General cargo ship Konsul Schulte. Her yard model in a scale of 1:100 stands in our exhibition about the history of modern maritime logistics, on deck 6 of the museum.
The general cargo ship „Konsul Schulte“ may appear like yet another extremely beautiful example of a classical ship from the early 1960s. But, she was a highly specialized ship for her time.
She was built at the Flender Werke shipyard in Lübeck, Northern Germany. She was delivered to her owners, the Schulte & Bruns shipping company in December 1960. But what was she specialized in? If you look closely, you can see a series of structures on either side of the deck. These were used to house a system of suspended decks that could be used to divide the cargo bay for transporting cars. The „Konsul Schulte “ was a car freighter before the newer Ro-Ro ships that take care of the import/export of cars nowadays existed. Due to the structure of the maritime industry of her time, she needed also to be able to carry any other kind of break bulk cargo. If needed she could free her cargo bay by simply storing the hanging decks on deck.
The early 1960s were the period when German economy started to bloom. One of the main export goods produced in Germany were already cars, most specially the VW Beetle. The „Konsul Schulte “ belonged to the small fleet that carried those cars to the USA for the North American market. She did so directly for her owners (with the paint displayed in this model) but also under direct charter by Volkswagen, with the logo of the company on her funnel. Her career as a car freighter ended in 1972, when she was sold to the company Astromando and renamed „Garoufalia „. She was sold again in 1980. This time to the Eastern Shipping Line, and renamed „Far Island „. Her career ended in 1983. She had become an outdated ship and was sent to Shanghai for scrapping.
Her yard model in a scale of 1:100 stands in our exhibition about the history of modern maritime logistics, on deck 6 of the museum.