MS Bleichen

Last updated • 3 min readFrom Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia

53°31′46″N9°59′55″E / 53.52937°N 9.998661°E / 53.52937; 9.998661

Contents

Bleichen IMO 5046281 G Hamburg 07-09-2020 (1).jpg
MS Bleichen
History
Name
  • Bleichen (1958-1970)
  • Canale Grande (1970–1979)
  • Arcipel (1979–1994)
  • Old Lady (1994–2007)
  • Bleichen (2007-)
Namesake
Owner
Port of registry
Builder Nobiskrug Shipyard
Launched26 June 1958
Commissioned28 August 1958
Homeport Hamburg
Identification
Fate Museum ship in Hamburg
General characteristics
Type Cargo ship
Displacement2,129 t (2,095 long tons)
Length93.30 m (306.1 ft)
Beam12.30 m (40.4 ft)
Height7.20 m (23.6 ft)
Draft4.69 m (15.4 ft)
Installed power
  • 1 × shaft
  • 1,800 hp (1,342 kW)
Propulsion1 × Klöckner-Humboldt-Deutz diesel engine
Speed12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph)
Capacity2,200 t (2,165 long tons)
Complement24 crew

MS Bleichen is a museum ship in the port of Hamburg, which has its berth in the Hansa port on Bremer Kai in front of Shed 50. The ship, built in 1958, is a breakbulk cargo carrier of its time and is located in front of the listed general cargo storage shed used by the port museum. [1]

Design

The Bleichen has midships and stern superstructures, a deck design that went out of fashion as early as the 1950s, but guaranteed a high level of comfort in the center bridge, as it was less affected by engine vibrations and noise. Despite its age, the ship is largely unchanged and in good condition. The ship's diesel engine from Klöckner-Humboldt-Deutz has remained unchanged, as have the steering gear, the lifeboats and the propeller. According to information provided by former crew members, the interior is also in its original condition.

The Bleichen was therefore built with a high ice class in order to be able to navigate the Baltic Sea all year round.

Construction and career

The ship was built at the Nobiskrug Shipyard in Rendsburg for the Hamburg shipping company H. M. Gehrckens (HMG) and put into service under the name of Bleichen on 28 August 1958. [2] Like its sister ship Borgesch, the freighter was named after an old Hamburg street. The Bleichen was a typical general cargo ship, as it was in use before the advent of container ships. The Gehrckens shipping company used their ships in the Scandinavian trade.

The ship transported paper from Finland to Germany until 1970. In 1970 it was given the name Canale Grande by the new Italian owner. [3] The Canale Grande was bought by a Turkish shipowner in 1979 and renamed Arcipel. The ship was used from 1994 to December 2006 under the name Old Lady for transporting bulk cargo in the Black Sea. [3]

Due to the construction as a three-island ship and the complex operation, the operation of the ship was no longer profitable. The Bleichen had relatively small hatches and tween decks, making loading and unloading inefficient by today's standards. With a crew of 22 men, it took three days to load 2,000 tons of scrap. The ship was to be decommissioned and scrapped. [3]

The Hamburg Maritime Foundation, which was looking for a general cargo ship for its museum at the Shed 50, the last remaining Hamburg quay shed from the time of the German Empire, became aware of the ship in 2006 and decided to buy it. [3] The purchase price of 450,000 euros was raised through donations. After a stay in the shipyard in Turkey, it was transferred to Hamburg in January 2007, where it arrived on January 30, 2007. [4] [3]

On 27 April 2007, the Old Lady was christened back to her first name, Bleichen. Since then it has sailed again under the German flag with its home port of Hamburg. On February 6, 2007, a works association "Friends of the General Cargo Freighter MS Bleichen" was founded for restoration and operation. [5] The restoration is to be carried out by volunteers and by the "Youth in Work" project. [6] The restoration time was estimated at around three years, but took longer. Deficiencies were found in the midships superstructure and the main engine, which will take longer than expected to be rectified.

On 24 October 2017, the Bleichen was successfully tested and accepted on the Elbe. [7] Guest trips have been offered again since 2018. [8]

Related Research Articles

MV <i>Captain Kurbatskiy</i>

MV Captain Kurbatskiy was a Russian SA-15 type cargo ship originally known as Nizhneyansk (Нижнеянск) after a port of the same name. The ship was delivered from Valmet Vuosaari shipyard in 1983 as the second ship of a series of 19 icebreaking multipurpose arctic freighters built by Valmet and Wärtsilä, another Finnish shipbuilder, for the Soviet Union for year-round service in the Northern Sea Route. These ships, designed to be capable of independent operation in arctic ice conditions, were of extremely robust design and had strengthened hulls resembling those of polar icebreakers.

