200 Years Of Hamburg Shipping

Hamburg is a great seaport lying eighty miles from the open sea along the Elbe, with the old city on the north bank of the river and the large open dock and basin system on the south of the river. It is unlike the Thames and London with its closed system of docks behind lock gates. Hamburg was a leading member of the Hanseatic League and an independent trading city, and in 1945 became a city state of the Federal Republic. Shipping and trading continue to play a dominant role in the modern economy of the city, with a huge total of 120 million tonnes of cargo passing through the Port of Hamburg each year. Ten thousand vessels call each year at the 320 berths and 66 miles of quays. Responsibility for the dredging of the river up to the port was taken over by the German Government in 1921, and a good depth of water is provided by the Free Port of Hamburg. Shipowners and merchants such as August Bolten and Robert Miles Sloman obtained their cargoes in the bourses of the old city two hundred years ago, and this same practice is still carried on today.

A host of great shipping companies have been founded in Hamburg, many of which are still trading today, particularly the great Hamburg Amerika Linie founded in 1847 and trading today as Hapag- Lloyd, and the Hamburg Sud Americanische Line founded in 1871. Some of the many others have included Bernard Blumenfeld Reederei (founded in 1902), Leonhardt & Blumenberg (1903), Robert Bornhofen (1923), Deutsche Ost- Africa Linie (1890), John T. Essberger (1924), Hamburg Atlantic Line (1958), Emil Offen Hanseatic Reederei (1926), Horn Line (1882), Adolph Kirsten (1878), Ferdinand Laeisz (1839), Rudolf A. Oetker (1952), Oldenburg Portugiesische D/S Reederei (OPDR founded in 1888), Rickmers Line (1834), and Hugo Stinnes (1907). However, the two oldest of these great Hamburg shipping companies, Robert M. Sloman Gmbh and August Bolten William Miller’s Nachfolger Gmbh, go back over 200 years, and are the subject of this article.

August Bolten

August Bolten William Miller’s Nachfolger Gmbh is the second oldest Hamburg shipping company, and is still very much in business with a fleet of thirty owned and chartered bulkers, multi purpose ships and feeder container ships. August Bolten was born on 23rd January 1812 in Mecklenburg in Northern Germany, the son of Johann Joachim Bolten and his wife Anna Margaret. In 1830, he became an employee of shipbroker William Miller (1767-1840), who had emigrated from Scotland to represent the Scottish fishing industry in Hamburg, arranging customs clearance and the sale of fish, and founding a company there in 1801 after taking German citizenship in the same year. This company soon diversified from fishing into shipbroking and investing in shares of sailing ships. After the death of Miller in 1840, August Bolten led the company together with the widow of Miller. After her death four years later, August Bolten became the sole owner of the company, which was renamed August Bolten, William Miller’s Nachfolger (Nachfolger is German for Successor).

August Bolten soon expanded his company by jointly founding the Hamburg Amerika Linie (Hapag) on 27th May 1847 together with Ferdinand Laeisz and other Hamburg shipowners and merchants such as Dr. Adolph Halle and Ernest Merck with Adolph Godeffroy as Chairman. In 1857, together with three other partners, he established the Hamburg Vera Cruz Packetfahrt Gesellschaft with regular services to the Gulf of Mexico. Bolten held 25% of the shares, shipbuilder Ernst Dreyer and merchant Wilhelm Pollitz and ship manager Eduard Beatus Crasemann held the other quarter shares. In 1869, August Bolten founded the Hamburg Brazilian Steamship Company, forerunner of the great Hamburg Sudamerikanische D/S Gesellschaft two years later. Hamburg Sud and Hapag are, of course, the greatest current German shipping companies of today. August Bolten became their Hamburg agent, and was also a pioneer investor of several other German shipping lines with worldwide routes e.g. Hansa Line in 1881, and Woermann Line in 1885, which later managed the German East Africa Line from 1891.

Bolten Entry Into Shipowning

August Bolten married Mathilde Busch, daughter of a priest, in 1860 but the marriage was childless. His main business interests until his death on 19th July 1887 aged 75 years were shipbroking, ship agencies, and investments in other shipping companies. The company was then taken over by the Binder family, and they entered shipowning in 1906 from an office at 36, Admiralitatstrasse in Hamburg. The first ships were two big steel barques, Cap Horn and Marco Polo, the former built by Russell at Port Glasgow in 1888 with dimensions of 306 feet by 44.6 feet, and the latter built by the Grangemouth Dockyard in May, 1892 on dimensions of 248 feet by 38.4 feet. In 1908, three steel tramps of 5,000 dwt were purchased and renamed Harz, Haake and Haardt, all having been built by British yards for British tramp owners. Harz had been built by William Pickersgill & Company in 1897 as Middleham Castle for James Chambers of Liverpool and his Lancashire Shipping Co. Ltd. Haake had been built in 1894 as Ramazan by Robert Thompson of Southwick, Sunderland, and Haardt had been built by Pickersgill, also of Southwick in Sunderland as Heronspool in 1897 before being sold to Strick Line a year later and renamed Shahristan.

