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Alnwick Harmstorf (German Dockyard and Shipping Company)

image by Klaus-Michael Schneider, 1 June 2007

Brief History
The Flags

Alnwick Harmstorf
Schlichting Werft
Büsum Werft
Flensburger Schiffbaugesellschaft
Deutsche Industrie Werke
Reederei Harmstorf & Co. Thomas Meier-Hedde GmbH & Co. KG

See also:

Brief History

Alnwick Harmstorf started his career after WW2 as a diving and salvaging company. He overtook the business from his parents in 1937. In 1942 he started a freight shipping business, based on wrecks, he had salvaged. Until 1950 he had lifted four freighters.
In 1954 he bought the Schlichting Werft in Travemünde, which had gone into bankruptcy one year before. He extended and modernised the small family owned crafts enterprise, which became one of the best updated dockyards of Germany. In 1977 the dockyard had 800 employees. The dockyard had to face serious problems due to the petrol crisis in 1972/73, tanker business declined and in the following years the prises sunk due to overcapacities.
In 1955 Harmstorf gained his first ship, built by his proper dockyard. He entered the tanker shipping, when he bought three tankers from the DDR in 1959. His dockyard meanwhile also produced reefer vessels since 1960. In 1961 he outsourced his original business, the salvaging company, to his brother Rudolf Harmstorf.
In 1963 Harmstorf bought the Büsumer-Schiffswerft W.& E. Sielaff, another small family business and renamed it to Büsumer Werft GmbH. The departments of project management, purchase, acquisition and construction were closed and moved to Schlichting-Werft. Manufacturing remained in Büsum and the staff increased up to 380 employees until 1978. The dockyard crisis from 1986 however caused the closure of Travemünde and Büsum dockyards as well.
In 1968 Harmstorf bought die Deutsche Industrie Werke, a very old Berlin based company, which was involved into ship building since around 1958. The company was established in 1722 as armoury of the Prussian Army and was transformed to a widespread industries factory in 1950. Since 1960 coasters were produced and later on especially hotel ships. Ship building ended in 1997 and since then repair and modernising is the main business.
In 1973 Harmstorf bought 26% of the shares of Flensburger Schiffbau Gesellschaft (FSG) from Heinrich Thyssen. In 1975 Harmstorf owned 52% of the shares and in 1982 the company was incorporated into the Harmstorf Group.
After the global shipping crisis in 1983 business declined and in 1986 all dockyards were closed or sold.
This was the end of the Harmstorf Group, but in 1990 the Alnwick Harmstorf Schiffahrtsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG, located in Altona was established. Alnwick Harmstorf died in 1996.
In 2000 his son Thomas Harmstorf established with his partner Thomas Meier-Hedde a new company, Reederei Harmstorf & Co. Thomas Meier-Hedde GmbH & Co. KG. Until 2010 the company ran 18 vessels, but until 2016 the fleet was reduced down to seven container vessels. Thomas Harmstorf left that company in 2012.
Sources:
1)Marcollect, maintained by Klaus-Peter Bühne
2)German WIKIPEDIA
3)Harmstorf Shipping company webpage
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 26 Aug 2019

Alnwick Harmstorf

Alnwick Harmstorf Co / Taurus-Schiffahrt:It is a light blue flag with a white stripe at top and bottom edge and a white serifed initial "H" in the middle of the blue stripe.
I spotted this flag on 2 April 2007 in front of the company`s building in Hamburg-Altona, Kaystraße 1.
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 1 June 2007

Schlichting Werft

image by Klaus-Michael Schneider, 26 Aug 2019
image by Klaus-Michael Schneider, 26 Aug 2019

Until 1981 it was a light blue flag with a white stripe at top and bottom edge and a white sailing ship in the middle of the blue stripe, the hull shaped like a flat "W" and the voided "S" shaped like a sail (see left image above).
Since 1981 it was a light blue flag with a white stripe at top and bottom edge and a white serifed initials "S" over "W" in the middle of the blue stripe (see right image above).
Source: Marcollect, maintained by Klaus-Peter Bühne
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 26 Aug 2019

Büsum Werft

image by Klaus-Michael Schneider, 26 Aug 2019
image by Klaus-Michael Schneider, 26 Aug 2019

Büsumer-Schiffswerft W. & E. Sielaff:It was a light blue flag with a white stripe at top and bottom edge and a white sailing ship in the middle of the blue stripe, the hull shaped like a flat "W" and the "B" shaped like a sail (see left image above).
Source: Marcollect, maintained by Klaus-Peter Bühne
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 26 Aug 2019

Büsum Werft GmbH (since 1981): It is a light blue flag with a white stripe at top and bottom edge and a white serifed initials "B" over "W" in the middle of the blue stripe.
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 26 Aug 2019

Flensburger Schiffbaugesellschaft

image by Jorge Candeias, 10 May 2005
image by Klaus-Michael Schneider, 26 Aug 2019

Flensburger Schiffbaugesellschaft mbH & Co. KG: A blue flag with a thin yellow saltire, centred on it a large yellow disc bearing the blue letters "F" (top) and "SG" (bottom); a hoist stripe, vertically striped blue-white-red (see left image above).
Source: Marcollect, maintained by Klaus-Peter Bühne
Santiago Dotor, 10 May 2005

It is a light blue flag with a white stripe at top and bottom edge and a white serifed initials "F" over "SG" in the middle of the blue stripe (see right image above).
Source: Marcollect, maintained by Klaus-Peter Bühne
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 26 Aug 2019

Deutsche Industrie Werke

Klaus-Michael Schneider

It is a light blue flag with a white stripe at top and bottom edge and a white isosceles triangle, charged with a D-shaped steel strapping.
Source: Marcollect, maintained by Klaus-Peter Bühne
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 26 Aug 2019

Reederei Harmstorf & Co. Thomas Meier-Hedde GmbH & Co. KG

Klaus-Michael Schneider

It is a white flag with a blue serifed "H" in centre.
Source: Harmstorf Shipping company webpage
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 26 Aug 2019

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