World War II Database

Contributor: Al Griffis

ww2dbaseModern shipbuilding in the German town of Emden dated back to 1885, when, over the course of two years, the harbor area was upgraded. On 4 Apr 1899, the shipbuilder Hans L. Schultz visited Emden and laid out his plans for a shipyard that he hoped would be built in Emden, which had been experiencing a tremendous growth largely due to expanding railroads, passenger liners, and the overall economy. On 10 May 1900, a new lock system began to be constructed after the old system was deemed inadequate for larger ships; the construction was completed on 11 Nov 1902. On 30 Jul 1902, Emden's outer port was opened. On 1 Oct 1902, Emden's committee for approving a shipyard presented a detailed plan for the shipyard project. Finally, on 11 Mar 1903, the committee met and signed an agreement with the firm Nordseewerke Emden Werft und Dock Aktiengesellschaft to be based in the city to build and repair all types of vessels. For the repair of ships a floating dry dock was needed, and it was decided that the first vessel to be built would be their own dry dock. The company purchased, initially, a 49-acre plot of land at the eastern end of the Dortmund-Ems Canal, where most of the facilities were completed. By the summer of 1905, the four sections of their dry dock were in the water but not finished. In 1909, however, due to a myriad of reasons and a downturn in the shipping sector, orders were not arriving. In 1911, Nordseewerke faced bankruptcy, and the town of Emden stepped in to help, keeping the shipyard solvent until Hugo Stinnes bought it in Nov 1911. During 1913, Emden completed its 260-meter lock, and the shipyard began work on five new slips with a scaffolding covering slips I and II. The slips had a construction length of 168 meters (203.2 meters including the scaffolding). Slips I and II had a total width of 42 meters. The existing horizontal slip was modified to a length of 150 meters so that barges, pontoons and small ships could be built. In Dec 1913, it was renamed Deutsch-Luxemburgische Bergwerks- und Huttengesellschaft, Abteilung Nordseewerke. In 1914, Slip III was completed. Between 1915 and 1916, despite demands from WW1, the shipyard only received two warships orders, minesweepers M13 and M14, although it did construct 10 fishing vessels between 1915 and 1917, all of which were used as outpost ships by the German Navy. In 1917, it purchased two floating dry docks of 1,250 tons and 300 tons. Between 1918 and 1919, Slip IV and Slip V were completed, and the German Navy issued orders for five more minesweepers. In 1920, it launched the 14,000-ton tanker Baltic for Deutsch-Amerikanische Petroleum AG, which was the shipyard's largest by that date. In 1922, it constructed a floating dock for Argentina. In Feb 1924, the shipyard ceased most operations due to the lack of orders, and most employees were laid off. Between 1926 and 1931, with not enough orders in sight and with high operating losses, Nordseewerke stopped operations, keeping only a skeleton crew to maintain facilities and any repair work which might arrive. On 1 Jan 1934, it reopened, although business was slow. Between 1939 and 1942, the shipyard's third expansion project was completed, allowing it to produce submarines. By Sep 1944, it would launch 30 Type VIIC submarines for the German Navy. During WW2, the shipyard occupied about 280,000 square meters of land, and employed an average of 400 workers. After the war, the shipyard continued operations, building container ships, freighters, and ice breakers for the civilian sector as well as frigates and submarines for German and foreign navies (Argentina, Norway, and South Africa, among others). The container ship SeaTrain, launched in 1973, was among the fastest merchant ships at that time, and the suction dredge CNo. 525, launched in 1999, was the largest of its type at that time. In Dec 2009, the container ship Frisia Cottbus was to be the last ship built by the shipyard. It ceased operations in 2010 and the company was taken over by the Schaaf Industrie AG. At the time of its closure, it had about 1,400 employees.

Ships Constructed at Nordseewerke Emden

* Projected dates; not actual

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