The big sailing ship fleet was not neglected though, with eight large sailing ships owned in 1912, alongside four steam tramps, all operating worldwide. Some of the other big sailing ships were Gustav of 2,718 grt, built in 1892 by Russell & Company at Port Glasgow as Austrasia, Carl of 1,995 grt built at Maryport in 1893, Elfrieda of 1,870 grt built at Liverpool in 1873, Henriette of 2,066 grt built by Palmers at Jarrow as Dovenby Hall in 1885, Leni of 1,998 grt built at Geestemunde in 1891, and Ulrich of 2,369 grt and built by Russell & Company in 1892 as Mozambique. This big sailing fleet traded in all of the major trades of the time, including the well trodden route out to the Mediterranean, returning with grain from the Black Sea, nitrates from Chile, and grain or wool from Australia.

In 1913, the Baltische Reederei was established in order to maintain a service to Sweden. A yellow and blue houseflag with a white saltire and a ‘B’ on a central white disc was used for the vessels on the service, blue and yellow, of course, being the national colours of Sweden. The fleet on the outbreak of World War I in August 1914 was composed of ten big sailing ships, four steam tramps of 5,000 dwt, and one coastal sailing ship, Caracas of 503 grt. The latter vessel had been built in April 1912 at Capelle a/d Ijsel by A. Vuijk & Zonen as a raised quarterdecker steel three masted sailing ship and fitted with an auxiliary oil engine. Almost the entire Bolten fleet was lost to enemy action during World War I, and during the shipping boom and slump of 1920/21 and the consequent severe inflation, the company began to manage Swedish registered vessels. Goteborg of 902 grt built at Rostock in 1893 was one of these vessels that Swedish owners found cheaper to register and have managed in Hamburg.

The Bolten fleet during the inter-war years used a nomenclature of ‘Bol’ for Bolten for its deep-sea tramps e.g. Bolama, Bolbek, Bolderau, Bolero, Bolheim, Bolivar, Bollan, Bolten, and Boltenhagen. A black funnel was chosen with a black ‘B’ on the Bolten red and white houseflag. At first, tramps were purchased after long service with other owners e.g. Amaler of 4,500 dwt purchased in 1921, having been built twenty years earlier at Stockton by Craig, Taylor & Co. Ltd. She was beached later that year and became a total loss in Vlissingen Roads after a collision while on a voyage from Antwerp to Gambia. Bolivar of 4,500 dwt had been built back in 1888 by Doxford, Robert of 4,500 dwt had been built as Mediana for Furness, Withy & Co. Ltd. in 1897 at Middlesbrough and was purchased in 1923, and Bolten of 5,100 dwt had been built at Flushing in 1912 as Sophie H.

Newer tramps were then purchased, including Bolheim of 5,600 dwt ex Arundo in 1928, Boltenhagen of 5,600 dwt ex Dubhe in 1929, Boltenhof of 5,450 dwt ex Dorie in 1935, Bollwerk of 7,535 dwt ex Nailsea Moor in 1937, and Helios of 6,596 dwt ex Boscombe Chine in 1937, managed for Wachsmuth and Krogman of Hamburg. Eva of 2,480 dwt was completed at the Howaldtswerke yard at Kiel in 1924 and managed for China Rhederei. Two new tramps were then ordered, with August Bolten of 5,700 dwt completed in 1937 at the Neptun yard at Rostock as a raised quarterdecker tramp powered by a triple expansion steam engine and a low pressure turbine to give a service speed of 13 knots, with the similar Adolf Binder of 6,075 dwt under construction at the same yard on the outbreak of war in September 1939. The Binder family were the managers and major shareholders in the company.

As had happened during the first World War, almost the entire Bolten fleet was lost to enemy action during World War II, with the only survivor being the new tramp Adolf Binder, which was seized at Trondheim at the end of the war and given as war reparations to Belgium with the name of Astrida. Boltenhof had been bombed by Allied aircraft on 13th December 1944 and sunk at Swinemunde but was raised at the end of war and ceded to Russia and became the Polish tramp Kalisz in 1947. When restrictions by the Allies on German shipowners were lifted in 1950, new tramps were delivered as August Bolten (2) of 5,100 dwt in October 1951, and sister Beate Bolten in December 1951, both had four holds with engines ‘midships and twelve derricks on two masts, and a service speed of 12 knots from 8-cylinder M.A.N. oil engines. The sisters Karen Bolten and Carlota Bolten of 3,858 dwt were completed by the Orenstein and Koppel yard at Lubeck during 1954/56 on dimensions of 320 feet by 45 feet with a depth of 19 feet, and had service speeds of 12 knots from a quadruple expansion steam engine and a low pressure turbine by Flender Werke of Lubeck. The Swedish cargo ship Oscar Gorthon of 3,415 dwt built in 1939 at Fredriksstad was purchased in 1958 and renamed Anita Bolten, and the reefer Cordoba 3670/58 was managed for Fritz Kopke. The open shelterdecker Falkental of 5,286 dwt, built in 1955 by Nordeseewerke at Emden, was purchased in 1961 and renamed Cadiz, she had a dozen derricks serving four holds and hatches including a 25 tonne heavy lift derrick.

