Meyer Werft

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Meyer Werft GmbH
Type	Private
Founded	1795
Headquarters	Papenburg, Germany
Key people	Bernard Meyer, CEO
Products	cruise ships tankers livestock carriers ferries
Employees	~2,300 (2006)
Website	www.meyerwerft.com

The Norwegian Jewel, constructed by Meyer Werft

The Meyer Werft is one of the remaining large German shipyards, headquartered in Papenburg.

Founded in 1795 as a wharf for the construction of wooden ships, Josef Lambert Meyer started the construction of iron ships in 1874. Until 1920 there were more than 20 dockyards in the Papenburg area. Today, Meyer Werft is the only remaining shipyard in Papenburg. For more than six generations it has been a privately held and family owned company.

It gained international recognition through the construction of roll on/roll off ferries, passenger ferries, gasoline tankers, container ships, livestock ferries and most recently luxury cruise ships.

Meyer Werft is home to some of the largest roofed dry docks in the world. The first covered dock was inaugurated in 1987 and was 370 meters long, 101,5 meters wide and 60 meters high. In 1990/91 the dock was extended by an additional 100 meters. In 2000 a second covered dock was built.

Meyer is one of the largest and most modern shipyards in the world with 2300 employees. It specializes in cruise ships of Panamax size for the shipping companies RCI and Norwegian Cruise Line/NCL America in Florida, USA. As of 2006, its most recent project was the construction of the NCL America Pride of Hawaii. It also delivered the Norwegian Pearl to Norwegian Cruise Line in November 2006. Current cruise liner projects include Norwegian Gem for Norwegian Cruise Line and Celebrity Solstice for Celebrity Cruises.

Due to its upstream location on the river Ems, the giant ships to be delivered have to make a 36 km voyage to the Dollard bay and which each time attracts thousands of spectators. Up until the completion of the Ems river barrier ("Emssperrwerk") in 2002 the journey was only possible at high tides.

[edit] Ships built at Meyer Werft GmbH (selection)

2006 Norwegian Pearl (93,500 GT, Norwegian Cruise Line)
2006 Pride of Hawaii (93,500 GT, Norwegian Cruise Line)
2005 Norwegian Jewel (92,000 GT, Norwegian Cruise Line)
2004 Jewel of the Seas (90,090 GT, Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines)
2004 M/V Pont-Aven (40,700 GT, Brittany Ferries)
2003 Serenade of the Seas (90,090 GT, Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines)
2002 Brilliance of the Seas (90,090 GT, Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines)
2002 Norwegian Dawn (91,740 GT, Norwegian Cruise Line)
2001 Radiance of the Seas (90,090 GT)
2001 Norwegian Star (91,740 GT, Norwegian Cruise Line)
2000 Aurora ( 76,000 GT, P&O Cruises)
1999 SuperStar Virgo (75,338 GT, Star Cruises)
1998 SuperStar Leo, renamed Norwegian Spirit (75,338 GT, Norwegian Cruise Line)
1997 Mercury (77,713 GT, Celebrity Cruises)
1996 Galaxy (77,713 GT, Celebrity Cruises)
1995 Century (70,606 GT, Celebrity Cruises)
1995 Oriana (69,153 GT, P&O Cruises)
1992 Zenith (47,255 GT, Celebrity Cruises)
1990 Horizon (46,811 GT, Celebrity Cruises)
1988 Crown Odyssey (34,242 GT, Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines) later Orient Lines, renamed Norwegian Crown (Norwegian Cruise Line)
1985 Homeric (42,092 BRT, Home Line} remoldeled and renamed to Westerdam (53.872 GT, Holland America Line) in 1990, then renamed Costa Europa (Costa Crociere)
1980 ex Viking Sally (M/S Estonia) - sunk in 1994
1913 Graf Goetzen, today MV Liemba, still running. Most probably the second oldest passenger ship still in service (oldest probably Gisela, a paddle steamer on Traunsee, Austria.