Aug. Bolten (German Shipping Company)

Aug. Bolten, Wm. Miller's Nachfolger (GmbH & Co.) KG

Last modified: 2012-07-27 by klaus-michael schneider
Keywords: bolten | baltische | hamburg-veracruz-pfg | trelleborg-travemuende ferry | buss stauerei |
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• Aug. Bolten: William Millers Nachfolger
• Aug. Bolten variant
• Aug. Bolten variant #2
• August Bolten until 1912
• Construction Sheets
• Baltische Reederei
• Hamburg-Vera Cruz-Packetfahrt-Gesellschaft
• Hamburg-Vera Cruz-Packetfahrt-Gesellschaft 1897
• Stauerei Jürgen Buss
• Trelleborg-Travemünde ferry
incl.
• TT-Line first flag (1986)
• Olau Line
• TT-Saga Line

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

Aug. Bolten: William Millers Nachfolger

Aug. Bolten variant

Image after Brown's Flags and Funnels of British and Foreign Steamship Companies, compiled by F.J.N. Wedge, Glasgow, 1926 [wed26]
August Bolten, Hamburg - same idea, different execution...
Jarig Bakker, 14 Dec 2004

An orle, a thin saltire? History of this venerable firm at this webpage. One flag leads to another... the boltenesque flag of the affiliated company Lydia Mar Shipping Co. S.A., Kallithea, Greece, and another one, that of BuS Shipmanagement GmbH, Hamburg (where do they get these loony street names - Mattentwiete indeed!), on the same page.
Jan Merten, 15 Dec 2004

Aug. Bolten variant #2

I have in my possession a JPEG file that looks like a photo or a scan of a cloth flag, which is quite different from either GIF.
For starters, its dimensions are 5:9 and not 2:3 as the other two. Also, the red border is the same thickness as the outer white border, being the saltire a lot narrower, about the same thickness as the black ring. All in all, this file is closer to the 2003 image than to the 2004 one, but even so different enough to deserve a new gif.
Jorge Candeias, 25 Apr 2005

August Bolten until 1912

August Bolten; William Millers Nachfolger. August Bolten, born in Mecklenburg in 1812, became an employee of ship-broker William Miller in 1830. After Millers death Bolten led the company together with Miller's widow. As the widow died later on Bolten became the only owner of the shipping company in 1844. Since then the company kept their name. Until 1912 the company used a red flag with white serifed capital letters "AB" in the centre. The current flag was established one year later.
Sources: Jürgen Meyer: "Hamburger Segelschiffe von 1795-1945"; ISBN 3-89225-400-1; Hamburg 1999; p.132ff.
Otto J. Seiler: "Aug. Bolten - Wm. Miller's Nachfolger - 200 Jahre hamburgische Seeschiffahrt"; p.59
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 19 Mar 2007

Construction Sheets

Baltische Reederei

Baltische Reederei, Hamburg - a white saltire between (top and bottom) yellow) and (right and left) blue; in the center a white disk charged with a black "B"; flag bordered white.
Image after Brown's Flags and Funnels of British and Foreign Steamship Companies, compiled by F.J.N. Wedge, Glasgow, 1926 [wed26]
Jarig Bakker, 14 Dec 2004

Baltische Reederei was established by Aug. Bolten in 1913 in order to maintain the Sweden service. The flag pattern was inspired by the colours of Sweden and the pattern of the new houseflag of Bolten.
Source: Otto J. Seiler: "Aug. Bolten - Wm. Miller's Nachfolger - 200 Jahre hamburgische Seeschiffahrt"; p.59
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 4 May 2012

Hamburg-Vera Cruz-Packetfahrt-Gesellschaft

Hamburg-Vera Cruz-Packetfahrt-Gesellschaft - The company had a red flag with a blue roundel in the centre. In each corner was a blue capital "H" (upper hoist), "V" (upper fly);"P" (lower hoist) and "G" (lower fly).
Source: Jürgen Meyer: "Hamburger Segelschiffe von 1795-1945" ; ISBN 3-89225-400-1; Hamburg 1999; cover inside.
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 23 Mar 2007

Hamburg-Vera Cruz-Packetfahrt-Gesellschaft 1897

The caption partially is unreadable. The only thing I could recognize is "Aug.Bolten, Wm. Millers Nachf.". Bolten had however the red flag with white initials "AB" from the very beginning until 1912.
The flag is not mentioned in the Bolten chronicles. I tried to interpret the initials upon flag as "WMF", but the "M" obviously was wrong and "F" didn't make sense. So I went the other way round: Which flag is most similar to this one? So I finally found HVPG, and the initials therefore might be "HVP", which could be a match.
Description of flag:
It is a red flag with a blue disc in the centre. The disc is flanked by blue initials "H" (upper hoist), "V" (upper fly) and "P" (beneath disc).
Source: "Gratis Beilage zu Deicken und Behrmann's Neuen Monatsheften Neue Ausgabe Sommer 1897"
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 10 May 2012

Bolten's Veracruz line sailed until 1894, finally with 3 ships, two of them being property of August Bolten. The company was established in 1857. Bolten held 25% of the shares, the ship management was done by the allied company Reederei Eduard Beatus Crasemann (no flag known), which also held 25%. The other quae´rters were held by shipbuilder Ernst Dreyer and merchant W. Pollitz. According to Detlefsen vol. 28 the line existed until 1894(!).
Klaus-Peter Bühne via email on 11 May 2012
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 19 May 2012

