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Johann Tecklenborg Oderwerke

Johann C. Tecklenborg A.G., Schiffswerft und Maschinenfabrik in Bremerhaven- Geestemünde was famous all the world over for building sailing craft. The Tecklenborg shipyard was founded by the ship's carpenter Johann Simon Abegg in Bremerhaven in 1842. Abegg's colleague, Johann Carl Tecklenborg, took over the yard in 1845. In the first decades, wooden ships were manufactured. In 1855, a dry dock went into operation, named after the then King George of Hanover.

The company developed, and it was one of the handful of shipbuilding firms which successfully managed the transition to modern iron shipbuilding, backed by share capital. But for this purpose, production had to be moved to the other bank of the River Geeste. In 1881, a piece of land was purchased on the Mühlacker area. There a modern shipbuilding plant came into being, where iron and steel steamers of different types, but also sailing vessels were built and launched. Sailing shipowners in Germany had long clung to wood, and their reluctance to go in for iron was not overcome until builders proved capable of turning out iron vessels that were as fast sailers as our old wooden clippers, and yet required very little ballast. In the last twenty years of the 19th Century, however, a number of very fine iron and steel sailing ships had been built in German yards, and some of them became famous for their record passages. I may name the Preussen, steel ship, built by Blohm & Voss, Iquique to Hamburg, 71 days ; Luna, iron barque, built by the Germauia Yard, Rangoon to Falmouth, 92 days; Placilla, steel four-masted barque, built by Tecklenborg, Channel to Valparaiso, 58 days.

Mr. John C. Tecklenborg, of Geestemunde, built in 1898 a steel five-masted barque, the Potosi, which is at present the largest sailing vessel afloat. Her dimensions are 360 ft. between perpendiculars, 49 ft. beam, 31 ft. moulded depth, and 4,026 register tons; she carried 6,200 tons deadweight, displaced 8,470 tons on 25 ft. draft, and spread canvas of 50,020 sq. ft. sail area. She proved a very fast sailer, and a most comfortable ship at sea, and she tacked with the greatest ease. The very heavy strain these large vessels have to undergo when heavily laden has shown the advisability of strengthening them beyond the requirements of Lloyd's rules.

At the end of its business year (May 6, 1902) the Tecklenborg Company, at Bremerhaven, capitalized at 2,000,000 marks ($476,000), paid a dividend of 20 percent. This concern was occupied to its utmost capacity during the entire year, and the repair and dry docks were continually in use. Six double-screw freight and passenger steamers and two very large sailing vessels were building, of which three steamers and one sailing vessel were delivered to the owners.

The vessel completed in 1902 was the largest in the world. Her name is Preussen. She is a five-masted, full-rigged steel vessel; steel sparred throughout. Her length is 440 feet; beam, 50 feet. She has a carrying capacity of 8,000 tons, while her registered tonnage is 4,000. At the close of its business year this company had four vessels under construction, and orders were booked for one lighter, one fishing steamer for the high seas, and one sailing vessel. The building of these seven ships and also of a bridge kept the plant busy for some months to come.

The full-rigged steel vessels shaped the image of the yard; the five-mast-ships POTOSI (1895) and PREUSSEN (1902) of the famous Hamburg F. Laeisz line are still remembered today in the international sailing community. Laeisz also commissioned the four-mast-barque PADUA. She still sails today as the Russian KRUSENSTERN and has occasionally visited Bremerhaven.

The contract for the river gunboat C was awarded in 1909 to the Tecklenborg firm at Geestemiinde, and all the ships of this year's program are now in hand. The gunboat, which was intended for service on the rivers in China, was to be ready by the summer of 1910, when she was to be transported in sections to Shanghai, where she will be again put together.

The international shipbuilding crisis after World War I finally brought an end to the business of the Tecklenborg yard, although the technical know-how and the finances of the company were said to be comparatively sound. But it was taken over by the AG "Weser" shipyard in Bremen and closed down in 1928. What then followed was a dismantling of a quite successful yard, which had become victim of financial interests generated outside the firm. An apartment block on the former shipyard area named Tecklenborg still reminds us of a significant chapter in Bremerhaven shipbuilding history.