January 28, 2020 - Today marks the 225th anniversary of the MEYER WERFT in Papenburg. It is noteworthy that the company has been family-owned for seven generations. MEYER WERFT has shipyards in Papenburg, Rostock and Turku / Finland.
The shipyard has grown steadily since it was founded. The company, originally called Thurm Werft, started with the construction of wooden ships. In 1872, the “Triton”, the first steam-powered steel ship, left the shipyard.
1872 - Triton steel ship © MEYER WERFT
In 1913 the shipyard built the “Graf Goetzen”, a ship that is still in use today. This combination ship for passengers and freight was dismantled again after completion, packed in boxes and transported to Lake Tanganyika in today's Tanzania against British resistance. There it was reassembled. Today the ship sails under the name "Liemba".
In the period after the Second World War, the shipyard built a total of 34 ships for Indonesia. In addition, ferries for Scandinavia and six gas tankers for the former Soviet Union. At the beginning of the 80s, the company's management decided to build cruise ships. The first sophisticated cruise ship was the "Homeric". It still does its job today as "Marella Dream". Every year three ships leave the two huge production halls.
MEYER WERFT production hall in Papenburg
The MEYER WERFT currently has 3.625 employees. Suppliers employ thousands more people. After the Italian Fincantieri shipyards, the Meyer Group is the second largest shipyard company specializing in the construction of cruise ships, ahead of Chantiers de l'Atlantique / France. The order backlog (nine ships) currently extends into 2023.
Undocking maneuvers of the Ovation of the Seas in Papenburg
In the anniversary year, three cruise ships will be delivered. They are the “IONA” (P&O Cruises), the “Spirit of Adventure” (Saga Cruises) and the “Odyssey of the Seas” (Royal Caribbean International). The IONA is the 50th cruise ship built by the shipyard. The ship, measured at more than 180.000 GT, will be an extremely environmentally friendly cruise ship. It is just like the one delivered in December 2018 AIDAnova, equipped with a low-emission LPG drive. By 2023, MEYER WERFT will build another seven cruise ships with this drive in Papenburg. In a future-oriented manner, the company and partners are researching fuel cells for use on ocean-going passenger ships.
By the way: There will be no anniversary celebration on January 28, 2020. Instead, the workforce will meet on this day for a brief company briefing.
