Blohm & Voss Shipyard
Hermann Blohm (1848-1929) and Ernst Voss (1842-1920) founded on 5 April 1877 Blohm + Voss, a shipyard and machinery factory. Hailing from polar opposite backgrounds, Hermann Blohm and Ernst Voss could not have been more different. Blohm was born into an established Lubeck business family, while Voss was the son of a blacksmith in Fockbeck, near Rendsburg. It was however, their mutual interest in shipbuilding and mechanical engineering that brought the two men together. Following sound training and having worked for German and English firms, both had already tried to start a shipyard with other partners - but did not get very far. Instead, the two joined forces in their own shipbuilding venture - which did not come easily.
The shipbuilding yard and engine works of Blohm and Voss were founded on the Island of Steinwerder in the Elbe, and were at first small and of little importance. Blohm + Voss entered into the repair business when the first floating lifting capacity of 3,000 tons went into operation in January 1882. As a result of a new lease contract with the Hamburg Senate in 1905, Blohm + Voss had an area of 560,000 square meters and 3 km water front. Thus, the company had the largest shipyard site in the world.
In 1881 Blohm and Voss were turned into a limited liability company, with a capital of M. 6,000,000, and loan on mortgages of M. 8,000,000. A dividend of 6 percent was paid in 1910. By 1913 Ernst Voss was no longer a member of the company management.
In 1908 the area of the dockyard was about 50 acres, and there was a vast water frontage. The establishment employs an average of 5,000 workmen. The most important feature of the yard was the repairing department. There were five floating docks ; Nos. i and 2 have 3,000 to 4,700 tons capacity, with six departments, and could take three ships of over 300 ft. in length ; No. 4 a capacity of 17,500 tons, and could take ships up to 500 ft in length. It was in Docks Nos. 1 and 2 that the lengthening of the Norddeutscher Lloyd steamers Preussen, Bayern, Sachsen, and Pfalz was done. These vessels were cut in two, and by means of specially devised hydraulic machinery pulled apart, the Preussen was lengthened 70 ft., and the other three 50 ft. In the dockyard on the other side of the wharf lies dock N0.3, which has a capacity of 17,000 tons; it was furnished with steam boilers, machines, dynamos, and in time of war can be transported to any naval base to dock ships requiring to be repaired. Dock No. 5, which was nearing completion in 1908, was to be the largest steam dock ever constructed at that time, and is to have a capacity of 35,000 tons, which will enable it to take the largest warship or vessel belonging to the mercantile marine then in existence.
The yard contained six slips in 1908, in which ships of up to 600 ft in length could be built, while on the opposite side of the dockyard there are separate slips for warship building. The machine shop was furnished with all the latest and best appliances for the building of marine engines, and contained electrically driven travelling cranes of 10 to 30 tons lifting capacity. The boiler shop had also three travelling cranes of 30 tons capacity, and contained all the necessary machinery for the turning out of large marine boilers. On the quays were the necessary cranes for the reception and setting in place of machinery and boilers, one steam crane of 100 tons capacity, and several small cranes, steam and electric turn cranes, and on the southern part of the quay a crane of 150 tons and one portal crane of 50 tons.
The position of the enterprise on the eve of the Great War was most important. In 1911 the yards employed 7,500 men. The works covered 460,000 square meters, of which 300,000 had been built upon, and the water-front was 2,570 meters long. There were ten slips, of which four were over 200 meters long, five between 150 and 200 meters, and a small one of less than 150 meters. There were floating docks, the largest of which had a lifting capacity of 35,000 tons, and there were others of capacities of 17,500, 17,000, 4,700, and 3,000 tons. Two of these - the largest and the third - can be transported, and in case of war would be of great service to the fleet in the Elbe.
The yards were used for the construction of all kinds of ships, but a speciality was made of floating docks. In addition to shipbuilding, there were large works for the construction of steam-engines and turbines. There were two boiler-making establishments for cylindrical and water-tube boilers. Later a foundry for bronze and steel had been added. In short, there was every modern requirement, both as regards machinery and equipment generally.
Shipbuilding of any importance for the German Navy dated back only a comparatively short time. This began in the eighties with the small cruiser Kondor, followed in the nineties by the battleship Kaiser Karl der Grosse, of about 11,000 tons, and from that date an uninterrupted series of armored cruisers. Beginning with the cruiser Freidrich Karl, launched in 1902, there followed the York, Scharnhorst, Von der Tann, Moltki, Goben, and a cruiser of the 1910 program. The building of armored cruisers has been specializedi by Blohm and Voss, and the cruisers Von der Tann and Moltke have given them a reputation throughout the world. This was also the first German shipyard to make arrangements on a large scale for the construction of turbines, the cruiser Von der Tann having been the first large cruiser fitted with the turbine.
Several years earlier the firm had received the second prize for the best plan of an armored cruiser, and shortly afterwards the prize offered by the Russian Government for a new type of battleship. The works had since 1900 advanced enormously in the matter of battleship building, and can compete in this branch with any firm in the world. In war the position of the yard on the Elbe would be of great advantage as a repairing and refitting basis to Germany.
Messrs. Blohm and Voss had built a large number of steamers of all kinds for the mercantile marine, notably for the Hamburg - America and North German Lloyd Lines. Besides this they have built vessels for the Hamburg South American Line, for the Woermann, the German East African, and the Kosmos Lines. A considerable amount of the firm's activity was devoted to repairing vessels, as their position in Hamburg Harbor and their possessing manifold modern appliances stand them in great service. The number of workmen varied between 5,500 and 8,000. The yards of Blohm and Voss grew yearly in importance.
The high point of Navy shipbuilding before the Great War, was formed by the battle cruisers, which put Blohm + Voss on the map as a leading shipyard in this sector. Beginning with Von der Tann, which was delivered in 1910 as the Imperial Navy's answer to the British Navy's invincible class, the vessel had a displacement of 21,000 tons; its main weapons consisting of eight 28 cm canons. Von der Tann was followed by Motke in 1911; Goeben in 1912; Seydlitz in 1913; and Derffinger in 1914 - all of which held displacement of 31,200 and 30.5-m canons.
During World War I, Blohm + Voss found itself making many fundamental changes, which finally led to its commencement of large scale building of submarines at the insistence of the Imperial Navy Office - even though the yard was designed specifically for building large vessels. During the First World War (1914-1918) the shipyard provided 96 submarines, six destroyers and a small cruiser.
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