MS <i>Zuiderdam</i> Vista Class cruise ship owned by Holland America Line

MS Zuiderdam is a Vista-class cruise ship owned and operated by Holland America Line (HAL). It is the lead ship of the Vista-class vessels, so named for the extensive use of glass in their superstructure, and is sister to three other HAL ships, Oosterdam, Westerdam, and Noordam. The prefixes of the four ships' names represent the four directions of the compass in Dutch.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lake freighter</span> Ship type

Lake freighters, or lakers, are bulk carrier vessels that operate on the Great Lakes of North America. These vessels are traditionally called boats, although classified as ships.

<i>Peking</i> (ship) Steel-hulled four-masted barque

SS <i>Storstad</i> Steam cargo ship

Storstad was a steam cargo ship built in 1910 by Armstrong, Whitworth & Co Ltd of Newcastle for A. F. Klaveness & Co of Sandefjord, Norway. The ship was primarily employed as an ore and coal carrier doing tramp trade during her career. In May 1914 she accidentally rammed and sank the ocean liner RMS Empress of Ireland, killing over 1,000 people.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Finnlines</span>

Finnlines Plc is a shipping operator of ro-ro and passenger services in the Baltic Sea and the North Sea. It is a subsidiary of the Grimaldi Group. Finnlines’ sea transports are concentrated in the Baltic and the North Sea. Finnlines’ passenger-freight vessels offer services from Finland to Germany and via Åland to Sweden as well as from Sweden to Germany. The Company has subsidiaries in Germany, Belgium, Great Britain, Sweden, Denmark and Poland. In addition to sea transportation, the Company provides port services in Finland in Helsinki and Turku.

Nobiskrug is a shipyard located on the Eider River in Rendsburg, Germany, specialized in building innovative, custom-made luxury superyachts.

MS <i>Kungsholm</i> (1952) Ship

MS Kungsholm was a combined ocean liner / cruise ship built in 1953 by the De Schelde shipyard in Vlissingen, the Netherlands for the Swedish American Line. Between 1965 and 1981 she sailed for the North German Lloyd and their successor Hapag-Lloyd as MS Europa. From 1981 until 1984 she sailed for Costa Cruises as MS Columbus C. She sank in the port of Cadiz, Spain after ramming a breakwater on 29 July 1984. The vessel was refloated later that year, but sent to a Barcelona shipbreaker in 1985 for scrapping.

Italian aircraft carrier <i>Sparviero</i> Ocean liner repurposed for military use

Sparviero was an Italian aircraft carrier designed and built during World War II of the Regia Marina. She was originally the ocean liner MS Augustus built in 1927 for Navigazione Generale Italiana, but was transferred to the new Italian Line after the merger of Navigazione Generale Italiana. The conversion was started in 1942 originally under the name Falco but was never completed, and the ship was never delivered to the Regia Marina. She began to be scrapped in 1946, a process completed by 1952.

Cotati was a steam cargo ship built in 1918–1919 by Moore Shipbuilding and Drydock Company of Oakland for the United States Shipping Board (USSB) as part of the wartime shipbuilding program of the Emergency Fleet Corporation (EFC) to restore the nation's Merchant Marine. The vessel was briefly used for the first two years of her career to transport frozen meat between North and South America and Europe. The ship was subsequently laid up at the end of 1921 and remained part of the Reserve Fleet through the end of 1940. In January 1941 she was sold together with two other vessels to the New Zealand Shipping Co. and subsequently in 1942 was transferred to the Ministry of War Transport (MoWT) and renamed Empire Avocet. The ship was torpedoed and sunk by German submarine U-125 on 30 September 1942 on one of her regular wartime trips.

MS <i>Lofoten</i>

MS Lofoten is a Norwegian passenger and cargo vessel formerly owned and operated by Hurtigruten AS. The ship was built in 1964. After MS Nordstjernen was retired from coastal service in 2012, MS Lofoten became the oldest ship in the current fleet still in operation. It operates cruises around the coast of Norway and sometimes in the Svalbard archipelago. The vessel was declared worthy of preservation in 2001 by the Norwegian Director General of Historic Monuments to preserve Norway's cultural heritage. She has been refitted several times—in 1980, 1985, 1995 and most recently in 2004.

