Wilhelmshaven seaside resort service
The Wilhelmshaven seaside resort service is the name given to the shipping companies that carried out passenger traffic with seaside resort ships between Wilhelmshaven and various destinations on the North Sea . Shipping traffic was originally started as Helgoland traffic between Wilhelmshaven and the island of Helgoland , later the East Frisian island of Wangerooge , Dangast and the Butjadingen peninsula were added as destinations. In the course of time, various shipping companies were entrusted with the task. The service was discontinued in 2014.
History up to World War II
In 1870, 20 years before Heligoland was ceded by the United Kingdom to the then German Empire , shipping began from Wilhelmshaven to the island of Heligoland.
The steamship company "Hansa" from Bremen took over the seaside resort line with a municipal grant of around 5000 marks, but gave it two years later, in 1892, to the tugboat company "Union" , which in turn only took a ship from Wilhelmshaven for one season began. It was not until 1901 that Wilhelmshaven re-established a regular bathing connection to Wangerooge , with occasional trips to Helgoland being offered. The line was operated by Norddeutscher Lloyd in Bremen until 1914 .
In 1906 the city of Wilhelmshaven built the bath steamer Dr. Ziegner Gnuechel . The ship, which was named after the mayor of Wilhelmshaven, Hans Ziegner-Gnüchtel , was to be used for ferry traffic between Wilhelmshaven and Butjadingen . However, the captain of the ship Rinje Brandis tried to make trips to Heligoland with his relatively small ship. These legendary Heligoland special trips with the steamer Dr. Ziegner-Gnuechel were also the reason why after the First World War the North German Lloyd, which had resumed the voyages in 1922, abandoned them because the city of Wilhelmshaven did not want to forego the special voyages to Helgoland and at sea by steamer.
For the special trips to Heligoland , the businessman Karl Welge chartered the watercraft Hunte and Geeste from the naval shipyard in 1924 . He founded the Jade seaside bathing service and carried out the traffic between Wilhelmshaven and Wangerooge with the paddle steamer Jade . The vehicles were also used in the ferry service to Dangast and Butjadingen. The double-screw saloon steamer Helgoland was then chartered for the Helgoland seaside bathing service by the company Barmat and Kutisker from Hamburg . The ship could carry almost 1,000 people. For this purpose, Welge founded Helgoland GmbH together with the movie theater owner Hellwig. But it only lasted a year.
From 1927 onwards, the North German Lloyd again agreed to make trips to Helgoland. The beginning of the Second World War meant the temporary end of the seaside resort service from the former naval port to Heligoland.
Post World War II story
In 1948 the city of Wilhelmshaven received approval from the British occupying forces to operate a shipping line to Heligoland again. The Jade shipping company was founded as the successor to the Jade seaside resort service. Regular service began in 1952 with the motor ship Friesland and the former mine clearance boat Arngast , which was chartered by the American military government, again to Wangerooge and Helgoland.
In 1954 the new Rüstringen building , which had been built on the Wilhelmshaven Jadewerft, was put into service. This ship could hold 600 people, but after a short time it was no longer sufficient due to the increased number of passengers and its poor sea behavior. After the Rüstringen could be sold, the connection with the purchased seaside resort ship Kehr again was continued.
In 1961 the order for the new Wilhelmshaven building was placed with the Roland shipyard in Bremen-Hemelingen. From 1962 this ship carried out the traffic according to plan. In 1982 the shipping company Warrings from Carolinensiel in East Frisia took over the ship and allowed it to sail on the traditional route until 2003. She then sold the ship to the Förde Reederei Seetouristik (FRS) from Flensburg , which will continue to operate the line from 2004.
In 2005 the Förde Reederei Seetouristik (FRS) operated the route from Wilhelmshaven to Helgoland in cooperation with the shipping company Norden-Frisia from Norderney . The Wilhelmshaven Helgoland line was founded specifically for the operation. After just one season, the Förde Reederei Seetouristik withdrew from the Wilhelmshaven Helgoland line due to a sharp drop in passenger numbers. The AG Reederei Norden-Frisia initially continued to operate the route alone. Since 2007 she has been running the Wilhelmshaven Helgoland Line together with AG Ems from Emden .
At the end of the 2004 season, the Wilhelmshaven was decommissioned, so that only the catamaran Cat No. 1 of the AG Reederei Norden Frisia connected the city on the Jade with Heligoland. However, due to the high operating costs, the operation of Cat No. 1 can be set.
Since 2007, a ship called Helgoland has been operating on the route from Wilhelmshaven to the island of the same name. The ship on the Wilhelmshaven Helgoland Line, a cooperation between the Norden-Frisia shipping company and the Ems shipping company, was a converted car ferry . It had space for up to 1,200 passengers and with a length of 77.90 m and a width of 12.60 m brought it to a speed of up to 16 knots.
Since the summer of 2009, the Wilhelmshaven Helgoland Line has offered an additional bus shuttle service for Helgoland drivers from Norddeich to the Helgoland-Kai in Wilhelmshaven every Wednesday. Since the sale of the Polarstern catamaran by Reederei AG Ems, Wilhelmshaven has been the only port on the East Frisian peninsula that offers trips to the island of Helgoland. The Polar Star was up to her accident in August 2008, the only ship that still offered a combination of the East Frisian port to Helgoland. The Polar Star was like the Cat No. 1 Sold in 2008 to Linda Lines in Helsinki .
At the end of 2014, the shipping company Cassen Eils, now entrusted with the traffic, announced that it would discontinue its ferry connection from Wilhelmshaven to Helgoland. As an explanation, the shipping company stated that the trips on the Heligoland, which is not suitable for the sea, were canceled too often. In 2014, the former ferry only ran daily from the end of June to the beginning of September. Economically too short a season. Alternatively, trips with the MS Fair Lady from Hooksiel, north of Wilhelmshaven, to Helgoland are now to be offered on selected dates .
literature
- Werner Brune (Ed.): Wilhelmshavener Heimatlexikon , Volume 1–3. Brune, Wilhelmshaven 1986–1987.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Wilhelmshaven-Helgoland ferry before the end , accessed on June 3, 2015
- ^ FRS takes over Helgoland-Linien , Hamburger Abendblatt, April 1, 2004
- ^ FRS relies on tourism , Hamburger Abendblatt, April 5, 2005
- ^ Reorganization in Heligoland transport , Hamburger Abendblatt, December 9, 2005
- ^ "Helgoland" departs from Wilhelmshaven , Hamburger Abendblatt, January 12, 2007
- ^ Off for "Wilhelmshaven" , Hamburger Abendblatt, September 15, 2004
- ↑ "Cat No. 1 "sold , Hamburger Abendblatt, December 22, 2006
- ↑ Buszubringer Helgoland driver Ostfriesen-Zeitung, July 1st 2009
- ^ Accident catamaran abandoned the waves when the waves were too high Stern-Online, August 6, 2008
- ^ Reederei Cassen Eils: From Hooksiel to Helgoland , accessed on June 3, 2015