New TT-Linie Ferry Service

Along with other German business partners, Bolten invested in the new Travemunde-Trelleborg (TT-Linie) ferry service from Travemunde in Germany to Trelleborg in Sweden in 1962. The new ferry Gosta Berling with accommodation for 600 passengers and side and stern doors for 90 cars began the service after completion by the Hanseatische Werft in Hamburg. She was joined by the ferry Nils Holgersson in 1967 with accommodation for 850 passengers and bow and stern loading for 230 cars and trucks from the Lubecker Flenderwerke yard in Lubeck. The TT-Linie service has used the names of Peter Pan and Nils Holgersson several times for the ever bigger ferries of 30,000 gt operating on this popular route e.g. Peter Pan and Nils Holgersson of 36,468 gt with accommodation for 744 passengers are currently operating, along with four ro-paxes Huckleberry Finn, Nils Dacke, Robin Hood and Tom Sawyer on the main route as well as on the Rostock to Trelleborg and Travemunde to Helsingborg in Sweden routes.

Bolten Ro-Ros and Bulk Carriers

In 1968, two ro-ros of 2,312 dwt were completed by Schlicting Werft yard at Lubeck able to carry 184 TEU containers and lo-lo (lift-on lift-off) cargo using a heavy lift derrick as Barbell Bolten and Marietta Bolten. They had service speeds of 14 knots from Atlas-MaK diesel engines, and Barbell Bolten was chartered to Northern Ireland Trailers Ltd. for the unit load service from Preston to Larne. However, the main thrust of the Bolten fleet became bulk carriers with the geared sisters Margarethe Bolten and Marie Luise Bolten of 22,836 dwt completed during 1963 to 1965, and the larger Handysize Elisabeth Bolten, Evelyn Bolten, Erika Bolten, Marianne Bolten and Natalie Bolten of 34,000 dwt completed during 1970 to 1974 with Marianne Bolten purchased from Schulte of Emden in 1978 as Hermann Schulte. Long term charters were concluded with Cargill for grain, Krupp for iron ore and coal, and Volkswagen for the carriage of cars. Smaller general cargo ships included Dorothea Bolten of 7,405 dwt completed by Orenstein and Koppel at Lubeck in 1969, Christiane Bolten of 7,680 dwt completed as the last ship from the famous Burntisland yard on the Firth of Forth in the same year, and Alice Borthen of 6,341 dwt completed in 1972 by Van der Giessen du Noord at Alblasserdam.

In 1981, when the August Bolten owned fleet consisted of four Handysize bulkers of up to 38,375 dwt and two general cargo ships, a ship management company was formed jointly with the Schulte Group of Emden as Eurasia Shipping and Management. The Schulte Group had a history dating back to 1937, and took full control of Eurasia Shipping and Management in 1988, and was later to form more ship management companies, managing hundreds of all types of ships. Bernard Schulte Shipmanagement was formed in 2008 by combining four ship management companies, Eurasia Shipping and Management, Hanseatic Shipping (1971), Dorchester Atlantic Marine (1978) and Vorsetzen Bereederungs (1999). Two notable ships managed by August Bolten from 1984 to 2007 were the heavy lift ships Condock IV and Condock V.

Current August Bolten Fleet

August Bolten William Miller’s Nachfolger Gmbh are shipowners, ship managers, ship brokers and port agents at Hamburg, Wilhelmshaven, Bremerhaven, Brunsbuttel, Nordenham, Emden, Brake, Kiel, Wismar and Rostock. The owned and managed fleet is thirty bulkers, multi purpose vessels, feeder container ships, car transporters, and passenger and ro-ro ferries on the TT Linie service to Sweden. Ship sizes are from 7,000 dwt to 54,000 dwt, with typical bulkers being the sisters Marielle Bolten and Sigrun Bolten of 29,550 dwt and built at Dalian in China in 1997 with part container capability of 1,130 TEU. This pair have five holds and five hatches with five cranes of 30 tonnes capacity for cargo handling. A geared bulker of 47,260 dwt was purchased in 2003 for a four year charter to Norden of Denmark and was renamed Nord Spirit. The latest bulkers in the fleet are fitted with car decks, Helen Bolten and Callisto of 25,000 dwt were completed in 2010 by Yamanishi Corporation at Ishinomaki in Japan as double hulled ships equipped with three cranes of thirty tonnes capacity and a service speed of 14 knots from a six cylinder MAN-B & W diesel of 7,960 bhp.

