Accessible via a pontoon system are the suction dredger SAUGER IV and the floating steam crane SAATSEE, whose steam engines are regularly operated. On the box barge H11347, a small exhibition provides an insight into the work and life of a barge master. Additionally, regular demonstrations of copper helmet diving equipment provide insight into this historic practice, with divers being supplied with air via a hand pump.
Highlights
PEKING
The four-masted barque PEKING is the first visible object in the collection of the German Port Museum. The four-masted barque, which is more than 100 years old, has been extensively restored and is now moored at the German Port Museum.
Steam-powered suction machine
“Sauger IV” was built in 1909 by the society for mechanical engineering in Lübeck and has been in operation for rebuilding the port and rivers for 80 years. The suction machine pumped sand and mud, which was dug by excavators from barges to the bank. Up to the time of its shutdown in 1989, it extracted an amount of sand which would raise up Wilhelmsburg, Europe’s largest island in a river, by half a metre. The suction machine fuelled by oil contains a threefold expansion steam engine for the extracting pump and a double expansion steam engine for the water pump. In 1996, when the ship had been taken out of service it became a museum piece. Since then, a voluntary crew takes care of “Sauger IV” and presents it regularly. It is possible to visit the accommodation for 13 people, the galley, two guardrooms and the toilets.
Floating crane Saatsee
The floating object is one of the first objects in the collection, in 1989 the floating crane became part of the inventory of the Museum of Work and later of the German Port Museum. T
The Saatsee was built and used for the Water and Shipping Administration of the Kiel Canal. But not only the floating crane as a large object has been preserved and is fully functional, but also the entire inventory and other ensemble such as tools, life-saving equipment, furniture, crockery, signal lamps, blocks and personal belongings.
The barge H11347
A Ewer is a barge without a motor. The barge H11347 from 1913 in the German Port Museum is used to inform about a nearly extinct job in the port: Before containers were used in the port, the barges were one of the most important ways of transport in the port.