SS <i>Söderhamn</i>

Söderhamn was a 1,499 GRT cargo ship that was built in 1899 by Helsingørs Jernskib-og Maskinbyggeri A/S, Denmark for German owners. She was seized by the Allies at Kiel in May 1945, passed to the Ministry of War Transport (MoWT) and renamed Empire Congham. In 1947, she was returned to her previous owners and renamed Söderhamn. She served until 1958 when she was scrapped in Hamburg, Germany.

SA-15 (ship type)

SA-15 is the project name for a series of icebreaking multipurpose cargo ships built in Finland for the Soviet Union in the 1980s. The ships, capable of independent operation in all prevailing arctic ice conditions, were the first merchant vessels designed for year-round operations in the Northern Sea Route. For this purpose they have hulls that resemble those of polar icebreakers and propulsion systems capable of withstanding ice loads.

MS Windoc was a lake freighter or laker, initially constructed as an ocean-going bulk carrier in West Germany in 1959. Entering service that year as Rhine Ore, the ship was renamed Steelcliffe Hall in 1977 and reconstructed as a laker. In 1988 the laker was renamed Windoc and in 2001, was involved in a collision with a bridge on the Welland Canal which caused the ship to catch fire. The ship was declared a constructive total loss. While undergoing repairs in Ontario, the ship broke free of its moorings and grounded. Later pulled free, the vessel was eventually converted into a barge.

<i>R. J. Hackett</i> (steamer) Historic shipwreck in Lake Michigan

R. J. Hackett was a steamer built in 1869 in Cleveland, Ohio, by Peck & Masters. When the ship was first launched, both its wide cross-section and long midships hold were unconventional. The design's clear advantages in moving cargo through the inland lakes quickly resulted in many imitators.

<i>CSL Tadoussac</i> Canadian lake freighter

CSL Tadoussac is a lake freighter currently operated by Canada Steamship Lines (CSL) on the Great Lakes. She was launched in 1969. Initially named Tadoussac, following her refit in 2001, she was renamed CSL Tadoussac She was the last freighter built for CSL in the traditional two superstructure design, which puts her bridge up in the ship's bow. The vessel primarily transports iron ore and coal.

<i>Adele</i> (1952 ship)

Adele was a Swiss cargo ship, later the merchant ship Sunadele. Initiated by Gottlieb Duttweiler and named after Adele Duttweiler, she served in the Merchant Marine of Switzerland.

<i>Algosoo</i> (1974 ship)

Algosoo was a lake freighter constructed for Algoma Central in 1974 by Collingwood Shipyard in Collingwood, Ontario. The second ship of the name, Algosoo was the last lake freighter built in the traditional design for use on the North American Great Lakes, where the bridge topped a superstructure right in the ship's bow, and a second superstructure topped her engines, right in the stern. The vessel was used to transport bulk cargoes between ports on the Great Lakes. In 1986, the ship suffered a serious fire and 1994, was forced to run aground. Algosoo transported her last cargo in late 2015 and was sailed to the breaking yard at Port Colborne, Ontario in October 2016.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hamburg Maritime Foundation</span> German maritime foundation

The Hamburg Maritim Foundation is a legally responsible foundation based in Hamburg, Germany and was founded in 2001.

The Oostzee was a Dutch coaster on which a serious toxic accident occurred on the Lower Elbe (Germany) in July 1989.

References

  1. "MS Bleichen". hamburg.com. Retrieved 9 February 2022.
  2. "Willkommen". www.msbleichen.eu (in German). Retrieved 9 February 2022.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 "Stiftung Hamburg Maritim | BLEICHEN". stiftung-hamburg-maritim.de. Retrieved 9 February 2022.
  4. SMV (30 January 2007). "hamburg heute: Die letzte Reise der alten Dame". Die Tageszeitung: taz (in German). p. 24. ISSN   0931-9085 . Retrieved 9 February 2022.
  5. "Der Verein stellt sich vor". www.msbleichen.eu (in German). Retrieved 9 February 2022.
  6. "Jugend in Arbeit Hamburg e.V." www.hamburg.de. Retrieved 9 February 2022.
  7. "Freunde des Stückgutfrachters MS BLEICHEN". www.facebook.com. Retrieved 9 February 2022.
  8. dpa/shz.de (20 March 2018). "Nach elf Jahren Restaurierung: Historischer Stückgutfrachter "MS Bleichen" wieder in Fahrt | shz.de". shz. Retrieved 9 February 2022.

Commons-logo.svg Media related to Bleichen (ship, 1958) at Wikimedia Commons