Westmark (ship, 1883)

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Westmark
The Westmark in July 1943
The Westmark in July 1943
Ship data
flag GermanyGermany Germany
other ship names
  • Bismarck (I)
  • Freiherr vom Stein (I)
Ship type Paddle steamer
home port Ruhrort
Shipping company Luwen brothers, Ruhrort
Shipyard Berninghaus shipyard , Duisburg
Conversion 1937:
Luwen shipyard, Ruhrort
building-costs 188,000 marks
Keel laying 1882
Launch April 1883
Commissioning June 10, 1883
Whereabouts Scrapped in 1951
Ship dimensions and crew
length
68.60 m ( Lüa )
width 7.65 m
above wheel arches: 14.10 m
Draft Max. 0.94-1.45 m
displacement 308  t
Machine system
machine 2-cylinder compound machine with slide control,
Escher Wyss , Zurich
Machine
performance 		460 hp (338 kW)
propeller 2 side wheels Ø 4.20 m with 10 wheel blades each
Transport capacities
Load capacity 231 dw
Permitted number of passengers 1096 (1883)
2150 (1937)

The Westmark was a side paddle steamer built in 1883 and owned by the Luwen Brothers shipping company from Duisburg-Ruhrort from 1936 .

history

The Bismarck 1897 at the pier in Düsseldorf
Salvage of the Westmark in 1949 in the port of Unkel
Wind scoop of the Westmark . Museum of German Inland Shipping , Ruhrort

The smooth-deck steamer built in 1883 at the Berninghaus shipyard for the Steamship Company for the Lower and Middle Rhine (DGNM), later Cologne-Düsseldorfer (KD), was initially sold under the name Bismarck under DGNM number 17 as a freight and passenger ship for Rhine shipping put into service. The Bismarck was the 11th steamship of the Düsseldorf shipping company. On September 28, 1883, she took part in the inauguration of the Niederwald monument in Rüdesheim , at which Kaiser Wilhelm I was also present.

When the new saloon steamer Bismarck went into operation in 1914 , the old Bismarck was renamed Freiherr vom Stein . In March 1926 the Freiherr vom Stein was sold to the shipping company Gustav Stahlberg from Magdeburg for 32,000 RM and relocated to the Elbe . After removing the luffing cranes and the loading boom as well as other modifications, the ship was now used exclusively for passenger shipping.

After the Stahlberg shipping company was taken over by the Elbe-Saale Transport Kontor , the steamer was sold to the Luwen Schiffahrt und Handelsgesellschaft mbH & Co company from Duisburg-Ruhrort on November 6, 1936 and brought back to the Rhine. By 1937, the Luwen shipyard was converted into a double-deck saloon steamer. The upper deck was provided with a small sun deck and a cafeteria, the main deck had two dining rooms. On the lower deck there was another dining room and a beer bar. Above the upper deck lying bridge . Under the new name Westmark , the ship could now carry 2,150 people. The first voyage to Koblenz took place on June 13, 1937. In the following years, the Westmark was used as a KdF ship, among other things . Finally, in 1945, towards the end of the war , she was used as a ferry on the Unkel - Remagen connection .

At the beginning of March 1945, the Westmark in front of the jetty in the port of Unkel was either sunk by SA crews fleeing from the Allies or sank due to shelling during fighting around the Remagen bridge .

After the wreck was recovered in 1949, it was rebuilt in 1949/50 at the Luwen shipyard. From May 1950 the Westmark was again in service as a passenger ship, mainly on the Lower Rhine . She took part as a festival ship at the inauguration of the Duisburg - Rheinhausen bridge on July 3, 1950. In a fire on the night of August 13, 1951, the ship at the Luwen landing stage at the Mühlenweide in Duisburg-Ruhrort was totally destroyed and then scrapped at the Luwen shipyard.

swell

  • Georg Fischbach: The ships of the Cologne-Düsseldorfer 1826-2004 . Self-published, Marienhausen 2004, ISBN 3-00-016046-9 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Horst Eckertz: The fateful hour of the "Goethe" before Oberwinter. In: Heimatjahrbuch Kreis Ahrweiler. 2005, p. 224.
  2. ^ Georg Fischbach: The ships of the Cologne-Düsseldorfer 1826-2004. 2004, p. 298.

Web links

Commons : Westmark (Schiff, 1883)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files