Fendel 147

The “Fendel 147” was built in 1922 by Schiffs- und Maschinenbau AG in Mannheim as a completely riveted steel ship. The non-self-propelled barge initially served under the name “Rheinfahrt 3” for the Mannheim shipping company Fendel. After a few years, the barge was converted into a crane ship. At first, it was a coal-fired steam crane that could travel on rails across the deck. Later, in 1964, a modern crane with a diesel engine replaced it. Until the end of steam shipping, the ship served as a bunker ship for so-called “boot coal”. This is the coal that a steamship consumes itself. In the nine covered cargo holds, 750 tons of coal could be bunkered. With the crane, the required amount of coal was loaded into the coal bunkers of the steamships. Since the mid-1950s, the crane ship had been stationed in Duisburg. All major shipping companies maintained such bunkering stations along the rivers. The image of the Duisburg Rhine fleet was particularly shaped by the crane ships during the time of steam shipping. After the end of steam shipping in the 1960s, the “Fendel 147” served as a storage and supply ship for the Stinnes shipping company in Duisburg. In 1988, it was decommissioned as unprofitable. The last crane ship from the Rhine has been owned by the Museum of German Inland Shipping since 1994 as a technical monument, thanks to a donation from the Stinnes shipping company. In recent years, the ship has been largely rebuilt to its 1920s condition. After a thorough renovation in 2012, the “Fendel 147” now lies as the third museum ship next to “Oscar Huber” and “Minden” at the mouth of the Ruhrorter harbor.