A typical day at Flotte Hamburg begins with the deployment of the various ships that are required for hydrographic surveying, inspection, and maintenance. Our pilot boats work 24/7 to transport pilots to and from seagoing vessels. The grab dredger and its team of tugboats and barges works two shifts per day.
Our ships can be seen around the clock at any location throughout the port. From its riverside locations at Überseebrücke and the Speicherstadt warehouse district the fleet administration ensures that everything runs smoothly and can be contacted by our customers 24/7. We provide our bareboat charter customers a great availability of ships with personnel, however, a few customers, such as the police and the fire department have their own personnel on bord. Project work, aimed at continuing the development of the fleet in close coordination with suppliers and partners, is also ongoing.
Whenever there is ice on the river Elbe, all of the clocks at Flotte Hamburg tick a little bit faster. In this event we concentrate all of our capacity on the icebreaker service, which we are also responsible for. Another seven of our ships can be deployed around the clock as icebreakers if needed. Even when the river begins to freeze, our pilot boats are always in action, there is a vessel on standby for the Harbour Master and we continue to support Hamburg’s water police and firefighting service. The other services that we usually perform are put on hold while we devote our attention to keeping traffic moving on the Elbe.
If you are interested in doing an apprenticeship to become a port skipper, we would be delighted to receive your application.
