House Flags of German Shipping Companies (s) - part 2

Deutsche Reedreiflaggen (s) Teil 2

Last modified: 2019-07-08 by klaus-michael schneider
Keywords: skogland | solscher | sommerfeld | spaleck | suedafrika linie | sunship | swatow | swinemuender dampf | syndikats rhederei | speck |
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For House Flags of German Shipping Companies(sch) click here.
For House Flags of German Shipping Companies(st) click here.

• Skogland Linie
• C.A.E. Solscher
• Binnenschiffahrtskontor Sommerfeld
• Martin Spaleck
• Claus Marcus Speck KG
• Südafrika Linie (South African Lines)
• Sunship Schiffahrtskontor
• Dampfschiff Gesellschaft Swatow
• Swinemünder Dampfschiffahrt AG
• Syndikats Rhederei Gesellschaft

• House Flags of German Shipping Companies
• House Flags of Shipping Companies
• Germany

Skogland Linie

Skogland Linie GmbH - The company had a 7-stripes flag with alternating red and white stripes starting with a red one.
Source: Jürgen Meyer: "Hamburger Segelschiffe von 1795-1945", ISBN 3-89225-400-1; Hamburg 1999; inside cover
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 23 Mar 2007

C.A.E. Solscher

C.A.E. Solscher - The company used a red flag with a white 6-point star in each corner. In the centre was a white disk with a blue serifed capital "S".
Source: Jürgen Meyer: "Hamburger Segelschiffe von 1795-1945", ISBN 3-89225-400-1; Hamburg 1999; inside cover
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 2 Apr 2007

Binnenschiffahrtskontor Sommerfeld

The flag is divided by a white saltire into red blue. In the centre is a white disc containing a red capital "S". The flag was said to belong to a transport and/or logistics company in Berlin. Two years have been gone by, but I haven't succeeded in identifying this flags. Jan Mertenswrote to me, confirming he had also seen the S-flag in Berlin in 2006.
Source: I spotted this flag at Billwerder Bucht in Hamburg on 13 March 2007.
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 21 Apr 2009

On 7 May 2006 Dominique sent a photo of inland navigation ufes to the List, message titled 'Some house flags from Berlin': one of these bears a white saltire defining blue triangles (top, bottom) and red ones (left, right) leaving out a circular space in the centre bearing a red initial, unserifed "S", see here (photo caroussel)
This neat little site, German only, presents BKS i.e. Binnenschifffahrtskontor (i.e. Inland Navigation Office) Sommerfeld GmbH of Buxtehude, a little town in Stade county west of Hamburg.We learn that the company has 30 000 metric tonnes of space available in vessels ranging between 400 and 2500 tonnes. More specifically, more than 20 vessels and a push boat (and eight push barges) are operated mainly on the rivers Weser and Elbe, and on the Northern German canals. Shipped are various commodities such as fodder, coal, ore, cement, project cargo,and containers.
The first link on the "Presse" (i.e. Press) page - see upper menu - leads to a text in English mentioning the year of foundation, 1991, by Rudolf Sommerfeld and the 2006 merger with the local Jöhnk wharf (repairs, pontoon building).
Jan Mertens, 3 May 2011

Martin Spaleck

Martin Spaleck, Schneverdingen (Schneverdingen is south of Hamburg) - horizontal blue - yellow - blue flag, in center of yellow blue "MS".
Image after Brown's Flags and Funnels Shipping Companies of the World, compiled by J.L. Loughran, Glasgow, 1995 [lgr95]
Jarig Bakker, 16 Oct 2005

Claus Marcus Speck KG

The company is located in Hörsten. In the centre of the blue flag is a yellow statant lion.
Source: Verband Deutscher Reeder homepage
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 17 July 2012

Südafrika Linie (South African Lines)

It is a horizontal 7-stripes flag with alternating stripes of blue and orange with a white inscription "SAL" in the centre, the "A" in width exceeding both other capitals. The colours are those from former South African flag.
SAL ran a short joint service together with Deutsche Ost Afrika Linie, located in Hamburg-Altona, only from December 1967 until March 1968. A timetable can be found here. Another image of flag can be found here.
Source: I spotted this flag in a pub in St.Pauli on 28 May 2004.
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 1 Mar 2009

Sunship Schiffahrtskontor

The company is based in Emden - blue flag, in centre yellow sundisk with a bottom part missing, near bottom a white wavy stripe.
(Schiffahrtskontor = shipping office)
Image after Brown's Flags and Funnels Shipping Companies of the World, compiled by J.L. Loughran, Glasgow, 1995 [lgr95]
Jarig Bakker, 23 Nov 2005

Dampfschiff Gesellschaft Swatow

As stated by Jorge Candeias on 15 Jan. 2005,  "clear flag, unclear caption.  The flag is trapezoidal, white, with three blue vertical stripes shifted to the hoist."   Extracted from the original pictures Jörg sent some time ago, the attached image with caption Dampfs. Ges. Swatow which I take to mean Steam Ship(ping) Co. Swatow.

Swatow, now Shantou, is situated in the Han River Delta, China, and I suppose the place must have been an important destination for above company, most probably German, to have been named after it. Unfortunately I have not been able to find out anything specific about this firm
Jan Mertens, 8 May 2007

Swinemünder Dampfschiffahrt AG

This page (in German) presents the "Swinemünder Dampfschiffahrt-Aktien-Gesellschaft" (Steam Navigation Co. Ltd of Swinemünde).
The house flag is horizontally divided blue (upper stripe) and white, bearing a white disk in the middle showing a red griffin's head, beaked, langued and also crowned yellow; on the blue stripe are black letters "Sw" (upper hoist) and "D" (upper fly), on the white stripe are "A" (lower hoist) and "G" (lower fly).

From the text we learn that the firm was founded in 1890, cooperating with erstwhile competitor Braeunlich from 1892 on. It seems its few ships had a penchant for collisions; another company characteristic was buying ships from, or selling them to, Braeunlich. In 1928, the firm was bought by the "Stettiner Dampschiffs-Gesellschaft" (Steamship Co. of Stettin), legally disappearing during WW2, probably.

The publicity reproduced on the webpage shows that the "Swinemünder" was active in local shipping to and from Stettin plus a number of other Baltic resorts.
More on this firm and its ships on this scripophily page (in German).

Swinemünde is now Swinoujscie in Poland; its CoA (with a complete, and very maritime, griffin) can be seen.
Jan Mertens, 15 May 2005

A pedantic, but hopefully not useless, remark: It has been called the same since the 17th century. "Shantou", or rather "Shàntóu", is the Hanyu pinyin romanization of ""汕頭", which can also be rendered in other romanization schemes, such as "Swatow" using the so called Chinese Postal Map Romanization, now disused.
António Martins-Tuválkin, 9 May 2007

Syndikats Rhederei Gesellschaft

Syndikats Rhederei Gesellschaft, Hamburg - red flag, white diamond, black "O" (or circle)
Image after Brown's Flags and Funnels of British and Foreign Steamship Companies, compiled by F.J.N. Wedge, Glasgow, 1926 [wed26]
Jarig Bakker, 1 Feb 2005

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