japan , and on the way back grain from California and Oregon to Europe, or they brought wood from Sweden and Norway to Australia , then coal from Newcastle (New South Wales) for Chile and from there saltpetre to Europe.

Business was initially satisfactory, and dividends of 8, 8 and 9 percent could be paid out in the first three financial years of 1898, 1899 and 1900 , but falling freight rates soon reduced profits considerably, and by 1905 many trips were no longer profitable. This was reflected in the fact that neither 1905 nor 1906 dividends could be paid. Although another 4% dividend was paid out in 1907 and 1908, the management realistically assessed the future prospects as not very good.

The End

With the ever faster displacement of windjammers by steamships , the shipping company came under increasing competitive pressure and from 1909 the number of its ships steadily decreased. In 1909 there were nine tall ships with a total of 17,897 GRT; the four-masted steel barque Nauarchos was reduced to a Hulk by fire in Antofagasta ( Chile ) this year . In 1910 there were eight with 15,696 GRT; In 1911 there were seven with 14,011 GRT; and in 1912 and 1913 only five remained with a total of 10,239 GRT.

The years 1910 and 1911 were very lossy, not only because of the very low freight tariffs. One ship was held there for months because of a coal workers' strike in Australia; two ships suffered considerable accidents; and one ship, the Neck , was sold to Norway because his insurance on saltpeter trips would have increased by 70% due to age. The shipping company had to go into liquidation in 1912 .

1912 was again relatively positive, as not only could the losses of the two previous years be made up, but a profit balance was even generated. However, the four-masted barque Nomia was lost in the hurricane between Newcastle and Antofagasta. 1913 was also a good year as freight rates were quite high until autumn. Therefore, and because sales revenues for tall ships sank, the sale of further ships was temporarily refrained from.

The war destroyed all hope. All five remaining ships were interned in Chile and had to be handed over to the victorious powers after the end of the war . A balance sheet had not been drawn up since 1914. On October 31, 1921, the extraordinary general meeting decided to sell the remaining assets of the company to a newly founded stock corporation, the steam shipping company "Visurgis" AG , in which the previous shareholders would be proportionally involved. This resolution was implemented in 1922, and in December 1922 the steam shipping company "Visurgis" AG, founded on November 24, 1921, took over the entire liquidation assets of the previous "Visurgis".

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Fritz Peters: About company foundings in Bremen in the first half of the 19th century (1814 - 1847) , in: Bremisches Jahrbuch , Series A, Volume 36, 1936, p. 348 ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / brema.suub.uni-bremen.de
  2. ↑ Natural Science Association of Bremen (ed.): Treatises , Volume VIII, C. Ed. Müller, Bremen, 1884, p. 146
  3. ^ Architects and Engineers Association, Bremen: Bremen and its buildings , Schünemann, Bremen, 1900, p. 675
  4. ↑ The other German shipping companies with a larger number of tall ships were DH Wätjen and Co. , Rickmers and FA Vinnen & Co.
  5. ^ The 1906 naval template: The development of German marine interests in the last decade. Mittler & Sohn, Berlin, 1906, p. 93
  6. ↑ Otto Höver: From the Galiot to the five-master: Our sailing ships in world shipping 1780-1930. Angelsachsen-Verlag, Bremen, 1934, p. 349
  7. ^ Architects and Engineers Association, Bremen: Bremen and its buildings , Schünemann, Bremen, 1900, p. 675
  8. ^ Hansa, Deutsche Nautische Zeitschrift , Volume 38, December 1901, p. 620
  9. ^ Hansa , Volume 44, April 1907, p. 141
  10. ^ Hansa , Volume 45, May 1908, p. 487
  11. ^ Hansa , Volume 46, May 1909, p. 505
  12. ↑ The ship ran in September 1893 with hull number 100 at R. Williamson & Son ( archived copy ( memento of the original from April 15, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check original and archive link according to instructions and remove then this note. ) in Workington ( England ) as centésima own account of the shipyard from the stack . It was 93.87 m long and 14.07 m wide, had a 7.82 m draft and was measured with 2949 GRT and 2796 NRT . In 1901 it was bought by “Visurgis” AG and renamed Nauarchos . @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.world-ships.com
  13. ↑ Centesima on bruzelius.info
  14. ↑ Bremen Chamber of Commerce (ed.): Statistical reports on Bremen's trade and shipping in 1913. Bremen, 1914, p. 43
  15. ↑ It was sunk in February 1917 by the German submarine U 43 .
  16. ↑ Hansa , Volume 48, June 1911, p. 412
  17. ^ Hansa , 50th year, June 1913, pp. 522-523
  18. ↑ Auchencairn in Through Mighty Seas
  19. ↑ Hansa , Volume 51, June 1914, p. 597
  20. ^ Hansa , Volume 58, November 1921, p. 1275
  21. ↑ Hansa , Volume 59, December 1922, p. 1439
  22. ↑ For the balance sheets for the years 1914 to 1921, see Hansa , Volume 59, December 1922, p. 1515 .

literature

  • Rolf Reinemuth: The “Bremer Esel”: 50 windjammers, their journeys and fates. (Koehler's small Seebücherei kks 13) Koehler, Herford, 1973, ISBN 3-7822-0086-1