Seventy shore employees work in the head office in Hamburg, with more employees in the subsidiary office in Piraeus of Lydia Mar Shipping Company S.A. formed in 1981. Some sixty bulkers are managed by this subsidiary currently, with eight more of up to 38,250 dwt long term chartered from Greek owners for international trading. SIMA France SAS (LdR) is a subsidiary in Paris for a regular service from West African to European and the Eastern Seaboard of the U.S.A. ports. This latter service dates from 1956 when the Paris Ligne des Rivieres (LdR) service to West Africa was formed with French partners. Two feeder container ships, Iris Bolten and Ines Bolten of 10,950 dwt are currently on charter to the Unifeeder service in the North Sea from Rotterdam to the Tees and Hull. The company is privately owned and managed by the seventh generation of the family in Gerhard Binder, the majority shareholder, and Dr. Johann Killinger.

Robert Miles Sloman

Robert Miles Sloman was born on 23rd October 1783 at Great Yarmouth as the son of William Sloman, an English ship master, who settled in Hamburg in 1785 with his wife and two sons William Palgrave Sloman and Robert Miles Sloman. William Sloman became a Hamburg citizen in 1791 and established his first company as a shipbroker in 1798. On his death in 1800, his son Robert Miles Sloman, then seventeen years old, inherited the shipbroker business and some sailing ships. After the Treaty of Amiens on 25th March 1802, Robert Miles Sloman departed for Antwerp to found another shipbroker company, but as war broke out again he had to return to Hamburg. Napoleon Bonaparte then blockaded the port of Hamburg, so Sloman moved his business to Tonning at the mouth of the river Eider, then part of Denmark. In 1806, he married Gundalena Brarens, the daughter of pilot inspector and nautical examiner Hinrich Brarens.

In 1814, Robert Miles Sloman reopened his shipbroker business in Cuxhaven, but when the French troops gave up Hamburg, he returned to his home city. However, his last sailing ship, sailing under English colours, had been confiscated by the French and it was not properly insured. Under Hamburg laws as a shipbroker, he was forbidden to act as a shipowner, so new part-owned sailing ships were registered under their Master’s names, who owned the remaining shares in the vessels. Passenger services to England were followed on 17th February 1836 by the first regular Transatlantic service from Hamburg to New York with the barque Franklin and two other sailing ships. On 8th May 1841, the Hanseatic D/S Company was formed by Sloman and eight other German shipowners to operate two British built paddle steamers, Hamburg and Manchester, between Hamburg and Hull. In the same year of 1841, Sloman emigrant passenger sailing ship services were begun to New Orleans and U.S. Gulf ports as well as to New York, with owned barques such as Herschel (built 1833), Copernicus (built 1850), Louis Napoleon (purchased 1856 and lost by fire at sea on 23rd February, 1864 while on a voyage from Hamburg to New York), and Eugenie (built 1864 and in the emigrant trade until the end of 1867).

The competing Hamburg Amerika Linie was formed in May 1847 for Transatlantic services, with the Sloman Transatlantic fleet numbering seven vessels. When the first Hapag sailing ship, Deutschland, left Hamburg on her maiden voyage in October, 1848, Sloman responded in 1850 by changing from sail to steam with the iron hulled three masted steamer Helena Sloman of 800 grt and built in Britain. She carried 300 passengers with a crew of forty and made a 28 day passage from Hamburg to New York. She was unfortunately lost on her third Transatlantic voyage on 28th November, 1850, the crew being rescued by the sailing ship Devonshire, although nine lives were lost in the rescue. Hapag then made the decision to stay with sail because of her loss, and had six sailing ships operating on the Atlantic by 1853. A replacement steamer was ordered by Sloman in 1853, and when Hapag decided to change from sail to steam in June, 1856, Sloman immediately offered to run a joint service, but Hapag refused.

