The 14m wide passenger/vehicle ferry Stedingen is the newest ship for FBS – Faehren Bremen-Stedingen – which operates three busy services across the Weser. The newbuild replaces the 40 year old, 58m long and 13.2m wide Fassmer-built ferry Roennebeck.
Stedingen was built at SET Shipyard on the Elbe in Tangemuende which, with its partner yard in Genthin, was responsible for building much of the inland fleet of the former GDR.
In what has sometimes been a fight for survival since unification in 1990, the yards have turned out not only inland and coastal ships but also a wide range of passenger and ferry boats, like those now in service with FBS and on the Elbe and Rhine. Police boats, research ships, specialised official work boats and dredgers have however also been built by the SET yards.
One of the most unusual, delivered in 2014, has been the 39.15m multi-purpose workboat Haithabu which carries a Finnish LAMOR system to recover and store oil spills.
FBS said when it placed the order for Stedingen in 2013 that SET was not the cheapest yard but was the most economical in terms of quality, under-cover construction, fuel consumption and after-sales service. The fact that FSB’s last newbuilding in 2011, the similar Lemwerder 11, was also built at SET and has come in for praise will have also played a part in the latest yard choice.
Reports when the Stedingen order was placed said three other unidentified German yards and a yard from Bangladesh had also tendered for the job with bids ranging from €3.5 to €5.7 million. The new ship has cost €4.4 – lending considerable credibility to the FSB comments on SET economy.
Stedingen is powered by four Scania D109 070M Diesels each of 221 kW driving four Schottel SRPs Type 170. She carries 249 passengers and 30 cars or six trucks for a total load of 150 tons.
Her predecessor, the €4.2 million Lemwerder 11, is also 59m long but wider at 15.3m. She has the same passenger and vehicle capacity and the same Scania and Schottel engine configuration.
The ferry replaced, in turn, by Lemwerder 11 was Lemwerder, another FBS ship with a colourful history, both before and after replacement. Built at Bardenfleth and now nearly 50 years old, she was converted into a transport ship at the BVT Shipyard in 2013. With a loading area of 54.66 m2 and a loading height of 13.98m she now serves as the BHV Supplier transporting big steel and wind energy components.
By Tom Todd
