SSG No 10 - Shipgaz

fleet news
Editor: Pär-Henrik Sjöström ~ Phone: +358 2 242 62 50 ~ E-mail: par-henrik@shipgaz.com
Another German museum freighter
The Old Lady at Hamburg with the museum coaster Hille alongside.
The Germans has done it again: They
added another old-timer to their fleet of
museum ships by the River Elbe.
The latest addition is named the Old
Lady and she returned to Hamburg in
German coaster
becomes Danish
The Danish coaster operator C. J. Helt &
Co of Svendborg still believes in working
in the old fashion way. Lately the company
sold their old Othonia to a Miami-based
operator for trading on the Caribbean as
the Fifita 500.
Hardly had the Fifita 500 left Svendborg
before the money earned from the selling
was re-invested in a more modern and larger
coaster Irmgard. She was purchased from
a Husum owner and renamed Dantic, the
vessel changed flag to St. Vincent &
Grenadines.
The Irmgard is on of five small coasters
built by the Husumer Schiffswerft in the
early 1980s as a last “we-still-believe-in-themarket”
test. They were built for local captain-owners,
but the idea turned out to be
not so good as they were to small already by
March. The vessel is now moored at the
Landungsbrücke in Hamburg together
with other pearls of the past, such as the
Cap San Diego, the Rickmers Rickmers
and the Scharhörn.
In Danish ownership the Irmgard has become the Dantic.
the delivery in 1980–1982. Only one experiment
building coasters of this size has been
carried out after that by the Danish Svendborg
Værft, building the advanced 1,200
DWT Riis-class.
However, by the years the Husum-built
The Old Lady is a typical representative
for German ships built in the 1950’s, delivered
by Werft Nobiskrug, Rendsburg in
1958 as the Bleichen. She is a geared
tweendecker with bridge and officers’
accommodation midships and engine
room and accommodation aft.
After being sold from Germany in 1970
she has been trading mostly in the Mediterranean
and the Black Sea. In February 2007
Stiftung Hamburg Maritim purchased the
vessel from a Turkish operator sailing it
under North Korean flag. The new owner
had it refitted and sailed her back to Hamburg
for the first time in several decades.
The ship is 93 metres overall with a beam
of 12.3 metres. She is still powered by the
original Deutz engine developing some
1,324 horsepower and providing a service
speed of 12 knots.
The Old Lady also joins the fleet of former
coasters being preserved for the future
in several cities along the Elbe, maintained
by unpaid enthusiast working on hobby
basis.
bent mikkelsen
quintet has been somewhat attractive on
the market as there were only a very few of
this size. C. J. Helt & Co runs a fleet of
coasters with names like Skantic, Dantic,
Uno Supidana and Celica.
bent mikkelsen
78 SCANDINAVIAN SHIPPING GAZETTE • MAY 21, 2007
STEEN HAUGSTED
BENT MIKKELSEN