Wichhorst shipyard
The ship's carpenter Matthias Wichhorst founded a small shipbuilding company on the Veddel in 1827, from which the Wichhorst shipyard developed and built the first dry dock in Hamburg. It was one of the few Hamburg shipyards that made the transition from wood to iron and steel shipbuilding.
Foundation (1827)
Matthias Wichhorst founded a small shipbuilding company on the Veddel in 1827, which initially mainly carried out repairs. His son Johann Heinrich Nicolaus Wichhorst took over the shipyard in 1839 and began building a simple dry dock in 1847, which was completed at the turn of the year 1850/1851. It is known only to experts and is not shown on all contemporary maps. It is considered the 1st Hamburg dry dock .
1. Dry dock in Hamburg (1847–1850)
Wichhorst began building a dry dock on the Veddel in 1847, which was also known as the small dry dock . On the "Joachimstal" meadow area, a water basin was dug for the Holzhafen, and the resulting earth (25 barges) was used, among other things, for dock construction. Three sides of the dock, 40 meters long and about 15 meters wide, were made up of slopes of earth overgrown with grass. In contrast to the later Hamburg dry docks, this dock was not a bricked dock. The side facing the Elbe with an 8 meter wide driveway was made of wood and masonry. The water was pumped out with Archimedean snails powered by wind power. Initially, seagoing vessels and inland waterway vessels were docked, the silting led to the fact that from around 1870 mainly Oberland barges were docked. Because there were many problems with the water depth of the dock entrance on the Veddel, Wichhorst had the entrance dredged several times. But due to the previous straightening and deepening of the Elbe, the sand deposits increased steadily.
Move to Kleine Grasbrook (1860)
That is why Wichhorst relocated the business to the Kleiner Grasbrook next to the Reiherstieg shipyard in 1860 and installed one of the first patent slips here in 1861 . At that time there was only the dry dock of B. Wencke and the wooden floating dock of Stülcken in Hamburg , a second wooden floating dock was under construction for JW Duncker. Therefore, the patent slip was a good investment that paid for itself after three years thanks to the good occupancy. In 1870 a dry dock was built for Hapag right next to the Wichhorst shipyard.
Iron shipbuilding (1887)
Wichhorst began building iron ships as early as 1887. This caused great difficulties in the beginning, as the material and the material processing were completely different. Other craftsmen and a new machine park had to be procured. However, the other shipyards could continue to be used and the government contracts to build the iron pontoons of the Veddeler bathing establishment and the bathing establishment on the city dike in 1887 proved that the decision was correct. In the same year, the first iron ewer was made in Hamburg by Wichhorst. In the period that followed, only ships were made with the new building material, including two lightships, many tugs and pontoons, which were needed in large numbers as floating jetties for the port expansion.
Sold to J. Klatte (1905)
In 1905 JM Wichhorst died and the company was sold to the partner J. Klatte, but continued to operate under the old company name. In 1908 Heinrich Zimmer was accepted as a new partner, and the HAPAG dry dock could now also be acquired. This was associated with many HAPAG orders and the shipping company Knöhr & Burchard , to which Zimmer was related through Zimmer, had its ships overhauled in dry dock.
Takeover by the Reiherstieg shipyard (1917)
The lack of material and skilled workers during the First World War made the work difficult and since the lease for the dry dock expired in 1916, the owners decided to sell the shipyard. It was taken over by the Reiherstieg shipyard, which already had space problems.
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Shipyards on Steinwerder and Kleiner Grasbrook: 1 Stülcken 1840–1966 2 Brandenburg until 1912 3 Janssen & Schmilinsky 1858–1917 4 Wencke 1850–1900 5 Reiherstieg shipyard 1861–1927 (1983) 6 Wichhorst 1850–1917 7 MA Flint since 1870 8 Oelckers 1876– 1888 9 Blohm & Voss since 1877 10 Staatszimmerplatz and -werft 11 Janssen & Schmilinsky 1917–1928 12 Vulkanwerft 1905–1928 (1987) 13 Norderwerft since 1905 |
See also
swell
- Lange-Basmann, U .: Three-masted schooners and steam launchers, 2009 Oceanum Verlag, ISBN 978-3-86927-068-5
- Tug titan