Bremen – Bremerhaven – Geestemünde

Die Geschichte der Segelschiffe von Weser und Geeste und ihrer Bauwerften von 1710 bis 1927
Bremen – Bremerhaven – Geestemünde
Hauschild Verlag, Bremen
2008, 536 p., 662 ill., 226 in colour, large format (21 x 27 cm), hardback
ISBN 978-3-89757-332-1

Co-editor:
Deutsches Schiffahrtsmuseum, Bremerhaven

Contents:
The shipyards in Bremen city and in Bremerhaven/Geestemünde having built sailing ships in the 18th and 19th centuries and the biographies of the sailing ships built by there are subject of Vol. III of the trilogy "Von der Weser in die Welt". Co-editor is the Deutsches Schiffahrtsmuseum at Bremerhaven, which had published Vol. I in 1993 in its academic series.

Some of the most famous German shipbuilders - Rickmers and Tecklenborg - were based in Bremerhaven or Geestemünde respectively; in 1902 the only five-masted-fullrigger in the world, the PREUSSEN, was launched here. Other less known shipyards as Heineken, Knickmann, B. Wencke, Taake Janssen, and Asendorpf in Bremen or F. W. Wencke, Lange, Ulrichs, and Schau & Oltmanns in Bremerhaven/Geestemünde constructed hundreds of wooden fullriggers, barques and brigs, ships which attract too little interest in comparison to the big steel sailing vessels of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

The structure of Vol. III which is opulently illustrated corresponds the acknowledged and approved procedural method of the previous volumes of 1993 and 2003. A survey of the whole area under investigation (the modern cities of Bremen and Bremerhaven) is followed by the histories of the various shipbuilding firms for the sailing ship era. Next come yard-lists and the biographies of the ships built by them as complete as possible. Great importance is attached to the names of the masters and the period of their commands. The voyages in the emigrant trade from the Weser are listed with dates and number of passengers which is very important for genealogical research. Comprehensive indices enable the reader to find ships and masters easily.

With the completion of Vol. III, all shipyards on the Weser for the sailing ship era and the sailing ships built by them have been described with technical data and biographies, unique for a shipbuilding region. The text is complemented by hundreds of illustrations, above all colour reproductions of paintings of sailing vessels.