Museums-Feuerschiff Amrumbank

Description

The lightship Amrumbank is moored in the Emder Ratsdelft as a museum ship and documents the history of navigational marks on the North Sea coast.

The ship was built in 1914/1915 at a shipyard in Papenburg/Ems on behalf of the Prussian Ministry of Public Works. Delivered as a motor ship in 1917, it was initially used in 1918 for wartime measures at the mouth of the Eider. From 1919 it took over the Amrumbank station and, as Amrumbank II, succeeded the later-destroyed lightship Amrumbank. The manned lightship operated with a crew of twelve on a 14-day rotation. For roughly 65 years Amrumbank II stood at various positions; in 1969 it was moved to its final station in the German Bight. The position markings noted on the hull remained even after its decommissioning. On 10 October 1983 the lightship Kiel III initially took over the duty; from 1986 a large buoy, laid at a slightly displaced position, or an unmanned navigational mark assumed the function.

On 19 October 1983 the lightship was taken out of service, handed over to the Verein Museums-Feuerschiff Amrumbank/Deutsche Bucht e. V., and converted into a museum ship in the Stichkanal in Emden. Since then it has been on display in the Emder Ratsdelft. For its 30th anniversary in 2013 the museum offering was revised and the presentation renewed.

On the converted port side there is a maritime museum that presents sea-mark technology, the development of the lightship Amrumbank, and life and work on board. Navigation and communication at sea are also on display; the engine room can be visited. The engine is operational, and the ship leaves the Ems annually. The former mess in the deckhouse has been converted into a maritime restaurant. The still-functional bridge serves as a club room; in the former chart room the Deutscher Amateur-Radio-Club operates the radio station DFØMF. On board is a registry-room of the Standesamt of the city of Emden; official wedding ceremonies take place in the captain’s salon or on the bridge.

The predecessor, later designated Amrumbank I, was a steamship built in 1906/07 with auxiliary sails that lay on the Amrumbank station until the First World War. After Amrumbank II entered service it was retained as the reserve Tönning until 1939; at the start of the Second World War it received the name Dow 124 and served the Kriegsmarine as a harbor protection vessel until it was sunk in 1944 in the Kiel Bay.