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The JOHANNA shipwreck

The JOHANNA shipwreck
The steel hull weighs tons on the Fuhlendorf Bodden beach, where "everyone" took their first swimming test at the swimming camp. The wreck in Fuhlendorf is the steel mizzen barge (sailing barge) with wooden bottom JOHANNA, built in 1899 by D. W. Kremer in Elmshorn. It was commissioned by Friedrich Wilhelm Konrad Gronemeyer, a skipper from Estebrügge. Her home port was also Estebrügge. Ship dimensions: Length: 19.04 m | Width: 4.77 m | 38.00 GRT Klaus Hagenah, a skipper from Krautsand, bought the sailing ship in 1909. In 1929 Karl Voß from Jarmen became the owner. The JAHANNA was powered by a 25 hp engine 1955 Helene Voß, Jarmen, became the owner and sold the boat to 1955 to Hermann Darmann, Demin. He renamed the ship GERTRUD. In 1964, the ship sank at Kamig Haken (entrance to Ueckermünde) and was brought to Wolgast on behalf of the Stralsund Waterways Authority. In 1972, Karl-Heinz Jürgens from Wiek/Darß bought the barge, which lay in Wiek harbor for many years. In 1993, Hans Joachim Jürgens sold the sailing barge to Wolfgang Burr from Fuhlendorf. At Whitsun 1993, the ship, which had run aground, was made buoyant and transferred to Fuhlendorf. A restoration was planned at the Inselwerft Horn shipyard in Wolgast, but did not materialize. In January 1995, the hull was pulled onto the private beach in Fuhlendorf. The name JOHANNA and the home port ESTEBRÜGGE can still be read on the stern of the former sailing barge. For centuries, the "Ewer", a sailing barge, was the typical cargo ship of the Lower Elbe and the Wadden areas off the North Sea coast from Denmark to Holland. With its flat bottom, the ewer had a shallow draught and could easily navigate tidal waters. The term "Ewer" first appeared in May 1251 in a Flanders customs tariff and in 1299 in the Hamburg pledge book. The first two-masted ewers appeared around 1820, but neither one-masted nor two-masted ewers were bound to a size (ship class). Until around 1880, only wood was used as a building material, then due to the shortage of shipbuilding timber and the increasing supply of iron, the first ships were built from iron. Only for the bottom of the ship was wood still used during a transitional period. In 2025, the municipality of Fuhlendorf acquired the neighboring stretch of Bodden beach. You can now reach the Bodden again via a public path through a boggy Bodden coastal forest and view the JOHANNA up close.

The JOHANNA shipwreck on the Bodden beach at Fuhlendorf

The JOHANNA shipwreck lies in tons of rusty steel on the Baltic Sea - more precisely on the Bodden beach of Fuhlendorf, not far from the Fischland-Darß-Zingst peninsula in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. What today lies as a striking wreck in the landscape was once a steel mizzen barge with a wooden bottom, built in 1899 by D. W. Kremer in Elmshorn. Her home port was Estebrügge on the Lower Elbe.

History of a sailing barge: From the Lower Elbe to the Bodden

The JOHANNA belongs to the Ewer type - the typical cargo sailing boat of the Lower Elbe and the North Sea coastal waters from Denmark to Holland. Built with a flat bottom, the Ewer was ideal for tidal waters. The JOHANNA measures 19.04 m in length and 4.77 m in width with 38 GRT. She changed hands several times over the course of the 20th century, was renamed GERTRUD for a time and was fitted with a 25 hp engine in 1929. After a sinking accident near Ueckermünde in 1964 and years in Wieker Hafen on the Darß, the barge was brought to Fuhlendorf in 1993. In January 1995, the hull was finally pulled onto the beach. The embossed name JOHANNA and the home port of ESTEBRÜGGE can still be read on the stern.

Shipwreck JOHANNA open to the public since 2025

For a long time, the wreck was difficult to access. Since 2025, the adjacent stretch of Bodden beach has belonged to the municipality of Fuhlendorf. A public path now leads directly to the JOHANNA through a boggy Bodden coastal forest - visitors can view the impressive ship's hull up close. For many locals, this stretch of beach also has a personal significance: generations of children took their first swimming lessons here at swimming camp.