Stauerei Jürgen Buss

Due to the increasing container shipping branch warehousing declined in Hamburg. From 25 existing warehousing companies in Hamburg harbour in the 60ies at the end of the century remained just two: Carl Tiedemann and Jürgen Buss, both being mere shadows of themselves in former times. Jürgen Buss noticed this trend very early and together with Aug. Bolten on 1 Jan 1971 the Binder KG was established. This merger wasn't published and the new company had no entry in the roll of commerce.
When insurance company Iduna joined in 1988, the company was renamed into HARA-Linie KG. The breakdown of the COMECON block caused that markets of Buss in the socialist states broke away quasi within a few weeks. Having no children Jürgen Buss sold his shares on 30 Sep 1992 and on 1 Oct 1992 the enterprise was introduced to the roll of commerce as HARA-Linie Gmbh & Co. KG. The flag was white with an orange square in the upper hoist, an orange bar at the fly and a blue bar at the bottom. The name "BUSS" in blue initials was in the centre of the flag.
Source: Otto J. Seiler: "Aug. Bolten Wm. Miller's Nachfolger - 200 Jahre hamburgische Seeschiffahrt", pp.105-111
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 25 Jul 2012

Trelleborg-Travemünde ferry

Ferry Trelleborg-Travemünde. White, two slanting rectangles of yellow and blue, separated by a narrow white stripe.
Jarig Bakker, 7 August 2005

TT Line. This is a German company, TT-Line GmbH & Co. based in Hamburg.
Neale Rosanoski, 21 Sep 2006

In ferry business in earlier times the voyagers came by train and continued the cruise by train again at the other end. Due to an increasing number of private cars later on cars were transported, which had been carried onto the ships by cranes.
Hamburg shipowner J.A. Reinecke had a revolutionary idea and put the order in hand to build a roll-on roll off ferryship. She was completed in 1962 and on 28 March 1962 the first vessel NILS HOLGERSSON (no.1) started her service.The company was named "Fährgesellschaft TT-Line" and plied a liner service from Travemünde (seaport of Lübeck) to Trelleborg (Sweden) since then.
In the first year the vessel ferried 70,000 passengers and 18,000 cars. Furthermore she managed to keep the shipping passage and Travemünde harbour free of ice in the hard winter 1962/63. Being considered as dependable the line gained the only concession to carry parcels from (West-) Germany to Sweden by sea.
As already in 1963 the huge number of 100,000 passengers, 20,000 cars and about 3,400 lorries had been ferried, a second ship was needed. In 1965 the PETER PAN (no.1) started service on the line, having two flap gates instead of one. The new ship was really successful and therefore NILS HOLGERSSON (no.1) was replaced by NILS HOLGERSSON (no.2) in June 1967, being of the same type as PETER PAN (no.1). Founder J.A. Reinecke withdrew from the line in 1967. The story of success goes on.
When in 1974 PETER PAN (no.2) was introduced this new ship was the biggest ferry worldwide. NILS HOLGERSSON (no.3) followed in 1975, which also acted as a cruise liner between Christmas and January visiting Portugal, Morocco, Madeira and the Canary Islands.
In 1980 a joint venture of TT and SAGA Linjen, a daughter of Swedish Railways, was established, the TT-Saga-Line. Meanwhile there are also lines to Helsinki, Danzig, Tallinn and Rönne/Bornholm (1975), Helsingborg,København (1976) and finally Malmö (1980). The number of passenger had increased up to 700,000.
In 1988 two new railway and freight service ferries started service to Trelleborg, ROBIN HOOD and NILS DACKE. Each of them is able to transport 36 railway coaches and 100 lorries per sail.
During the political changes in Germany 1989 the partnership with Swedish railway was ended and in 1992 a cooperation with Deutsche Seereederei (Rostock) began. The TR-Line was established plying a liner service between Trelleborg and Rostock.
Currently (2012) the company runs the lines Warnemünde-Trelleborg and Travemünde-Trelleborg, has six vessels, about 650,000 passengers and 350,000 freight units per year.
Source: TT-Line anniversary homepage
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 5 July 2012

In 1967 Aug. Bolten became shareholder of TT-Line. In 1977 TT-Line overtook 50% of Olau Line, a company of Danish shipowner Ole Lauritzen. In 1979 the other 50% were overtaken by TT-Line. In 1980 an already existing cooperation between TT-Line and Saga-Linjen was transformed into a joint venture, called TT-Saga Line. In 1992 TT-Line established a connection between Warnemünde and Trelleborg (TR- Line) together with Deutsche Seereederei GmbH (Rostock), which left the line in 1996. In 1994 Olau Line was dissolved due to economic difficulties. Finally in 2006 the seat of TT-Line was moved from Hamburg to Lübeck-Travemünde.
Source: Klaus-Peter Bühne; www.marcollect.de; 2008
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 17 Jul 2012

TT-Linie, model 1986

The company was located in Hamburg. It was a white flag with two thin horizontal blue stripes, not touching the edges. A white lozenge fimbriated red was superimposing both stripes. In the lozenge were two blue, Italic capitals "TT"¯.
Source: Arnold Kludas: "Die Geschichte der deutschen Passagierschiffahrt" (5 vols.) Hamburg 1986; Reprint Laibach Slovenia-Buch Nr. 03617-8 Flagchart p.224
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 16 Apr 2009

Olau Line

It is nearly the same flag like the current flag of TT-Lines. The only difference is the red colour of the upper trapezium.
Source: based on a photo of a table flag of Klaus-Peter Bühne
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 16 May 2009

TT-Saga Line

It was a white flag with a big, blue drop in the centre. The drop was divided by a red stripe fimbriated white.
Source: Josef Nüsse's webpageJ, confirmed by Klaus-Peter Bühne
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 15 Jul 2012

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