Historical story

Steam icebreaker Stettin:ahead with coal power

Once a highly modern icebreaker, later a refugee ship, today a technical cultural monument:the "Stettin" looks back on an eventful past.

When the "Stettin" came into service on November 16, 1933, she was the largest icebreaker under the German flag. The Szczecin Chamber of Commerce and Industry had the steamship built by the Stettiner Oderwerke between 1932 and 1933. The icebreaker is to keep the access to the Szczecin Lagoon and the sea route from Stettin to Swinemünde and the Baltic Sea free of ice.

At this time, the Szczecin Chamber of Commerce and Industry maintained its own fleet of icebreakers to enable free access to the second-largest port city in the German Reich from 1936. As the most modern and largest ship, the "Stettin" is the flagship of this fleet, which also includes the four icebreakers "Preussen", "Pommern", "Berlin" and "Swinemünde".

Through the ice with a new hull design

Although diesel engines have long been known in the 1930s, the "Stettin" was deliberately equipped with a coal-fired steam engine. In this way it is possible to switch the ship from forward to reverse in just three seconds. This allows the "Stettin" to maneuver very well - this is important in order to break free ships stuck in the ice. The "Stettin" is also the first German ship to be equipped with a so-called Runeberg-Steven. Instead of pushing his hull onto the ice and crushing it with his weight alone, like earlier spoon-bow icebreakers, the Runeberg-Steven splits the ice with a cutting frame, causing it to break off sideways.

Thanks to the special shape of the hull and the maximum engine power of 2,200 hp, the "Stettin" can break through a closed layer of ice of up to one meter at slow speed. If the ice is thicker, the ship has to "box", i.e. move forwards and backwards several times, until the ice breaks.

But the "Stettin" can not only be used as an icebreaker, but also as a salvage ship. For this purpose, it is additionally equipped with towing hooks, powerful winches and centrifugal pumps. She also has steel ring hoses on board that can be assembled up to a length of 60 meters. With them, the ship can suck up to 500 cubic meters of water per hour from capsized ships. A crew of 22 is required to operate the Stettin.

Until 1945, the steamer is in use on the Oder and the Baltic Sea. Towards the end of the Second World War, the icebreaker becomes a refugee ship:in March 1945, the ship takes 500 war refugees on board in Stettin and brings them safely across the Baltic Sea to Copenhagen.

In use on the Elbe, North and Baltic Seas until 1981

The Stettin is now in Hamburg's museum harbor Oevelgönne.

After the Second World War, the "Stettin" is placed under the administration of the Waterways and Shipping Directorate in Hamburg. The new berth was the barrel yard in Wedel. Until 1981 it is used in icy winters on the Lower Elbe, on the Kiel Canal, in the Bay of Kiel and on the Baltic Sea. In 1981, the aging steamboat was finally to be scrapped. A newly founded association buys the "Stettin" and saves her from this fate. Since then, the association and its volunteers have maintained, managed and driven the ship. In 1982 the authorities recognized the "Stettin" as a technical cultural monument.

Today, the icebreaker is only on the road during the summer months for guest trips on the Elbe and the North and Baltic Seas. Then, in the engine room, visitors can watch the stokers manually firing up to 1,500 kilograms of coal per hour to keep the two huge boilers running. Although the ship is theoretically still operational as an icebreaker, the "Stettin" is moored at the Neumühlen jetty at the Oevelgönne museum port. The icebreaker can be visited there daily from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. The collision with the Finnish ferry "Finnsky" at the Hanse Sail 2017 caused a stir:ten passengers were slightly injured and the ship's hull was slashed above the waterline. After extensive refurbishment, the "Stettin" will return to her berth in Neumühlen in June 2020.