The Hapag steamer service began on 1st June 1856 when Borussia sailed from Hamburg for New York with 402 passengers, followed by sister Hammonia a month later. Sloman then gave up on steamers until the end of the 1860s, and began a long term relationship with the Clydeside yard of Alexander Stephen & Sons with the launch of the sailing ship Copernicus of 699 grt in 1864. A total of eighteen vessels were built by Stephen for Sloman over the next 32 years, with six sailing ships of a total of 4,613 grt in Copernicus, Newton, Humboldt, Reichstag, Friedeburg and Lammershagen, and a dozen steamers from 1870 in Alert, Neapel, Malaga, Barcelona, Catania, Sorrento, Marsala, Procida, Taormina, Capua, Salerno and Pisa of 4,473 grt completed in December 1896 on dimensions of 390 feet length by 46 feet and 30.5 feet depth. All of the sailing ships and steamers had passenger accommodation, with Taormina of 2,423 grt completed in 1884 having many cabins for first and second class passengers in her long bridge deck.

Robert Miles Sloman had died on 2nd January 1867 aged 84 years, leaving ten sailing ships in his will to his son. He had remained until his death very bitter about Hapag and the start of their Transatlantic service. His elder son of the same name, born in 1812 and married in 1838, grasped the opportunity in 1871 of setting up in opposition to Hapag. Robert Miles Sloman junior was appointed Chairman of the new Adler Line (Eagle Line) after a meeting of shareholders on 16th January 1872. Eagle Line then placed orders for eight new ships, seven of them being iron hulled screw steamers of over 3,400 grt on dimensions of 375 feet by 40 feet with a depth from keel to Spar Deck of 33 feet. Goethe, Schiller, Herder, Lessing, Wieland, Gellert and Klopstock had accommodation for ninety first class passengers, one hundred in second class, and eight hundred in steerage in the holds. The eighth vessel was the Hamburg tender Hoboken of 413 grt, and the profiles of the seven Transatlantic steamers varied with some being twin funnelled, others had a second funnel added later, while Herder remained single funnelled throughout her career. Eagle Line had bigger, faster and higher quality ships than Hapag, but rate wars and the mid 1870s economic depression led in 1875 to Hapag taking over the Eagle Line fleet.

In 1872, the Sloman Mediterranean Line (Mittelmeer Linie) service was begun with services from Hamburg to Malaga, Barcelona, Genoa, Livorno, Naples, Catania, Messina and Palermo. New ships were built with early ventilation systems suitable for the carriage of fruit. Sloman had entered the Australia and New Zealand trade between 1841 and 1846 with sailing ships, but after four years in the trade it was taken over by Norddeutscher Lloyd in 1886. Three new ships were constructed in 1881/82 with full refrigeration machines to carry frozen meat over these long voyages. Catania of 2,200 grt, Sorrento of 2,417 grt, and Marsala of 2,396 grt transported frozen meat from the Antipodes to London, and reefers were to figure prominently in the Sloman fleet for the next 98 years until the last pair were sold in 1979.

In 1886, Robert Miles Sloman Junior and his nephew Edward Carr founded the Union Line. The new company became the Carr-Union Line and their passenger agents were J. Morris & Company, the manager of which was a brilliant man of 22 years of age in Albert Ballin. Both Hapag and Albert Ballin wished to avoid the continuation of the rate war on the Transatlantic service, and Albert Ballin was invited to become Hapag’s passenger manager and to bring with him his steerage class passenger agency for the Carr- Union Line. This was accepted, and the four Carr steamers, California, Polaria, Polynesia and Australia, were amalgamated into the Hapag fleet in 1890. The Union Line continued to be operated by Sloman until 1907, when its largest passenger liner Pisa of 4,446 grt completed in December 1896 on the Clyde was sold for further service with Hapag on 9th December 1907. She had accommodation for 43 passengers in first class and 1,200 in steerage class in the holds, and was in the vicinity of the icefield that sank the Titanic on 15th April 1912.

Second Sloman Century

Robert Miles Sloman Junior died in 1900 aged 88 years, and the management of the fleet was taken over by other members of the family. At the Millennium, the big Sloman fleet numbered thirty steamers, and was managed from an office at the Baumwall in Hamburg, the north embankment of the city on the Elbe. The steamer Procida of 2,290 grt completed in 1871 by Charles Connell & Company on the Clyde, was sold at the end of the year to the Admiralty for service as a coal hulk at Simonstown, and had previously been in the Clan Line fleet as Clan Macleod between 1881 and 1884, when she was purchased by Sloman. Eight vessels of the Sloman fleet had been purchased from Hapag during the previous five years from 1895 for use as colliers and had been renamed Bellagio, Licata, Milano, Parma, Pompeji, Sicily, Spezia and Syracusa.

