QUEENSLAND'S GERMAN CONNECTIONS - PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE

Newer tonnage was ordered in 1889, followed in 1897 by the four ships of the Barbarossa class: Dimensions (Friedrich der Grosse): length 166.4m (546ft), beam 18.3m (60ft); 10,531 GRT Speed: 14 knots Twin-screw vessels with quadruple-expansion steam engines, they were the largest ships yet to use the Suez Canal. Like most of NDL’s premier ships, they alternated between peak seasons in the northern and southern hemisphere, appearing on Australian routes between September and February. Healthy cargo traffic – in both directions – led to monthly all-freight sailings from 1905, with six 12-knot, 5,000 ton ships. Routed via Suez, the outward voyage took them via Batavia (Jakarta) and Soerabaya through the Torres Strait to call at Townsville and Brisbane. Continuing on to Sydney, the return services steamed ‘southabout’ via Melbourne to Colombo, Suez, Marseilles and back to Bremen. Further growth in cargoes saw four new-build Rheinland class ships (6,600 tons, 12.5 knots) added to Australian services from 1912. Between the regular Reichspostdienst services and the weekly cargo sailings, NDL was offering five departures a month to Australia. The average outwards journey of 31 days was still four days longer than the English liners, however, and the contract was renegotiated in June 1914 to help make the route more economical and competitive for NDL. That year’s schedule printed no less than 35 cargo and 13 mailship sailings to Australia, but was over taken by a pistol-shot in Sarajevo in August. Above: Starboard profile of the elegant lines of Barbarossa Image courtesy of Peter Plowman collection

In parallel with NDL, Robert M Sloman had also been making a somewhat difficult transition from sail to steam. The firm was induced to upgrade services to Australia from 1882, but its lack of experience with steamers, and the small size of the first ships, did not meet with resounding success. In 1888-89, Sloman’s Jacob Meyer, under the aegis of his bankers, formed DADG – the Deutsch- Australische Dampfschiffs-Gesellschaft – in Hamburg, and ordered seven (3,500 ton, 10-knot) ships to initially serve Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney. But a belated, last-ditch resurgence by sailing vessels on the Hamburg-Australia route – from 13 ships of 15,700 GRT in 1893 to 36 sailing ships totalling 52,900 GRT in 1897 – caused a sharp decline in DADG’s loadings. Deft adjustments of freight rates in response to these strange market conditions helped reverse the losses, as did the opening of a second line, serving Western Australia and Java, in July 1898. Further expansion added a third line, to Brisbane, in May 1900 with the new-build Staßfurth , and Queensland services were increased with a fourth line, calling at eight-week intervals at intermediate ports like Rockhampton (Port Alma Roads). The new-build ships of the growing DADG fleet were ordered with increased refrigerated spaces for fruit and meat cargoes from Australia. By 1914, the 56 steamers were operating six lines to Australia, in addition to all other ports serving Brisbane fortnightly and Townsville and Rockhampton on monthly frequencies. Above: Evocative period poster promoting services to the Fifth Continent; the Hamburg Amerikanische Packetfahrt Aktien Gesellschaft – Hamburg-Amerika, or HAPAG at its shortest – was founded by Adolphe Godeffroy and others in 1847, ultimately merging with NDL on 1 September 1970 to form Hapag-Lloyd.

Above: Rheinland-class Pfalz ’s sistership Pommern was ceded to the US as part of war reparations, and is seen here as USS Rappahannock , off the Florida coast in 1922.

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