A Weighty Present
On 13 August 1999 a reach-stacker drove up the entrance to our property and deposited a dock anchor that had been buried for years in the Elbe mud. After Blohm ...
An Artist as Ship?s Cook
There?s an illustration hanging above the comfortable corner seating area in our billiard room that shows DUCKDALBEN from a very special perspective. A drawing with a strong symbolic power. In ...
The Cross on the Globe
DUCKDALBEN director Jan Oltmanns could hardly believe his eyes. It was around the year 2000 while he was paying a visit to the Hamburg Harbour Police School. On the ...
Hats Off
Whoever sits at the bar enjoying his beer in the DUCKDALBEN clubroom probably isn?t aware that he?s sitting in the ?hats off? section of the club. Most visitors never take ...
The Benevolent Devil
Most seamen enter DUCKDALBEN through the doors leading to our large entry hall. But if they happen to look up, what might the seafarers possibly think when they discover a ...
Nine Long Months
For nine long months in 2009 the MV Jaco Triumph lay immobile, moored to the MAN quay, located near the Hachmann wharf. The diagnosis: severe motor damage. On board: a ...
A Treasure from Switzerland
?Switzerland? and ?boating?? for me those had been terms from two widely differing areas. But the pennant hanging in DUCKDALBEN shows that a special relationship does indeed exist. Members of the ...
Merry Shark-Mas
Some of the most fascinating treasures are those that tell how our volunteers first discovered DUCKDALBEN. Charlotte Schulz-Wolfgramm, for example, had studied ethnology and met our colleague and ethnologist Dirk (Diego). ...
Recycling a Lifeboat
It?s frankly impossible to imagine a DUCKDALBEN garden birthday party without this lifeboat! One enters through an opening in the side, and is surrounded by piles of buffet delicacies spread ...
Ocean Twelve
The seamen of the MV Ocean Cosmos inscribed their names and ?Ocean Twelve? on the present they gave us when saying goodbye. It resembles a life raft because fittingly, DUCKDALBEN ...
One Ship, Two ?Treasures?
I never thought that there could be a connection between these two pictures. One hangs to the left of the entrance to our billiard room, the other hangs on the ...
Fascinating Reading
While poking through the glass showcase next to ?Office A? I discovered a true treasure: unremarkable, darkened brown, dog-eared and covered in dust. Several small and smaller ship models were ...
A Real Group Photo
One spring evening in 2015, some crewmembers from the MV Trust Star came to DUCKDALBEN. Several of them had never been to the club before but they soon felt right ...
A Historical Treasure
October 7th 1891: The English steamer Athabasca is sailing up the Elbe in the darkness and under poor visibility. Coming from Rangoon, her cargo consists of rice and a large ...
A Round Goodbye Present
A panoply of bright orange lifebuoys hangs from the ceiling of the DUCKDALBEN clubroom. In fact, over the years they have become so numerous that they?ve now taken over the ...
The Cross on the Globe
DUCKDALBEN director Jan Oltmanns could hardly believe his eyes. It was around the year 2000 while he was paying a visit to the Hamburg Harbour Police School. On the ...
The Duckdalben at DUCKDALBEN
When our club opened on August 13th 1986 the ?Amt für Strom- und Hafenbau? (today the HPA: Hamburg Port Authority) erected a structure bearing the name of our club, namely, ...