The largest passenger ship in the fleet was Barcelona of 5,456 grt and 9,000 dwt, which had been launched at Belfast by Harland & Wolff Ltd. as Arabia for Hapag and made her maiden voyage from Hamburg to Boston, Philadelphia and Baltimore on 17th March 1897. She had accommodation for twenty passengers in first class and 1,200 in steerage in the holds when purchased by Sloman in 1899, and after eight years service was sold back to Hapag. British shipbuilders predominated in the Sloman fleet at this time with 22 vessels built, and only eight built in Germany. However, German shipbuilding stepped up production during the next fifteen years with eighteen out of twenty new Sloman steamers coming from German yards by 1915. The Neptun yard at Rostock built sixteen of these new steamers for the Spanish and Italian trade in Algier, Amalfi, Capri, Catania, Cette, Frascati, Girgenti, Lipari, Lissabon, Mailand, Marsala, Portici, Portofino, Procida, Tunis and Turin. They replaced vessels lost by marine causes e.g. Capua built by Stephen on the Clyde in 1889 went missing on 3rd December 1909 after passing Texel for Genoa, and Palermo built on the Tyne by Mitchell in 1876 was wrecked on 11th December, 1910.

The entire Sloman fleet of twenty two steamers except one was sunk or lost to enemy action during World War I. Some ships were confiscated by Governments opposed to Germany when they put into port rather than run the blockade back to Germany. Offices in Madrid and Spanish ports and Genoa were opened in 1921 to restart the Mediterranean services. A new fleet of Mediterranean traders was then built in German yards, particularly the Neptun yard at Rostock and the F. Schichau yard at Danzig. They had silver or aluminium coloured hulls and black funnels with a central pale green band. Masts, ventilators and derricks were white, cowls were green, boot topping was green or red, and a typical outfit of a dozen derricks included two heavy lift derricks of thirty tonnes capacity. The strikingly handsome blue houseflag featured a large white castle and four six pointed white stars in the corners.

The Sloman vessels carried a few passengers and were popular with German tourists as they were comfortable little ships in which to spend a comfortable voyage to the Mediterranean. They were of up to 5,500 dwt and were named Neapel (1920), Malaga (1921), Messina (1921), Barcelona (1921), Valencia (1922), Catania (1922), Palermo (1922), Girgenti (1923), Livorno (1923), Spezia (1924), Marsala (1925), Trapani (1926), Capri (1927), Cartagena (1927), Procida (1927), Tarragona (1928), Sardinien (1928) ex Helmstrath, Genua (1930), Sizilien (1930) ex Harpagus, Lipari (1933), Savona (1934), Alicante (1934), Castellon (1934), Catania (1935), Malaga (1935) and Messina (1937).

Sardinien and Sizilien were British built tramps of 7,500 to 8,000 dwt which also undertook longer voyages to the Eastern Seaboard of the U.S.A. or to South America. Two fast motor reefers were also built during the inter-war years in Alsterufer of 2,700 dwt in 1930 and Alstertor built as Rose of 3,000 dwt in 1938 and renamed a year later. Alstertor sailed from Hamburg on 4th July 1939 to bring oranges and bananas from Santos to Hamburg, while Alsterufer was delivered from the Eriksberg yard at Gothenburg in September 1939, and made only one voyage before war prevented further use of the pair, both being lost during the war. A big fleet of twenty Sloman fruiters and reefers was controlled on the outbreak of World War II, in addition to the twenty coaster fleet of Mathies Reederei A.G. of Hamburg, steamship owners since 1887. Control of Mathies had been obtained in 1934 in partnership with Johannes Ick, and Sartori and Berger, operating in the Baltic between Danzig and North Sweden.

Rotor Ship Barbara

A very unusual ship of 2,800 dwt was managed during the inter-war years from 1926 to 1933 by Sloman for the Deutsche Reich Marine Verwaitung. She had three tall experimental auxiliary wind powered towers of 55 feet in height and thirteen feet in diameter fitted to the tops of her forward wheelhouse, ‘midships accommodation and aft winch house. The towers were hollow lightweight aluminium cylinders and were painted with the Sloman green band, and when the wind was reasonably strong they acted as sails, turning fast enough to provide additional forward motion in addition to two six cylinder M.A.N. oil engines linked to her single screw by her builders A. G. Weser. The rotors were designed by Flettner and made use of the Magnus effect, whereby the wind flowing over a rotating cylinder will generate a force at right angles to the wind, and a new type of Flettner rudder was also fitted to the ship.  Various sail assisted experiments have been tried over the years, the one that springs to mind is the Stephenson Clarke collier Ashington, completed in April 1979 by Clelands on the Tyne and which carried a strange wingsail on top of her bridge for a while. The Flettner rotors fitted to Barbara fared no better, her speed with the cylinders rotating varied from 5.5 knots without power assistance to 10.5 knots attained with both main engines at full power and a beam wind of some strength. Barbara made some comparison voyages with other members of the Sloman fleet to the Mediterranean, but the experiment was dropped after only two years of trying to get enough economic improvement in speed to make the investment in these tall cylinders worthwhile. In 1932/33, her appearance was completely changed with the forward wheelhouse and the Flettner rotors removed, a conventional new wheelhouse fitted ‘midships turning her into a funnelless motorship. She was renamed Birkenau for owners Bugsier Reederei und Bergungs A.G. of Hamburg, and survived World War II to become Else Skou for Danish owner Ove Skou, after rebuilding and re-engining by Howaldtswerke in Hamburg in February 1948. After a long career, she was scuttled off Jeddah in August 1978 under the name of Star of Riyadh.

Sloman In Post-WWII Years

Seven ships survived World War II from the big Sloman pre-war fleet of 23 ships, but none of them returned to post-war Sloman service. Capri, Catania, Lipari and Messina were given as war reparations to the British as Empire Galaxy, Empire Neath, Empire Garston and Empire Cherwell respectively, while Malaga and Sardinien became Vis and Losinj under the Yugoslavian flag, and Valencia became Skottland under the Norwegian flag. A new post-war replacement Mediterranean fleet was then ordered by Sloman as soon as restrictions were lifted on German shipping companies in 1950.

The new Algier (1951), Lugano (1953), Malaga (1953 and purchased three years later), Messina (1950), Palermo (1951), Tarragona (1952) and Valencia (1951) were of up to 3,000 dwt. They had three holds, two in front of the bridge and one aft, with ten derricks on two masts and a set of kingposts for cargo handling. A larger vessel was completed as Lissabon of 7,200 dwt in 1956 by the Stulcken yard at Hamburg on dimensions of 386 feet by 53 feet with a loaded depth of 25 feet. She was powered by a five cylinder Howaldtswerle M.A.N. diesel of 3,340 bhp to give a service speed of 14.5 knots.

A West African service was begun in 1951 after restrictions had been lifted by the Allies. The Union Africa Line began with four newbuildings in partnership with the sisters Norrland and Svealand both 2,170/51 of Mathies Reederei of Hamburg. However, when Woermann Line and Deutsche Ost Afrika Linie resumed their traditional sailings in 1954, this prompted a merger between Union Africa Line and Woermann using the Woermann name and flag for the service with Sloman as the Woermann Hamburg agent. The Sloman Mediterranean service resumed in 1953, after Neptun Line of Bremen had ended their joint service with United Baltic Company (UBC) of Britain, which had resumed in 1950. Two fast reefers were completed at this time by the Deutsche Werft yard at Hamburg for Sloman in Alsterufer (2) 2,683/52 and Alstertor (2) 2,460/54, and were sisters of Perikles 2,721/53 owned by Ferninand Laeisz & Company. All three reefers were used in the fruit trade from Ecuador to Hamburg, and were joined in 1956 by the purchased Alsterkamp 3,180/49 ex Glomdal and built by the Oresundsvarvet yard. The closed shelterdecker Irmgard Pleuger 1834/52 was completed by the Nobiskrug Werft yard at Rendsburg in 1952 for Partenreederei Irmgard Pleuger with Sloman as managers.

More fast engines ‘midships reefers followed in Alsterblick 3,200/59, and the 23 knot pair of Sloman Alsterpark and Sloman Alstertor of 4,914 grt and 6,560 dwt in 1968. The latter pair were good looking ships with four holds and accommodation for four passengers when completed by the Howaldtswerke yard in Hamburg, and their high speeds were obtained by M.A.N. diesel engines. Three closed shelterdeckers of 7,375 dwt were launched during the first half of the 1960s as Mailand, Tunis and Sloman Madrid, although the latter was completed as Madrid in 1965. They were built by the Stulcken and Blohm & Voss yards in Hamburg on dimensions of 414 feet by 53 feet by 22 feet draft with four holds and four hatches, and had six cylinder M.A.N. diesels ‘midships of 5,400 bhp to give a service speed of 16.5 knots. They had fourteen derricks on two masts and two sets of posts, with two being for heavy lifts, and the trio were sold on after ten years service in 1973/74. The closed shelterdecker Sloman Biscaya had engines aft and was strengthened for heavy cargoes. She was purchased in 1966 as Biscaya, having been completed five years earlier as Biscaya by Aalborg Vaerft A/S with a six cylinder B & W oil engine of 3,500 bhp to give a service speed of 15 knots.

Two ro-ro ships were built in 1968 for a joint service between Hamburg and Stockholm with Mathies Reederei of Hamburg. The heavy lift trades were covered by Starman Ltd., formed jointly in 1974 with Blue Star Line. Starman of 2,516 grt had a heavy lift Stulcken derrick of 300 tonnes capacity, and was followed by Starman Africa and Starman Anglia in 1977. A standard German ‘Liberty’ type of 15,300 dwt was completed in 1970 as Sloman Senior for the West African trades, and was joined in 1977 by the ‘CL10’ type sisters Sloman Nereus and Sloman Najade of 7,400 dwt and equipped with five derricks and a goalpost mast on top of their bridges.

Sloman Neptun Schiffahrts A.G.

In 1973, Sloman purchased 75% of the long established Bremen shipping company Neptun D.G. with a history dating back to 1873. Coastal European passenger and cargo services had been operated for one hundred years by a big fleet of coasters that operated in the trades from the river Weser and included the Rhine ports and the Iberian peninsula. The Neptun vessels had black funnels and central blue and yellow bands. The new merged company began operations under the above name in 1974, and the Sloman offices were relocated to Bremen. Regular services were offered to Norway, Sweden, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Holland, North Africa and West Africa. The LPG and ethylene trades had been entered by Neptun in 1969 with the new sisters Alphagas and Betagas of 2,630 dwt delivered in 1970 from Dutch yards. Gammagas of 5,795 dwt was completed in 1972 by the Jos. L. Meyer yard at Papenburg and the trio operated in the Unigas pool with a subsidiary company in Bremen of Unigas Neptun Transport. The Unigas consortium comprised Sloman Neptun Schiffahrts, Bremen; Olaf Petersen Rederi A/S, Norway; George Gibson Ltd., UK; Anthony Veder BV, Netherlands; and LGS and associate member Othello Shipping, both of Germany.

Currently, sixteen LPG and ethylene tankers are operated by Sloman Neptun in the Unigas pool, in Alphagas, Betagas, Deltagas, Epsilongas, Etagas, Gammagas, Jotagas, Kappagas, Omegagas, Rhogas, Sigmagas, Thetagas, Zetagas with Lady Elena, Lady Mathilde and Lady Stephanie managed by Bernard Schulte Shipmanagement Gmbh. In addition, six product tankers operate on charter or in major tanker pools including Sloman Ariadne, Sloman Herakles, Sloman Hermes, Sloman Hera, Sloman Themis and Sloman Thetis. The Sloman Neptun gas and product tanker fleet is managed from offices in Rotterdam, Houston and Hong Kong.

A general cargo service to East African ports and Mauritius was operated from 1979 by the new sisters Sloman Mercur and Sloman Mira of 13,130 dwt. The Mediterranean and North African trades have been operated from this time by the twin screw ro-ros Sloman Ranger, Sloman Record, Sloman Regent, Sloman Rider, Sloman Rover, Sloman Royal and Sloman Runner of 3,350 dwt, and by Sloman Challenger, Sloman Commander, Sloman Crusader, Sloman Champion and Sloman Companion of 6,250 dwt. Sloman Ranger sank on 12th June 1981 off the Spanish Mediterranean coast after a collision with the Japanese vessel Artemis Island, sinking in dense fog in minutes 100 miles off Cartagena with four of her twelve man crew unfortunately lost. Sloman Neptun merged their Bremen Westnorwegen Linie with Gard Line of Norway in June 2000 to provide a better service by two vessels from North European ports to West Norwegian ports.

These Mediterranean trades have been operated since the Millennium by the sisters Sloman Trader and Sloman Traveller of 9,950 dwt, the sisters Sloman Producer and Sloman Provider of 8,200 dwt, and the new sisters Sloman Discoverer and Sloman Dispatcher of 12,750 dwt. In 2002, three chartered vessels of 7,320 dwt were used in Sloman Supporter, Sloman Server and Sloman Supllier. These multi purpose vessels call at Leixoes (Portugal) and Cartagena (Spain) en route to seven ports in Algeria (Oran, Arzew, Mostaganem, Algiers, Bejaia, Skikda and Annaba), then Tunis and five ports in Libya (Tripoli, Misurata, Benghazi, El Brega and Ras Lanif) on scheduled weekly liner services from Bremen, Hamburg and Harwich. Containers, break bulk, and particularly project and ro-ro heavy items up to 300 tonnes in weight can be accepted over their stern ramps, and Mediterranean cross services operate from Algeria to Italy and Spain. The combined Sloman and Neptun general cargo fleet have dark grey hulls with ‘SLOMAN NEPTUN’ in white bold letters, and the merged company funnels are black with either a green band for Sloman or blue and yellow bands for Neptun.

Postscript

The giant current container fleets of Hapag-Lloyd, the sixth largest container ship company in the world, and Hamburg Sud, the thirteenth largest container ship company in the world, and the big Rickmers fleet of scheduled worldwide heavy lift liner ships, are very important Hamburg shipping companies. Hapag- Lloyd will become the fourth largest container line in the world if merger talks with CSAV of Chile are successful. The fleet of August Bolten operate in the niche bulk trades, and the Sloman fleet in the Mediterranean liner trades and the worldwide LPG, ethylene, chemical and product tanker trades, but are nevertheless important in their own right. A continuous maritime history of well over two hundred years by these two companies is something of which to be extremely proud.